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Apple announces the HomePod, challenger to Amazon Echo and Google Home


One of the most interesting announcements made today at Apple’s Annual WWDC was the release of the Apple HomePod, Apple’s entry into the home assistant arms race.

A straight up challenger to the champ, Amazon Echo and the runner-up, Google Home, Apple’s HomePod takes Siri out of your iPhone and places her squarely, for better or worse, in your living room. Marketed primarily as a wireless speaker, the HomePod will be able to use “spatial awareness” to sense its location in a room and adjust its audio accordingly. 

The HomePod is just under seven inches tall, has six microphones, and is powered by the Apple-designed A8 chip. One of the best features of the HomePod, something glaringly missing in the Echo, is the ability to sense other HomePods and unify the listening experience utilizing an update to AirPlay 2.

Of course, the HomePod, triggered by the phrase “Hey Siri,” will have all the requisite home assistant features like controlling HomeKit devices and answering basic questions.

Time will tell if Siri’s voice recognition can compete in the home with Amazon’s Alexa, but the HomePod’s specs certainly outpace the sound quality of Amazon’s device. Although at $350, the HomePod is about twice as expensive as the Echo.

The Apple HomePod will be available in December and is not yet available for preorder. The device comes in two colors, white and “space gray”.

Visit Apple.com for more info.

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Apple announces the HomePod, challenger to Amazon Echo and Google Home originally appeared on on June 5, 2017 at 7:02 pm.

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Amazon’s new Echo Show, Alexa with a screen


After a week of rumors and leaked images, Amazon today unveiled the Echo Show, the first Echo device with a screen.

The Echo Show is the latest entry to the Echo line of devices following right on the heels of the Echo Look style assistant. The Echo Snow is a fully enabled Echo device that also allows you to watch videos, make video calls, scroll music lyrics and monitor your baby.

The Echo Show has a 7″ touchscreen, a 5-megapixel front facing camera, dual 2-inch speakers and eight microphones. The device is powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor.

The added functionality of a camera and touchscreen is coupled with some new features for the Amazon Alexa app. The most interesting new feature is the ability to call or message anyone with a supported Echo device or the Alexa App. The call and messaging features are free and you can also use an option called Drop In.

Drop In differs from video calls in that once it’s enabled on a device, any approved Alexa user can “drop in” to the device. This is like a video call that is automatically accepted and is useful for monitoring a baby, checking on an elderly relative or making announcements to family members.

With the addition of a touchscreen, Amazon has opened up the uses for the Echo Show exponentially. From recipe viewing in the kitchen to bedside CNN videos to video calls in the living room, Amazon is making a strong case for having a number of Echo devices throughout your house. At the very least, it will be nice to have a display of the weather every morning as I listen to my favorite news station stream over the Show’s speakers.

Along with the other Echo devices, the Show will be compatible with a number of smart home devices. Having the option to present information on a screen should add a lot of power to the Show’s home control abilities.

The Echo Show can be preordered today for $229.99, it comes in black and white and will be shipped on June 28. Amazon is also currently offering a deal for $100 off the purchase of two Echo Shows with a code. Visit Amazon for more info.

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Amazon’s new Echo Show, Alexa with a screen originally appeared on on May 9, 2017 at 1:30 pm.

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Amazon announces the Echo Look style assistant


Amazon has announced a new member of the Echo device family, the Echo Look. The Echo Look has the same basic functionality as the Echo Dot and original Echo (aka Alexa), but with a new, sleek design and an added built-in depth-sensing camera and flash.

Being marketed as an Amazon Echo and “Style Assistant”, the Echo Look’s camera and LED flash allows you to take full-length photos or videos of yourself via voice command. You can share the photos or add them to a daily lookbook to keep track of outfits you’ve worn recently.

Once you build up your lookbook, Style Check will start showing you recommendations based on your style which you can then purchase via your Look or Amazon’s website.

You can also use your photos to compare two outfits using Amazon’s Style Check. Style Check is a new Amazon service that “combines machine learning algorithms with advice from fashion specialists” to help you pick which outfit to wear. The videos taken with the Echo Look can be viewed via the companion app as well, allowing you to check out all angles of an outfit before heading out the door.

You can also still use the Echo Look like any other Echo device, asking it questions, playing music, getting weather updates, etc.

Amazon is constantly upgrading the functionality of their Echo devices via software updates, this is the first new hardware offering since the release of the Echo Dot.

The Amazon Echo Look is priced at $199.99 and currently is available only by invitation.

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Amazon announces the Echo Look style assistant originally appeared on on April 29, 2017 at 8:36 am.

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Amazon has outsourced their tech support to YOU

The other day I was talking to my best buddy at work and he was doing tech support for Amazon for free. I gave him one of my “whatchu talkin bout Willis?” looks and he said that he had just received an email from Amazon asking him to answer a question about a product that he had purchased from them in the past. Click the image above to read the email. 

I asked him if this was the first time that he’d received an email like this and he said no, that he’d received them before for quite awhile. I was surprised because I’ve never received an email like that… although I then realized that the types of products that I usually buy from Amazon don’t really require tech support. For example, other than the 12″ MacBook that I ordered this morning, my last several purchases were turmeric capsules, vitamin D tablets and a replacement battery for a Neato Botvac robotic vacuum.

A quick Google search helped me learn that Amazon Answers has been around for at least 3 years.

Should Amazon compensate people who help out and answer tech support questions for them? From what I can see, they don’t. Correct me if I’m wrong though.

FYI, you can opt out of receiving these types of questions by clicking on the opt-out link if you receive one of these emails.

What do you think about Amazon asking customers to help answer questions from other customers about products that they’ve purchased in the past?

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Amazon has outsourced their tech support to YOU originally appeared on on April 7, 2017 at 4:17 pm.

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Lenovo Smart Assistant releases this May with integrated Amazon Alexa

The Amazon Echo costs $179.99.  Would you like the same functionality (and then some), but save $50?  Of course!  Introducing the Lenovo Smart Assistant, featuring Amazon Alexa.  This will be released by Lenovo in May 2017, at a cost of $129.99.  Don’t want a giant black tower in the middle of your room?  The Lenovo Smart Assistant comes in Light Gray, Green, and Orange.  It includes eight 360-degree far-field microphones with noise suppression and acoustic echo cancellation that can pick up speech from 16 feet away.  The device has a 5 watt tweeter and a 10 watt woofer.  Of course, you can use the Amazon Alexa app with the Lenovo device, and control the plethora of smart devices in your home with your voice. 

The device gets smarter the more you use it, and is fully customizable just like the Echo, with access to Alexa’s Skills library.  It works well with multiple users, too.  I can see this becoming a great device for fans of Lenovo products.  I’ve always liked Lenovo, because they make well-built machines.  Their laptops are solid, amazing works of art.  I haven’t had the pleasure of owning one of their desktop PC’s (I build my own custom PC’s), but their reputation on those is strong, too.  They even have a Smart Storage unit with 6TB of storage, that can be used to store music, videos, and photos, and is designed with strong security at the forefront.  But I digress.  The Lenovo Smart Assistant also touts 2GB of internal DRAM, 8GB of storage, and an Intel Celeron N3060 Processor.  I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these.  Smart and IoT devices are expected to be a $1.7 TRILLION per year business by 2020, according to “Igniting Growth in Consumer Technology,” Accenture, 2016, and Lenovo aims to be at the forefront of that growth.  Good things are coming, people!  Hopefully, the security of those items will outpace the growth of them.  But that’s another story.

The device also comes with the option of a special Infinity® edition for premium audio quality for music and home entertainment.  The Infinity® consists of upgraded Harmon-Kardon speakers (specs unavailable for those, at this time).  This upgrade prices out at $179.99, and will provide an extra 2″ sound cavity for a clearer tweeter and deeper bass.  But, it’s only available in Black.  *sigh*  …back to the imposing tower of darkness.

Get ready for the release of the standard Lenovo Smart Assistant in May of this year, for $129.99.  The upgraded version is expected to release in June, for $179.99.

You can find more information about this product at Lenovo.

 

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Lenovo Smart Assistant releases this May with integrated Amazon Alexa originally appeared on on April 2, 2017 at 2:35 pm.

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