Alexa

Fire TV users can now jump directly to specific movie scenes by describing them to Amazon's generative AI powered Alexa+. The new feature lets viewers start playback from an exact moment in a film, cutting out manual searching or repetitive fast forwarding. It works on thousands of Prime Video titles and is already available for subscribers to try.

Alexa+ is a more conversational version of Amazon's digital assistant and is capable of handling broader and more involved tasks. It was announced in February 2025 at Amazon’s Devices and Services event and first launched in the United States priced at $19.99 a month, although Prime members get it at no extra cost. It’s now available in Canada and is expected to roll out to more countries next year.

Just when you thought outdoor lighting couldn’t possibly get any more interesting, GE Lighting launches its Cync Dynamic Effects Smart Café Lights. These new string lights are officially on sale just in time for backyard weather. If you’ve been itching to upgrade your deck or garden, it might be worth a look.

Forget those boring bulbs you might remember from your last barbecue, folks. These café lights use a unique corkscrew filament to put out bold, saturated color. Each bulb can be customized individually using the Cync app, so you can get creative and mix up patterns, colors, or brightness for any event. There’s even a music-sync feature that lets the lights react to whatever is playing, whether you’re throwing a summer party or just winding down after a long day.

Today, Amazon launches four new Echo devices, including the Echo Pop, Echo Show 5, Echo Show 5 Kids, and Echo Buds. The new devices offer customers even more choice in how they access Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant. In addition, the company announces more than a half billion Alexa-enabled devices have been sold.

The Echo Pop ($39.99) is a small, affordable Echo device that is ideal for bedside or kitchen use. It features a compact design and a fabric finish that makes it look great in any home. The Echo Pop also has a built-in speaker that can be used to play music, get news, and more.

The global enterprise messaging industry accounts for 2 trillion messages annually. Messaging is a great medium for engagement -- it’s instant, and users tend to be much more responsive compared to other media. Also, users tend to utilize messaging apps dozens of times every day. Therefore, brands that do messaging right will see much higher frequency and intensity of engagement than with other media.

Most messages are delivered today using good old-fashioned SMS messaging. However, this sizable enterprise messaging industry is about to change in significant ways. Newer messaging channels are emerging with far greater capabilities -- namely Whatsapp, Rich Communication Service (RCS), Google Business Messages (GBM) and even a new messaging channel launched by Gupshup called Gupshup IP (GIP) Messaging. The common theme across all these channels is that they are all based on data messaging using the Internet Protocol (IP messaging).

It’s that time of the year again when Amazon takes the wrap off its latest generation of hardware devices. As is to be expected, first up at 2020’s virtual event is the fourth generation of its Echo smart speaker, and this one looks very different indeed.

Switching from the usual cylindrical design to a spherical one, the new Echo promises better all round -- pun intended -- sound. The light ring, that shows you it’s working, listening, or has notifications for you, still exists, but is now at the bottom.

Podcasts have been steadily gaining in popularity over the last several years, but thanks to COVID-19, it feels like interest has exploded recently. After all, people are stuck indoors -- whether unemployed or working from home -- and listening to a podcast is a great way to pass the time. Don't forget, Spotify recently paid Joe Rogan $100 million to get his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, on its platform exclusively.

Pandora may not be the most popular platform for listening to podcasts, but some people do, in fact, use it for that purpose. If you are one of those people, I have great news -- you can now start and listen to your favorite podcasts on Pandora using Amazon Alexa.

Star Wars sucks. There, I said it. Other than A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the films are all horrible nonsense. Many current fans of the franchise are older men simply clinging to nostalgia. It's sad that Disney takes advantage of them, cranking out terrible new films and TV shows while selling them plastic tchotchkes. For the love of God, people, please stop buying figurines and make-believe laser swords.

If for some reason you are still a fan of the Star Wars franchise, I have some good news. You know that TV show The Mandalorian on Disney+? Remember that Baby Yoda puppet thing that fanboys went gaga over? Well, you can soon have Baby Yoda ears for you 3rd gen Amazon Echo Dot. Yeah, it is an Echo Dot holder with friggin' Baby Yoda ears jutting out from the sides. It is just for decoration, and it adds no features to the device.

A little over a year ago, we told you about Logitech's Harmony Express -- a really cool remote control that utilized the power of Alexa. At the time, it looked like a revolutionary product, but apparently, it has not been popular with consumers. You see, Logitech has decided to kill the remote. No, I don't mean it is just being discontinued -- it will stop functioning entirely later this year! Yep, on September 30, it will become essentially worthless. Logitech says this is because "our expectations were not met for this kind of Harmony remote."

Yikes! That sounds like catastrophic news for the people that spent $250 on the Harmony Express -- they will soon be stuck with a pricey paperweight, right? Actually, no. Logitech -- being a classy company -- is making it right. Believe it or not, owners of the remote will be offered a full refund regardless of when they bought it (as long as they have proof of the purchase). Crazy, right? Even better, rather than opt for money, consumers can instead choose to swap their Harmony Express for a Harmony Elite, which typically sells for more than $300!

People tend to anthropomorphize their virtual assistants, assigning them personalities and physical features such as age, facial expressions and hairstyles according to research from Canada's University of Waterloo.

But giving these qualities to virtual assistants could cause people to reveal more personal information to the companies that own them than they otherwise would, says the study.

As fear mounts in the UK at the prospect of the NHS being sold in part or in whole to the US, the government has decided to give Amazon access to National Health Service data for free.

The arrangement means that Amazon will be able to access "healthcare information, including ... symptoms, causes, and definitions". The tech giant will be able to use the data in conjunction with Alexa to enable users to get medical help and advice via the digital assistant.

In response to customers demanding portability in their digital assistants, Amazon has launched a battery-powered version of its Echo device.

Lengthily named the Echo Input Portable Smart Speaker Edition, the device features a 4,800mAh rechargeable battery which Amazon says should be enough for 10 hours of non-stop music playback. But while the allure of using Alexa while freed from a wall socket may be strong, it could be a while until you can get your hands on a battery-powered Echo.

I recently converted my home from Amazon Alexa to Google Assistant. Why did I do this? Well, after comparing them both, I found Google's results were better. Not to mention, there are many nuances that make me prefer the search giant's offering. For instance, if I ask for a baseball score, it also shares the sound of a crowd cheering and the crack of the bat hitting a ball. I even prefer the confirmation sounds it makes. When I ask Google to turn off my lamp, for instance, it responds with a more pleasant tone than Alexa does. And so, my Echo devices were replaced with Nest speakers.

Sadly, there was a huge hole left in my life by ditching Amazon for Google -- SiriusXM. You see, with Alexa, you can ask her to play a SiriusXM channel and she does (as long as your account is linked, of course). This convenient feature simply wasn't possible on Google Assistant. Today, however, this changes -- Howard Stern and the rest of SiriusXM are finally coming to Google's Nest speakers! There are even plans to eventually bring video to some Nest devices.

At a special hardware event held today, September 25, Amazon took the wraps off an all-new line up of Echo devices, as well as additional Alexa features, like celebrity voices (Samuel L. Jackson will be the first of these).

The new products include an improved Echo, with an updated fabric design (in Twilight Blue, Charcoal, Heather Grey, and Sandstone colors) and superior sound, but the same $99.99 price tag; and a new $59.99 Echo Dot with a built in clock that can show the outdoor temperature and alarms, as well as the time.

The BBC is working on a digital assistant to rival the likes of Siri and Alexa. Due to launch in 2020, the system goes by the name Beeb, and is being developed to handle regional accents better than current assistants.

The corporation has no plans -- for now at least -- to release a physical product along the lines of Google Home, as Beeb is destined to be used to allow people to use their voices to interact with online services and search for shows.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is taking the world by storm as interconnected devices fill workplaces and homes across the US. While the intention of these devices is always to make our lives easier, their ability to connect to the internet turns them into ticking time bombs, lying in wait until their weaknesses can be exploited by opportunistic hackers.

Personal data breaches are skyrocketing in America, increasing by 60% in the last year and by 157 percent since 2015. As our interconnectivity grows, so do the opportunities that our technology will be hacked. Since every IoT device is connected to the internet, each one is vulnerable to external access if not secured properly. In the rush to manufacture these devices and get them onto the market, security has been an afterthought which needs to be urgently addressed if the number of yearly data breaches is to be tackled.