When students of Saint Louis University begin their fall semester this month, they’ll notice a new addition to the campus—hundreds of glowing blue hockey-puck robots.
People who own Sonos speakers love their Sonos speakers. I’m one of them. In the three to four years that I’ve been living in the Sonos ecosystem, however, one big complaint was that I couldn’t use Sonos for my TV unless I barfed up $700 for the Sonos Playbase or Playbar. Now, with the $400 Sonos Beam, I can run a 5.1…
For those averse to talking on the phone, hotel stays can resemble a war of attrition, testing your mettle to see how long you’ll go without calling the front desk and admitting you forgot to pack your toothbrush. But Amazon’s new Alexa for Hospitality service, which puts an Echo device in your hotel room, might let…
Amazon Fire TV has always been one of my favorite gadgets. The Amazon Echo, as I’ve previously explained, gives me pause. So when I heard that Amazon was combining Fire TV with Alexa capabilities to create a whole new device called the Amazon Fire TV Cube, my first thought seemed peculiar: Uh oh, people are gonna love…
What’s the most terrifying thing you can imagine an Amazon Echo doing? Think realistically. Would it be something simple but sinister, like the artificially intelligent speaker recording a conversation between you and a loved one and then sending that recording to an acquaintance? That seems pretty bad to me. And…
HP announced a refreshed line of both consumer and professional devices, including some appealing all-in-one computers that add some pretty novel features and make an attempt to counter the permanence that plagues all-in-one devices (and the lack of competing voice assistants in PCs). The coolest part? A slick hidden…
Alexa, a voice assistant that is pretty okay at setting alarms most of the time, may soon be equally mediocre at providing medical advice. Amazon is reportedly building out a team dedicated to expanding Alexa’s health and wellness capabilities.
In news that will confirm your worst fears about a device with an always-on microphone in your home, security researchers have created a “skill” for Amazon’s popular voice assistant Alexa that allows the device to indefinitely eavesdrop on your conversations.
Your smart speaker is getting smarter—and part of that involves taking over what’s on the big TV screen sat in the corner of your living room. You can buy Google Homes and Amazon Echos with screens built-in, but here’s how to use them with a separate display, whether you want to watch movies or see the weather…
It seems like every new wireless speaker on the market comes with a voice assistant now. Since 2014, when Amazon announced the Echo, the idea of a smart speaker has taken the gadget world by storm. Apple has finally thrown its hat into the ring with the release of the HomePod, leaving us to wonder which smart speaker…
If you thought Echos were only good for invading your privacy and enticing hackers, then boy do I have some news for you. Amazon just introduced a new addition to the Smart Home Skill API for Alexa: cooking. Your voice-controlled assistant could potentially be burning down your house in no time!
A couple hours after Amazon announced the new Echo Show, a touchscreen communication device powered by the company’s AI voice assistant Alexa, I got an email from a PR firm representing a company called Nucleus. The subject was salacious: “Amazon is out for blood - the Echo Show is proof.” I almost never reply to…
Our peaceful homes are being invaded by talking Bluetooth speakers and there’s nothing you can do about it—so you might as well enlist the help of these AI-powered hubs and get them to do your bidding. Here’s how to set up your own custom voice commands on Google Home or the Amazon Echo.
Amazon recently announced that the Alexa AI powering its Echo and other hardware has now learned 1,000 “skills” (up from just 135 in January). In case you’re not up to speed with all the new tricks, we’ve picked out 40 of our favorites—you can discover the other 960 yourself.
