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For Amazon, better skills mean bigger ad revenue
Amazon is improving its Alexa voice assistant with each new update, enabling more natural conversation patterns and upgrading the system's ability to understand complex or vague questions. All of this is great for people who are sick of screaming, "ALEXA," and repeating commands a dozen different ways before the device actually does what it's supposed to. However, these upgrades are also good for advertisers -- and, by association, Amazon.
Amazon's new Echo Dot offers better sound at the same price
As rumored, Amazon isn't playing around and it's getting ready to launch a slew of Alexa-powered devices. First up, it's a new Echo Dot, which the company says offers better sound than before and it's still only $50. According to Amazon, this Dot is 70 percent louder compared the previous model, thanks to a 1.6-inch driver that's designed to deliver more powerful sound with lower distortion and "enhanced" bass. It also comes with an upgraded appearance, featuring a fabric coat that makes it look more stylish than the existing plastic hockey puck.
Amazon Echo Sub and Smart Plug leak ahead of event
You might just be looking at some of the Alexa-powered devices due to show at Amazon's rumored hardware event this month. Pocket-lint has spotted listings (since pulled) for the Echo Sub wireless subwoofer (above) and Smart Plug (below), both of which see Amazon venturing into unfamiliar territory. The Sub adds 100W of bass to an Echo or Echo Plus setup, whether it's one speaker or two -- yes, stereo pairing would also be new. It reportedly cost £75 (about $99) when it shipped on October 11th, which might be a small price to pay if your rap or trance isn't sufficiently room-shaking.
Alexa and Cortana devices can control your Xbox One by voice
Microsoft's Alexa-Cortana love affair now extends to the console in your living room. As rumored in June, Xbox Insiders in the US can now use Alexa and Cortana voice commands to control Xbox One systems using a new skill that fills in most of the Kinect-sized void. You can turn on (or turn off) your console, navigate to Xbox interface areas, control media playback, capture game media and toggle Mixer broadcasts. These won't be revelations if you've used a Kinect, but it's much more flexible this time around -- and, of course, brings these voice controls to people who've never owned Microsoft's depth camera.
UE Boom app update removes Alexa support on Android
You normally hear about companies adding Alexa support, but not so in this case -- the feature is going away for some users. An updated version of Ultimate Ears' Boom app for Android has removed Alexa control (not to mention alarms) for both UE Boom and Megaboom speakers, turning them into simple Bluetooth speakers. If you ask the company, it's a question of focus.
Google Assistant now controls your Nest x Yale smart lock
You'd think the Nest x Yale Lock would support Google Assistant from the outset given its pedigree, but not so -- you've had to use the app. It's finally here, though. As of August 29th, you can use Google Assistant to control the Nest x Yale Lock with your voice. You can lock the door or check its status whether or not you're at home, including as part of Assistant's Routines. If you're ready to pack it in for the night, you can lock the door as you're shutting off the lights.
MIT can secure cloud-based AI without slowing it down
It's rather important to secure cloud-based AI systems, especially when they they use sensitive data like photos or medical records. To date, though, that hasn't been very practical -- encrypting the data can render machine learning systems so slow as to be virtually unusable. MIT thankfully has a solution in the form of GAZELLE, a technology that promises to encrypt convolutional neural networks without a dramatic slowdown. The key was to meld two existing techniques in a way that avoids the usual bottlenecks those methods create.
Google might launch its own smart display this holiday season
Google is expanding its line of Assistant-powered devices with its own smart display, at least according to Nikkei. The tech giant has reportedly told its Taiwanese manufacturing partners to gear up and make sure they can deliver, because it's planning to take its competition with Amazon up a notch. Mountain View, the report says, will launch its own take on the smart display platform it recently debuted this upcoming holiday season. Its plans could even be more aggressive than that, because Nikkei's source said the company is aiming to "ship some 3 million units for the first batch of the new model of smart speaker that comes with a screen."
Saint Louis University will put 2,300 Echo Dots in student residences
If you're attending Saint Louis University this semester, you'll find more in your dorm room than the usual tiny furnishings. The school has unveiled plans to provide all 2,300 student residences on campus (both dorms and apartments) with Echo Dots by the time classes begin in late August. To no one's surprise, they're not just there for asking about the weather. They'll have access to an SLU Alexa skill that provides answers to "more than 100" common questions, whether it's the location of a building, event timing or library hours.
Apple may be working on multi-user support for Siri
Today, Apple Insider reported that Apple had been granted a patent that would allow a voice recognition system to identify a user based on their speech and perform tasks based on who is speaking. This could be the framework for Apple to offer multi-user support with Siri.
Elaborate hack turned Amazon Echo speakers into spies
Some people worry that hackers could infiltrate their smart speakers and spy on them, but that hasn't been the practical reality -- not for Amazon's Echo, at least. A team of researchers from China's Tencent has come about as close as you can get right now, however. They've disclosed an attack on the Echo that uses both a modified speaker and a string of Alexa web interface vulnerabilities to remotely eavesdrop on regular models. It sounds nefarious, but it requires more steps than would be viable for most intruders.
Samsung's upgraded Bixby assistant is still rough around the edges
Samsung understandably focused most of its attention on the Galaxy Note 9 at its Unpacked event, but it also used the media gathering to unveil the next generation of Bixby, and... well, it's a mixed bag. The new AI helper delivers some sincerely helpful functional improvements. It can find events near you, and it will not only attach Yelp ratings when you search for things to do but also deliver results based on your personal preferences. If you're fond of sushi, for instance, those restaurants will float to the top. You can also reserve restaurants, hail Uber rides and perform certain other tasks right from Bixby, with tight Spotify integration on the way.
Google Assistant's visual smart home controls are on the way
You don't have to pick up a smart display to use touch-savvy controls in Google Assistant. Users at Droid Life and elsewhere have noticed that Google is rolling out visual smart home controls (teased back at I/O in May) to mobile devices. When you issue certain smart home commands, you'll get a handful of basic controls to fine-tune the results if they're not quite what you were looking for. You can raise the temperature on your air conditioner, or turn off a light instead of turning it down.
Alexa now tells you when it can answer old questions
When you ask a voice assistant a question it doesn't have an answer for, that's usually the end of the story unless you're determined to look up the answer on another device. Amazon doesn't think the mystery should go unsolved, though. It's trotting out an opt-in "Answer Update" feature for Alexa that notifies you when the AI helper has an answer to a previous question it couldn't address. The trick is limited to factoids, a spokesperson told TechCrunch, but that could still prove helpful if your curiosity is still rampant months later.
Google Home can now schedule routines
When Google introduced routines to Assistant, it promised that you'd eventually have the option to schedule those routines instead of having to invoke them yourself each and every time. That feature is finally here -- Google has confirmed a Droid Life report revealing that scheduled routines are now reaching users. If you have an Assistant-equipped smart speaker, you can use the Home app to make multi-step actions repeat on specific days. You could adjust your lights and play music when you get up for work on weekdays, for instance.
Amazon will prevent command confusion on all Alexa devices
Amazon's Echo lineup, like some smart speakers, uses proximity detection to decide which device is best-suited to responding to your voice commands. It's a clever way to prevent multiple devices from waking up at the same time. There's just one problem: support in non-Amazon devices has been inconsistent at best, creating a mess if you have third-party gear that doesn't use the feature. Thankfully, that shouldn't be an issue from here on out. Amazon has moved its Echo Spatial Perception technology to the cloud, ensuring that all devices can use it.
HomePod may get phone call support and multiple timers
While Apple was quiet about HomePod updates at WWDC, that doesn't mean it's twiddling its thumbs -- its staff are privately testing pre-release software. And now, we might know what that software entails. French site iGeneration claims to have details of the HomePod's iOS 12-based beta, and it could address a laundry list of feature requests for Apple's smart speaker. Most notably, it would include native phone call support. Instead of having to start the call on your iPhone and switch audio inputs, you could both place and receive calls through the HomePod. Your smartphone would just supply the cellular connection. This wouldn't be a new concept by a long shot, but it'd be extremely helpful if you'd rather not stay within earshot of your iPhone's modest speakers.
Voice assistants still have problems understanding strong accents
Cultural biases in tech aren't just limited to facial recognition -- they crop up in voice assistants as well. The Washington Post has partnered with research groups on studies showing that Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant aren't as accurate understanding people with strong accents, no matter how fluent their English might be. People with Indian accents were at a relatively mild disadvantage in one study, but the overall accuracy went down by at least 2.6 percent for those with Chinese accents, and by as much as 4.2 percent for Spanish accents. The gap was particularly acute in media playback, where a Spanish accent might net a 79.9 accuracy rate versus 91.8 percent from an Eastern US accent.
It's now easier to change Google Assistant's voice
Now that Google Assistant has a slew of voices to choose from, shouldn't you have an easy interface for picking one of those voices? You do now. Google is rolling out an update that gives US users a new, simple interface for changing Assistant's voice. It's very colorful, to put it mildly: you just tap on a color associated with a given voice (Google told us it chose them at random) and listen to be sure they're the dulcet tones you want to hear.
Google Home and Chromecast are down for some users (update: fix)
'Tis the season for large-scale service outages, apparently. Google has confirmed that many Home speaker and Chromecast users around the world are unable to use their devices, even after a reboot. The company didn't say why, and didn't have an estimated time of repair as of this writing. However, the issue has been inconsistent -- my Home Mini could respond to commands, while TechCrunch colleagues received an error.
