Today, Amazon launched their new-for-2017 Amazon Echo. The new smart speaker powered by Amazon Alexa was unexpected, at least right now, and it caught pretty much everyone by surprise.
The new Echo is smaller than the original, sports new wood grain or fabric finishes and supports multi-room audio. The new Echo is $99 and available on Amazon. Buy a 3-pack and you save $50. It will be available starting October 31st.
In a Business Insider report that was published today, Microsoft Cortana only trails Google Assistant in overall answer accuracy as well as the number of questions asked. In fact, Assistant and Cortana were well ahead of Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa in both categories.
The report focused on the news from earlier this week that Apple is replacing Bing as the default search engine for Siri in MacOS High Sierra and iOS 11 and points out that the move, which will have Siri leverage Google Search APIs, will likely dramatically help Apple’s assistant in its use and accuracy.
The US territory Puerto Rico was for all intents-and-purposes destroyed a couple of weeks ago by Hurricane Maria. Millions are without power and even basic human needs like food and water are scarce. One of the challenges is for people here in the US to get in contact with friends & family on the island since the hurricane but Microsoft is trying to help.
Until further notice, calls to Puerto Rico landlines and mobile numbers will be free via Skype. The company announced the waiving of fees this morning and it is in effect for both domestic and international calls via Skype.
It looks like the long awaited inclusion of LTE is coming to the Microsoft Surface Pro. The current version of the 2-in-1 style device was released back in May and at the time, it was indicated that an LTE version of it would be available. To date, that hasn’t happened but it looks like the end of the wait may be in sight.
Neowin is reporting that the LTE enabled version of the Surface Pro will be available on December 1st. It will be initially available for the Intel i5 equipped models but could make its way to the i7 models at a later date.
Ah, the love between Amazon and Google shows itself once more…. NOT! It appears that the latest spat between the two giants is over YouTube and the newish Amazon Echo Show.
Users of the new Alexa-powered smart device were cut off from YouTube yesterday with a warning that the smart speaker was unable to play content from the world’s largest video site. Amazon states that they are disappointed, laying the blame at the feet of Google. Google, in return, indicates that the reason for the shutdown is due to a violation of the terms of service and that they made Amazon aware that Tuesday was the drop date.