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Amazon's Alexa and Prime Music service arrive in Canada
The absence of Amazon's Alexa and Prime Music services in Canada has been a strange oversight, given that the nation's share a border and (one of two) common languages. That has now been corrected, as Amazon has finally launched the Echo family, Prime Music and Alexa Voice services and skills in the land of hockey and poutine. "We're excited to bring [Alexa] to Canada with an experienced designed from the ground up for our Canadian customers," said Amazon Senior VP Tom Taylor in a statement.
Amazon teaches Alexa Japanese for Echo's next destination
Amazon's Echo, Plus and Dot speakers will finally be available in Japan starting next week. To prepare for the devices' arrival in the island nation, the e-retail giant taught the voice assistant how to understand and respond in the Japanese language. Alexa SVP Tom Taylor said the company designed an all-new experience "from the ground up for Japanese customers, including a new Japanese voice, local knowledge and over 250 skills from Japanese developers."
Amazon's Alexa can recognize the voices of multiple users
Echo devices keep getting better, getting multi-room audio, access to Google calendars, and intercom features. Now, though, Amazon just matched one of Google Home's killer features: the ability to recognize multiple voices. In a video on the retailer's help site, you can see how to set up and use Voice Profiles. Alexa can now recognize voices in order to route Messages, Calls, allow access to shopping without a confirmation code, play Flash briefings and access an Amazon Music Unlimited Family plan based on the person speaking.
Sonos One hands-on: Betting on voice control to evolve
After months filled with teases, rumors and speculation, Sonos has finally introduced its first speaker with built-in support for voice commands. Today, at an event in New York City, the company unveiled the Sonos One, a device billed as "The Smart Speaker for Music Lovers." As expected, the main attraction here are the voice features, which at launch will be powered by Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant. We say "at launch" because Sonos CEO, Patrick Spence, ended the presentation with the news that the One will also work with Google Assistant in 2018.
Amazon brings Alexa calling to the UK, Germany and Austria
The whole point of Amazon's Alexa is to talk, rather than type, to a virtual assistant. When you've grown tired of ordering Domino's pizzas and asking what the weather is like, however, the company hopes you'll want to talk to another human being. Following the US, it's now possible to call and message Alexa users from the UK, Germany and Austria. It works on the company's fast-growing range of Echo and Echo Dot speakers, as well as the Alexa app for iOS and Android. The screen-equipped Echo Show will also support basic video calling when it arrives in Britain next month.
Whole Foods is already hawking Amazon Echo speakers
Amazon isn't wasting any time now that its Whole Foods acquisition has gone through. Sure enough, visitors to Whole Foods stores have noticed that the grocery stores are already pitching discounted Echo speakers ($100 for the regular model, and $45 for the Dot) at very prominent stands. They're "farm fresh," according to the displays -- as if you'd find them growing in a field next to the carrots. It's a pretty shameless plug, although one you could have seen coming. Amazon craves retail space, and Whole Foods' abundance of stores (470 across North America and the UK) gives it plenty of opportunities to hawk its hardware.
Both the Amazon Echo and Google Home are under £100 right now
If you're in the market for a smart speaker but don't fancy shelling out the full retail price for one, Amazon and Google might be able to help. Today, both the Amazon Echo and Google Home have been given price cuts that have taken them below the £100 mark.
Sorry, Amazon is canceling your 'free' Echo Dot
If you thought that free Echo Dot was too good to be true... well, you were right. Amazon is cancelling zero-cost orders for the tiny smart speaker, informing buyers that a "technical error" was responsible for the surprise Audible discount. You won't walk away empty-handed if you seized the opportunity, mind you. Amazon is giving would-be buyers a $5 promotional credit, so you might still get a break on the Dot if that's what you were after. Just don't expect to see a repeat slip-up any time soon.
The Echo Dot was free on Amazon for a hot minute
The Echo Dot, Amazon's $50 in-home assistant, was briefly free on Amazon today, thanks to an "Audible" discount that got added at checkout. The discount applied to both black and white models, though it now appears people trying to score a free Echo Dot are being told the items are no longer in stock. We've reached out to Amazon for clarification on the sudden super-sale. Whatever the reason, happy random Prime Day, folks.
ASU students live with Echo Dots while learning voice-control tech
Engineering students at Arizona State University can opt into an interesting new program meant to give students access to voice-controlled technology while they learn about it in the classroom. Students living in the campus' new engineering residence hall, Tooker House, can get a free Amazon Echo Dot and take courses aimed at developing the technology. "Our focus is putting this technology into the hands of our students in a way that will build an ecosystem that supports voice technologies throughout the ASU campus," said ASU's Octavio Heredia in a statement.
EE TV gets voice controls thanks to Amazon’s Alexa
While Vodafone has long abandoned its dreams of a TV service, rival network EE is pressing on with its strange Freeview-bundled-with-some-on-demand-apps box. The hardware now supports Alexa, Amazon's voice-enabled assistant, through an Echo or Echo Dot-equipped speaker. So you can ask, "Alexa, ask EE TV what's on tonight" and hear some suggestions from the Freeview-powered guide. The new Alexa "skill" also supports queries for specific channels and, more importantly, will let you set up recordings, regardless of whether the set-top box is on or in standby mode.
Anker's Genie is a cheaper Echo Dot
As part of its growing smart home tech line of products called Eufy, Anker is adding its version of the Echo Dot. It's a little bit bigger than the Dot with some slightly different specs here and there, but overall very comparable to Amazon's version. And the Eufy Genie comes a bit cheaper at just $35 compared to the Dot's $50 price tag.
Amazon reportedly plans to add multiroom audio to Echo speakers
The ideal audio system in your home would allow you to hear whatever you're listening to as you move from room to room. These days, you don't even need an expensive multi-speaker setup. Google Home already has this capability, as does Chromecast and various Google Cast speakers. Now, according to a report on the German tech site Cashys Blog, Amazon is working on a way to send multiroom audio to its Echo devices.
Amazon may give developers your private Alexa transcripts
With new rivals on the market, Amazon has to do something to help its Alexa devices compete. Until now, Amazon has not given third-party developers access to what you say to the voice assistant. Google Home, though, does. According to sources reported by The Information, Amazon is currently looking at opening up this private transcript data to its developers, which could help them build better voice apps for Alexa. It would also raise serious privacy concerns for users. It's a delicate balancing act between user privacy and developer access, of course, but with rivals like Google and Apple getting into the smart speaker game, Amazon needs to keep its early lead.
Amazon slashes the price of its smart speaker in half
Prime Day, the Amazon-invented holiday that celebrates the holy tradition of buying things from Amazon, is back again for a third year. As usual, the event will showcase a number of deals that will run through the day, and the company is offering its usual massive discounts for its own branded hardware. Topping the bill is the Echo smart speaker which, for the 30-hour event, is selling for $90, half its usual price.
Alexa is learning more new skills every day
Just two months after Amazon announced it was "doubling down" on its Echo ecosystem, the company has confirmed that its Alexa voice platform has passed 15,000 skills. Impressive, especially in comparison to Google Assistant's 378 voice apps and Cortana's meager 65 -- but what's more impressive is the rate at which Alexa is gaining these skills. Alexa reached 15,000 skills in June -- during this month alone new skill introductions increased by 23 percent. The milestone also represents a 50-percent increase in skills since February, when Amazon officially announced it had hit 10,000 -- and even that figure was triple what it was the previous September.
Amazon is turning every Echo device into an intercom
If you've got multiple Amazon Echo devices throughout your home, you'll soon be able to use them as a connected intercom. Amazon just launched the feature today across the original Echo, Echo Dot and its new screen-toting Echo Show. We heard last month that the intercom capability was in the works, and it seemed like a given once Amazon brought hands-free calling and messaging across the Echo family. The company is rolling out the feature over the next few days, but be sure to update your Alexa app to access it.
Amazon's Echo Show displays your smart camera's live video feed
Amazon's Echo Show is getting another new trick, err, skill. Now the gizmo will link with the cameras on your home network and display their respective feeds when you say something like, "Alexa, show the front door." A press release notes that this will work with cameras from Amcrest, Arlo, August, EZViz, IC Realtime, Ring, Nest and Vivint. And if you don't have a Show, saying the command phrase will soon give you an audio feed on your Dot or Echo. Better yet, Amazon has released the camera control API into the wild so developers can start cracking on even more implementations for it.
Amazon taught Alexa to whisper sweet nothings in your ear
Soon enough, Amazon's Alexa will shout out your grocery list. That's assuming developers take advantage of the new language framework that Amazon has added to its digital assistant. The idea is that the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) will hopefully give Alexa more natural speaking patterns. Specifically, now Alexa is capable of whispering, bleeping out swear words and adding emphasis to a phrase in addition to changing volume, speed and pitch of its voice.
