Google Home and Chromecast are both down, with widespread reports from users that their smart speakers won't work and their streaming adapters won't stream. Saying "Ok Google" to a Google Home speaker, for instance, gets the response that "there was a glitch, try again in a few seconds."
Amazon's Alexa app for iOS has finally added the one thing bizarrely absent since it arrived on the App Store: the ability to actually interact with Alexa through it. The retailer introduced Alexa conversations to the Android app at the start of the year, but at the time only promised that it had iOS support for the same thing on the roadmap.
At the beginning of the month, Amazon unveiled a new streaming device we already knew was in the works: the Fire TV Cube. Among Amazon's streaming lineup, the Fire TV Cube is the generalist device, as it's capable of doing quite a bit. It's available beginning today too, so if you have the cash for it, you can order one and have it here in time for some Sunday binge watching (assuming, of course, that you also have a Prime subscription).
Home security is getting smarter, or at least that’s what the fast growing smart home market is trying to say. Pundits, however, warn of how the IoT rush could cause lapses in security, which has been proven time and again. Nowhere is that more troubling than when smart locks themselves are involved. One newcomer to that market is Tapplock, and its fingerprint-secured smart lock may not be so secure after all.
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.
TP-Link has a new mesh router on the scene, and it seems to do a little bit of everything. Today the company revealed the Deco M9 Plus, a tri-band router that can cover the same area with fewer nodes than previous releases in the Deco line. Beyond that, the Deco M9 Plus has a few tricks up its sleeve as well.
The Audi e-tron will be a weather forecaster as well as an electric SUV, the automaker has revealed, taking factors like upcoming conditions into account when intelligently charging. The new SUV goes on sale in Europe later this year, alongside a new smart home Audi connect charging system that promises more efficient, not to mention cheaper replenishment of the batteries.
For as much talk as there's been about Samsung's Bixby smart speaker, the device is still shrouded in mystery. The veil is being lifted ever so slightly today, thanks to new patent filings with the World Intellectual Property Organization and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. These filings give us an idea of the capabilities we might expect from the smart speaker, and it looks like it could be a bit more advanced than similar devices from Samsung's competitors.
Ring's take on the DIY home security system, Ring Alarm, is up for preorder, promising the unusual combo of professional monitoring without demanding professional installation. Ring Alarm was announced as Ring Protect back in October last year, but sales were held up after a legal battle.
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.
Amazon is debuting a new Alexa-based streaming box today, but this one is a bit more capable than the rest of the company's lineup. Dubbed the Fire TV Cube, this new product will still let you stream content to your TV in 4K while controlling playback with your voice. Where it stands out from Amazon's other Fire-branded products, however, is in its ability to control your TV and other set-top devices, such as cable boxes and sound bars, directly.
Your Philips Hue bulbs are about to get a lot more interesting, with Hue Sync launching to expand the colors from your PC or Mac into the room. Designed to deliver a more immersive viewing experience, whether you're watching movies or playing games, Hue Sync offers a DIY approach to Philips' Ambilight TV sets.