Amazon has reportedly acquired data analysis and search engine startup Graphiq for around $50 million, according to LA Times, citing four sources familiar with the deal. Launched in 2009 as FindTheBest, the startup offered online spreadsheets comparing vacations, technology, real estate, and more. It would pull data, like prices and ratings, from public sources, allowing […]
Tag Archives: Alexa
Apple wants you to pay big for their smart speaker
As part of yesterday’s WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) Google launched their foray into home connectivity with the HomePad called by Apple CEO Tim Cook, “breakthrough home speaker with amazing sound and incredible intelligence that will reinvent home audio.” Don’t overlook the last word, in his statement, despite the desire some will have to group HomePad with […]
Wearables, AI to benefit from MIT’s new super low-power chip
Researchers have developed a low-power chip that promises to significantly reduce speech recognition energy demands, paving the way for further miniaturization of artificial intelligence (AI). India’s Deccan Chronicle reports on a new chip developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that is specialized for AI speech recognition. The new microprocessor uses just 1% of the […]
Can ElliQ the robot combat social isolation in the elderly?
When you think of robots designed to help people, you might think of the role of robotics in caring and customer service roles or companion orientated service robots like Pepper, Nao or even Hasbro’s companion pets. Then more recently there’s the emergence of robots as sexual or romantic partners. One start-up from Israel, Intuition Robotics is throwing […]
Amazon makes it even cheaper for Alexa developers to use AWS
Amazon wants developers to be fully locked into its ecosystem, which is why on Wednesday it announced a new program to give additional promotional credits to developers that build Alexa skills and use Amazon Web Services (AWS). Alexa developers are already provided with AWS Free Tier, which gives one million AWS Lambda requests and 750 […]
Can you really have “idiot-proof” kitchen appliances?
People who struggle with frozen pizza and microwaveable food instructions will be happy to know that Whirlpool unveiled a selection of kitchen appliances able to cook your food without pressing any buttons. Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas, the appliances include a double-wall oven for $2,600, a microwave for $1,000, […]
3 key tech developments for your smart home from CES
While this year’s CES hasn’t necessarily born any great surprises in debuting home tech, it has revealed that smart home tech is becoming the norm rather than niche as more big brands reveal their connected home products to the masses. Last year we saw a lot of the first wave of smart home devices with […]
8 predictions for the future of IoT in 2017
Every year IoT brings new things to biotechnology, manufacturing, home living and every aspect of our daily lives. We’ve seen it disrupt traditional industries, transform our cities and contribute to the autonomous transport of the future. It sits in an ecosystem where machine learning, AI and data analytics help us understand our world more than ever before. […]
Will your connected range think your turkey is too dry?
There is a lot of preparation that goes into Thanksgiving Day, and oftentimes the amount of focus involved in cooking takes away from the special time with family and friends. Imagine getting to spend more time relaxing, and less time checking on the turkey. There is more to be thankful for this year, with GE […]
Alexa gets more skilled every week and looks toward Europe
Amazon’s voice recognition platform, Alexa, has reached 3,000 skills. The platform has been available for a little over a year in the U.S., providing developers with a way to integrate their services and smart home devices into the Echo, Dot, Tap, and Fire TV. The Food Network, GE Appliances, Twitter Reader, and KAYAK were a […]
Amazon’s Alexa now has more skills, listens better
Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa has received a large update, making it much easier to find and activate skills from third-party services. The Alexa mobile app that shows all the available skills—totalling 1,400 as of Tuesday—has been revamped to show skills in an organized fashion, and the app now features search. See Also: Is DIY smart […]
Bezos: “I would never say” no to Amazon wearables
Amazon has shocked us a few times with its hardware announcements, not many thought the Kindle would succeed to the extent it changed the entire publishing industry, Dash buttons offered a new, unique way to reorder items on Amazon, and Echo is one of the most popular Internet of Things (IoT) devices on the market […]
Do we really want to DIY our home automation?
New industry research from Icontrol Networks, the company behind the most widely-distributed connected home platform in the industry, has found exceptionally high satisfaction amongst customers who opted for a professionally installed smart home solution. Icontrol Networks’ DIFM (“Do it for me”) Smart Home Survey revealed more than 96 percent of respondents report they are very satisfied or satisfied with […]
Could this smart defibrillator idea save more lives?
What if those defibrillators you see on walls everywhere didn’t just help you help someone sick, they could also call 911 and tell you how far away an ambulance is? The winning concept at a recent “IoT for Cities” smart cities hackathon, held earlier this month in Santa Clara, California, could do all of those […]
Calm, cruel and connected: May’s best and worst of IoT
It seems that every day a new IoT device or means to connect existing devices is revealed. With so much energy in being devoted to tell us how, when, where, what we can connect to each other, the “why” may be getting a little blurry. So we want to take a step back every now and […]
Google invites all to its Nest in Amazon IoT battle
Alphabet’s Google announced it has opened up its Internet of Things (IoT) protocol for its Nest systems, as competition with Amazon for smart home market share heats up. As reported by the Motley Fool, Google launched its first open-source foray for Nest’s Thread protocol, which paves the way for better connectivity between IoT devices from […]
Google debuts new Home for your mundane questions
Getting into the smart home hardware business, today Google debuted Google Home, a voice-activated home automation system, at the firm’s annual developer’s conference, Google I/O 2016. We’ve had a few teasers over the last few months and Recode previously reported that Google has been working on a portable speaker containing a built-in voice-activated assistant for the whole family in […]
Alexa now tells you when your Amazon package is coming
The surprise success of the Amazon Echo has led to hundreds of integrations with third-party products, most recently adding Lutron’s LED lights and Boston Children’s Hospital KidsMD, but until today it Alexa could not give updates on Amazon packages. Amazon let us know that Alexa, the voice assistant inside the Echo, Dot, Tap, and Fire […]
Lutron lights up Amazon Echo’s life
Lutron Electronics has added its Caséta Wireless system to the growing list of devices that support Amazon Alexa range, which includes the Echo, Dot, Tap, and Fire TV. The Caséta Wireless system features various connected LED lights that can change color or brightness on demand. The integration of Alexa allows users to change the lights […]
Amazon Echo can now advise you on your kids’ health
Boston Children’s Hospital has announced a new “skill” for Alexa powered devices, including the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Tap, and Fire TV, which provides health advice on children’s symptoms. This is all done through listing in the noticeable symptoms. Once finished, the KidsMD app will quantify if the child should see a doctor, and can […]