Apple's digital assistant Siri continues to lag behind the Google Assistant, a group test reports, one which also reveals improvements in properly understanding queries and providing correct responses has generally improved across all digital assistants.
Apple senior director of Siri, Alex Acero, is scheduled to appear at this year's AI Frontiers conference, where he will be joined by other experts in the field to discuss the role natural language processing plays in modern personal assistant technology.
Some five months after Android users gained the ability to control Amazon's Alexa voice assistant through a dedicated app, the e-commerce giant is bringing identical functionality to iOS, turning an iPhone or iPad into a handy Echo stand-in.
As with any other gadget, the term "wireless speaker" is loaded with sometimes confusing categories. AppleInsider breaks them down and talks about how to pick what features you need, and which speaker you may want.
By acting as a pair of safety sensors, a speaker, a HomeKit device, an Alexa smart assistant, and soon an AirPlay 2 speaker, First Alert's Onelink Safe & Sound wants to be a welcome addition to any home. AppleInsider checks it out.
Amazon on Thursday revealed the Fire TV Cube, its latest media streamer, poised to intensify competition with the Apple TV 4K.
When Apple outlined that its new HomePod didn't initiate phone calls on its own, nobody jumped to the conclusion that this was because having a device in your home that anyone's voice could use to place a telephone call from your personal mobile number might be a bad idea. Instead, the company was generally lambasted for "again" failing to match one of the many features of Amazon's Alexa Echo always-listening appliances.
Connected speaker maker Sonos on Thursday invited the press to a June 6 event in San Francisco, where the company will almost certainly reveal a new home theater product with support for Amazon's Alexa voice assistant.
The ecobee4 is easily one of the best smart thermostats you can buy, the only questions being compatibility with your house and whether you can justify its hefty price tag.
Amazon seeks to widen its smart speaker lead with a new product intended for children's use, that comes pre-packed with parental controls, and access to some of Amazon's subscription services included in the purchase price.
The Ecobee4 is one of the most flexible smart thermostats available. Not only does it support Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa, it is also an Alexa speaker, supporting most of the same voice commands as an Echo, and AppleInsider has one installed.
Major U.S. home builder Lennar, along with other regional home builders, has partnered with Amazon to install multiple Echo microphones into new housing together with Alexa-controlled light switches, thermostats and even door locks that grant access to Amazon delivery workers—creating a wider threat of Facebook-style corporate surveillance and invasions of privacy.
Every year, several companies—most notoriously Google—float various unfunny, excessively long dad jokes on April Fools Day. But rather than waste your time detailing these latest flat attempts at humor in tech, why not take a moment on April 1 to take a look at the really foolish stuff the tech media serves up virtually every day?
Amazon has expanded the usability of its Alexa calling and messaging via the Alexa app to tablets, allowing iPad owners to be able to make and receive free calls to and from friends and family members who own an Echo device from the retailer's growing range.
In an attempt to stay one step ahead of the virtual assistant competition, like Apple and Google, Amazon recently released a new feature that allows users to ask multiple questions in succession without repeating the "Alexa" wake word.
Reports of a strange error from owners of Amazon's Echo device range have surfaced, claiming the Alexa digital assistant is making an odd 'laugh' sound at random times, with the noises sometimes made without any verbal prompts, commands, or external forces interacting with the voice-activated speakers.
Imagine turning your home into the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise, where a disembodied voice deftly answers every question you can ask, and you don't carry an iPhone or iPad anymore. Unfortunately, you also can't unlock your doors, you can't go outside, the brands you like are replaced with generic alternatives, and popular games, creative apps and other content aren't available anymore. This is the fantasy future of Amazon Alexa—but fortunately not the vision of Apple's new HomePod.
Apple's HomePod brings Siri into the home for the first time, but how does the virtual assistant stack up against established technologies like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home's Google Assistant? We put the latest versions of each smart speaker to the test in this video comparison.
Alexa, Amazon's digital assistant used by the Echo device range, is suffering from service outages that are affecting a number of users in the United States, issues that are likely to be caused by a regional outage of Amazon Web Services in Northern Virginia. (Update from Amazon)
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Malcolm Owen
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew O'Hara
Roger Fingas
Daniel Eran Dilger
Stephen Silver
