As he turns from a Foo Fighters tune to the Smashing Pumpkins, Andy sounds just like your typical alternative-rock DJ — but his tag line is positively inhuman. “Ever feel… Read More
Kids taught to say “Bungo” to get a smart assistant to speed up know they are talking to a robot and don’t use the same tone with humans, according to… Read More
Vancouver, B.C. startup Picovoice raised a $500,000 investment from Seattle-based Founders’ Co-op for its platform that lets companies build their own voice-enabled experiences. Developers at Whirlpool, LG, Telenav, and other… Read More
Plenty of technological advances may be regarded as the cat’s meow. Here’s one that claims to actually understand what cats are saying. Javier Sanchez, a technical program manager at Bellevue,… Read More
Seattle startup Bamboo Learning today launched its first voice-based education app for English Language Arts and announced partnerships to help get its technology to kids in need. “Bamboo English” offers… Read More
Amazon announced 31 new features for its Alexa voice platform, aiming to help developers increase usage and engagement of their voice-enabled apps and experiences. The new capabilities, unveiled Wednesday at… Read More
Amazon announced a big partnership on Tuesday called the Voice Interoperability Initiative, taking a stand on how it believes voice services should work across different devices and digital assistants. The… Read More
Former investors and employees from VoiceBox Technologies are suing Amazon, alleging that the Seattle tech giant infringed on six of its speech recognition and natural language patents. The lawsuit, filed… Read More
A Techstars Seattle grad that wants to create a “personal cloud-based memory bank” for its users has the attention of investors. Kristalic just reeled in nearly $2 million as part… Read More
Consumer advocacy and privacy groups filed a complaint with the FTC on Thursday asking to investigate Amazon for allegedly illegally collecting information via its Echo Dot Kids Edition device. The… Read More
Phone, keys, wallet. Oh, and AirPods. It’s happened to me, and I bet it’s happened to you too. The trio of daily accessories I stuff into my pockets has become… Read More
Voice technology continues to proliferate. There are more than 66 million smart speaker units in the U.S., up from 36 million a year ago, and the voice recognition market is… Read More
Apple is making its Apple Music service available on Amazon Echo devices in a surprising new partnership between two rivals in the voice arena. The Apple Music integration will arrive… Read More
“Alexa, please ask the audience to take their seats.” Between bad Alexa jokes and innovative ideas pitched on stage, the rapid growth of voice-enabled technologies and companies was on full… Read More
Facebook on Monday unveiled Portal, a new at-home hardware device focused on video chat. Portal and the larger Portal+ use AI-powered technology to automatically pan and zoom and minimize background… Read More
Xbox owners have another way to control their console: Alexa and Cortana. Microsoft expanded its voice support for Xbox One today with a new Xbox Skill, which lets people turn… Read More
To win the bonus game in Cookie Monster’s Challenge, a player must say “quack” to a small, white cartoon duck as it paces across the tablet screen, holding a wing… Read More
When I first saw Google’s new Duplex technology, it was simultaneously thrilling and horrifying. It’s the kind of technological evolution that you initially see as furthering humanity and having the… Read More
Amazon is making a big push to get its Alexa voice technology inside hotel rooms. Related:Testing Alexa in a hotel room: We used Amazon’s voice assistant inside a swanky Las… Read More
Can’t say we didn’t see this one coming. The people who tell jokes for a living are now laughing along with and at Amazon’s Alexa. In the wake of news… Read More
OK, don’t laugh. There’s been enough of that, apparently. After reports about its Alexa-enabled devices laughing out loud for no apparent reason — and weirding people out in the process… Read More
It’s one thing to believe that Amazon’s Alexa is constantly listening to us, but quite another to worry that she’s laughing at what she hears. UPDATE: Mystery solved? Amazon explains… Read More
Voice-controlled devices, like the Amazon Echo, are driving what Abhishek Suthan calls a “tectonic shift” in computing — and he wants to take advantage of it. That’s why he and… Read More
It is becoming more common to control smart lights around the home or office with voice commands, by connecting those lights to devices using Amazon’s Alexa or other virtual assistants.… Read More
Melissa and Matt Hammersley got the idea for Novel Effect when they were expecting their first child, Eleanor. They wanted to create something that would help them bond as a… Read More
Alibaba, the China-based e-commerce giant determined to go toe-to-toe with Amazon, is coming out with its answer to the Echo smart speaker. The device will be powered by voice, an… Read More
When it comes to global expansion, Amazon’s Alexa is taking it slow. As of now, Amazon devices with the Alexa virtual assistant are only available in three countries, including the… Read More