All posts tagged: Amazon Alexa

This deal on smart glasses was too good for my husband to pass up

This deal on smart glasses was too good for my husband to pass up

Published by Webster

The last thing I need is a new Amazon Echo smart speaker. As The Verge’s smart home reviewer, I currently have a dozen scattered around my home for testing. But when Amazon’s Echo Frames smart glasses went on sale for $115 for Cyber Monday, down from $300, it was an offer my husband couldn’t refuse. He chose the prescription-ready model (over the blue-light-filtering option), which meant he also got the Echo Spot, Amazon’s handy $80 smart speaker/smart alarm clock, thrown in for free. That’s a total savings of $265 and a total tally of about 13 smart speakers for me. The Echo Spot, which is normally $80, is my top pick for an Amazon Alexa smart speaker to use as a smart alarm clock. It’s a great way to add smart features, such as playing music with your voice and controlling devices like smart lights, to your bedside table. But of course, the real draw here was the smart glasses. My husband has been eyeing my Echo Frames ever since I picked them up for …

5 things I love about Amazon’s new Echo Shows — and 3 things I don’t

5 things I love about Amazon’s new Echo Shows — and 3 things I don’t

Published by Webster

Amazon’s newest Echo Show smart displays launch this week. They’re purpose-built for the new AI-powered Alexa Plus, which comes preloaded in the US. I’ve had a couple of days to play with them, and I have some early thoughts to share. Overall, the devices are a significant upgrade from the last-gen Show 8 and aging Show 10. They’re sleeker, with more modern hardware, a more responsive touchscreen, and packed with radios and sensors. They’re also powered by the new AZ3 Pro processor, which makes them feel faster. The new Shows look ready to take center stage in your smart home. But Amazon tells me that the devices will still display the full-screen ads the company recently introduced to its devices. And that significantly dampens my enthusiasm for the new hardware. The Echo Show 8 ($179.99) and Echo Show 11 ($219.99) are mostly identical to each other, save for the bigger 10.95-inch, full HD touchscreen on the 11. The 8 sports a smaller, 8.7-inch HD display. If you want more room to see your Ring cameras, …

Amazon claims its ‘constantly inviting’ new customers to Alexa Plus

Amazon claims its ‘constantly inviting’ new customers to Alexa Plus

Published by Webster

Yesterday, Reuters ran a story with the headline “Weeks after Amazon’s Alexa+ AI launch, a mystery: where are the users?,” in which it detailed its difficulty locating first-hand accounts of the AI-upgraded assistants’ use online. The Verge asked Amazon about the story, and the company has responded to say that the idea that Alexa Plus isn’t available is “simply wrong.” Here’s the company’s full — and rather strongly-worded! — statement on the matter, provided by Amazon spokesperson Eric Sveum via email to The Verge: It’s simply wrong to say that Alexa+ isn’t available to customers—that assertion is false. Hundreds of thousands of customers have access to Alexa+ and we’re constantly inviting more customers that have requested Early Access. Sveum also shared the below screenshot of what the email invite should look like. Alexa Plus is Amazon’s generative AI-updated version of Alexa, which it announced in February is free to Amazon Prime subscribers or $19.99 a month otherwise. While Reuters doesn’t say Alexa Plus isn’t available to customers yet, it does quote an analyst who said, …

How tariffs will change what gadgets cost, and how they’re made

How tariffs will change what gadgets cost, and how they’re made

Published by Webster

First things first, some exciting news: The Vergecast has been nominated for a Webby Award! This one means a lot to us, especially because it’s an award you get to vote on. We’d be so grateful if you’d go vote for us once, or 40 times, or however many times the site will allow. (Also, honestly, you should listen to some of the other nominees; all four are great shows. Just don’t vote for them.) First, we talk Switch. Nintendo’s Direct announcement this week brought a lot of new information about the company’s new console, and a peek at some of its most anticipated games. Nilay, David, and The Verge’s Richard Lawler dig into what we know, what we still don’t, and whether this is shaping up to be a worthy successor to one of the most successful consoles ever. We also talk about the latest on the TikTok ban, and the best gadgets Microsoft ever made. After that, we talk tariffs. (Which might make the Switch a lot more expensive than it already is.) …

Do You Hear What I Hear? Amazon Removes Echo Privacy Setting — What You Should Know

Do You Hear What I Hear? Amazon Removes Echo Privacy Setting — What You Should Know

Published by Webster

Image: crosathorian/Flickr/Creative Commons Last week, Amazon sent an email to select Echo users, warning they must now consent to having their Alexa voice recordings sent to the company’s cloud for processing. The email was sent to users with the Do Not Send Voice Recordings setting enabled on their Echo speaker or smart display, which ensured their commands are processed locally on the device; however, starting March 28, this setting will no longer be available, and all recordings will be processed at Amazon data centres, the company confirmed to TechRepublic. On the cutoff date, any Echo that still has this setting enabled will automatically switch to Don’t Save Recordings, meaning voice commands will be transmitted to Amazon’s cloud for processing but deleted afterward. Any previously saved voice recordings will also be deleted, and Alexa’s voice ID — a feature that recognises individual users’ voices to provide personalised responses — will be disabled. In its email, Amazon stated the decision to discontinue the Do Not Send Voice Recordings setting was made to “expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative …

Bad AI from Amazon, Apple, and others is bad for the gadget world

Bad AI from Amazon, Apple, and others is bad for the gadget world

Published by Webster

The onrushing AI era was supposed to create boom times for great gadgets. Not long ago, analysts were predicting that Apple Intelligence would start a “supercycle” of smartphone upgrades, with tons of new AI features compelling people to buy them. Amazon and Google and others were explaining how their ecosystems of devices would make computing seamless, natural, and personal. Startups were flooding the market with ChatGPT-powered gadgets, so you’d never be out of touch. AI was going to make every gadget great, and every gadget was going to change to embrace the AI world. This whole promise hinged on the idea that Siri, Alexa, Gemini, ChatGPT, and other chatbots had gotten so good, they’d change how we do everything. Typing and tapping would soon be passé, all replaced by multimodal, omnipresent AI helpers. You wouldn’t need to do things yourself; you’d just tell your assistant what you need, and it would tap into the whole world of apps and information to do it for you. Tech companies large and small have been betting on virtual …

Amazon CEO says ‘beautiful’ new Alexa hardware is coming this fall

Amazon CEO says ‘beautiful’ new Alexa hardware is coming this fall

Published by Webster

Amazon is gearing up to launch new hardware to go along with its AI-upgraded Alexa. During an interview with Bloomberg, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company has a “brand new lineup of devices that are coming in the fall that are beautiful.” On Wednesday, Amazon revealed Alexa Plus, a more conversational version of the smart assistant that’s capable of performing a wider range of tasks, such as ordering an Uber or finding concert tickets. Amazon says “almost every” Alexa device will support Alexa Plus, save for older Echo generations. Alexa Plus will cost $19.99 per month but will be included with a subscription to Prime. Though Jassy didn’t share any other details about the new devices, it seems like the company plans to put an even bigger focus on displays. When asked about Amazon’s next-generation hardware, Panos Panay, Amazon’s head of devices and services, told my colleague Jennifer Tuohy that, “I believe in screens. I think they matter in a massive way.” Disclaimer: We do not own any of the content, ideas, images, or …

Alexa Plus won’t support early Amazon Echo devices

Alexa Plus won’t support early Amazon Echo devices

Published by Webster

Amazon is bringing the new AI-powered Alexa Plus to a wide range of its existing Echo devices — but the upgrade will skip many of the earliest models. The majority of the company’s first-generation Echos won’t get support, according to the Alexa Plus FAQ page, though Amazon says they will continue to work with the standard Alexa. Alexa Plus won’t support “certain older generation Echo devices,” such as the first-generation Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus, Echo Tap, Echo Spot, and Echo Show; the second-generation Echo Show won’t support it, either. Amazon spokesperson Kristy Schmidt confirmed that is the full list of devices. If so, that still leaves many early Echo devices that will work with Alexa Plus. That means I’ll be able to ask Alexa to book a restaurant reservation through my Echo Flex, the quirky modular Echo speaker that plugs straight into a wall outlet. And people can still get an AI-generated song piped through speakers they’ve connected their microphone-only Echo Inputs to. And if you have an ancient first- or- second-gen Echo Show …

Amazon’s revamped Alexa might launch over a month after its announcement event

Amazon’s revamped Alexa might launch over a month after its announcement event

Published by Webster

Amazon won’t launch the AI-powered upgrade for Alexa for at least a month after its showcase at an event set for February 26th, according to The Washington Post. The delay is reportedly at least partly because the updated assistant has issues with giving inaccurate answers to test questions. An anonymous Amazon employee told the outlet that the upgrade won’t come “until March 31 or later” due to the issues. The new Alexa could be tied to a subscription, with features like “the ability to adopt a personality, recall conversations, order takeout or call a taxi,” and was originally set to launch later this month as a free trial, the Post writes, citing internal documents and messages. News of the delay comes after months of rumors suggesting Amazon is struggling to realize its plans to “supercharge” Alexa generative AI, which it said in 2023 would take place over a period of months, but still hasn’t. It was reportedly delayed from a late 2024 launch amid beta tester reports of slow, stiff, and less-than-useful responses. Amazon did …

There’s a hidden message in Amazon’s event invites

There’s a hidden message in Amazon’s event invites

Published by Webster

Amazon sent out five different invites to its upcoming product event, and when pieced together, they spell out a familiar word: Alexa, the name of the company’s digital voice assistant. We assumed the event would be about Alexa’s long-heralded renaissance, and given this message, plus Amazon telling Reuters that the event will be Alexa-focused, it seems certain the new Alexa will arrive this month. The not-so-hidden message suggests that at the event, which is being held on February 26th in New York City, Amazon will launch the new generative AI-powered version of its voice assistant. First announced in September 2023, this “New” Alexa has suffered numerous delays along with reported struggles to merge Alexa’s existing capabilities with the revamped voice assistant. But it looks like it’s go time. Reuters also reports that, according to people familiar with the matter, the upgraded Alexa debuting at the event will show off new features, including responding to multiple prompts in sequence and acting “as an ‘agent’ on behalf of users by taking actions for them without their direct …