Alexa is already a mainstay in a lot of homes that use IoT devices, but soon, we'll also see her popping up in hotel rooms and vacation properties. Today, Amazon announced Alexa for Hospitality, opening the door for hoteliers to tap into Alexa to enhance their guests' visits. Alexa for Hospitality will begin rolling out later on this summer, and for the moment, it's only available by invite.
Although Siri has been the first popular and widely known voice-controlled smart assistant, it has been shoved to the sidelines by the rapid expansion of the likes of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. At WWDC earlier this month, Apple showed it still had some fight left. It introduced Siri Shortcuts and, more than just catching up with third-party integration, it’s going to change the game that will hopefully make smart assistant even smarter. But probably not before it shames its rivals.
Last night, Bethesda poked fun at its penchant for porting Skyrim to any platform that will play it by announcing "Skyrim: Very Special Edition" for Alexa. The trailer it debuted featured Keegan-Michael Key as he navigated the frozen tundra that is Skyrim using voice commands, and at the time, everyone seemed to think it was a pretty good spoof announcement. As it turns out, however, it wasn't a spoof, and Skyrim: Very Special Edition is an Alexa game that actually exists.
Despite having the most “personality” among the smart assistants, thanks to being based on an actual game character, Cortana is perhaps even flatter than Apple’s Siri when it comes to capabilities. Microsoft might, instead, be opting to just embrace as many such assistants on its platforms as possible. Alexa has just recently made an appearance for the first time on Windows 10 desktops and notebooks and now it seems that the Xbox One will get double the fun with both Alexa and Google Assistant coming soon.
A 4K Sony TV has seldom looked so appealing, with upgraders hoping to jump onto the Ultra HD bandwagon getting a tasty Amazon deal today. The Sony XBR55X900E 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV packs Alexa support as well as a bundle of apps, but it's currently down more than $700 over its usual price.
Amazon Alexa is continuing its dominance of all things IoT related by spreading to a new family of devices today. This time around, it's LG launching Alexa integration for its 2018 AI-enabled TVs. Specifically, the company says that Alexa will be available on 2018 OLED TVs and Super UHD TVs, or at least the ones that support the company's AI ThinQ platform.
What was supposed to be the fastest growing market in consumer tech came to a screeching halt last week when it was revealed and acknowledged that Amazon's Alexa secretly and mistakenly sent the recording of a private conversation to a random contact from the owner's phonebook. That has led to many crying foul over Amazon's practices to paranoia about smart speakers in general. Echos and Homes, however, are undeniably convenient and you might be anxiously considering getting an Amazon Echo. If so, then you might want to skip turning on its calling feature if you're unlikely to use in the first place.
If Alexa's "butt dialing" this week has made you paranoid about your Echo, you're not alone, but luckily there's a way to prevent inadvertent eavesdropping by the smart speaker. As one family of Echo owners discovered, to their horror, Alexa can mis-hear commands and accidentally share a private conversation with a random contact. There's a way to prevent that completely, but there are a few steps you need to know first.
Alexa isn't eavesdropping on your every conversation, secretly sharing them with whoever it likes, but even if it was there's an easy way to avoid that. The latest controversy over smart speakers and the Internet of Things comes down to privacy, as is so often the way, with Amazon's Echo accused of playing impromptu postwoman with a private chat recorded and shared.
Google Home has overtaken Amazon's Echo in smart speaker shipments for the first time, it's claimed, with the Google Assistant edging out Alexa in sales. Although there have been several contenders in the smart speaker wars, two rival platforms currently lead the market.
Amazon's Alexa made a boo-boo this week. In a home in Portland, Alexa heard what she thought were a set of commands - to record a conversation and send it to a contact - and she did that. Unfortunately, the people in the conversation had no idea this was happening. As Amazon explains it, it's likely Alexa was doing exactly what she was meant to do.
![Amazon admits Echo eavesdropping as Alexa shares private chat [Updated]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/amazon-echo-dot-listening-980x620.jpg)
Amazon is investigating how an Echo recorded a conversation and sent that to another person, after one Portland couple claims the smart speaker eavesdropped on their discussion. The incident, which Amazon has described as "an extremely rare occurrence," is likely to reignite concerns around privacy, the Internet of Things, and increasingly connected devices.