voice control

The Genie Company delivers Aladdin Connect smart garage door openers and retrofit kits to the public. Samsung has a smart home system called Samsung SmartThings. Today, the two companies announced that Aladdin Connect smart garage door openers and retrofit kids are now "Works with SmartThings" certified. This means that your Samsung SmartThings app can open your garage door - or your connected SmartThings devices of all sorts could, potentially, make your garage door open when you flip the right set of switches.

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After becoming a mostly touch-based society thanks to smartphones and tablets, tech giants are trying to turn us back towards using our literal voices to drive our interactions with technology. AI assistants, smart speakers, and speech recognition have become staples of many products and services but, unlike touch, voice data also carries more privacy implications. After being criticized and scrutinized over such privacy invasions like its peers, Microsoft is now announcing a bigger change to its voice data collection practices that it says gives users more control.

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A slightly convoluted set of steps appeared this week on Atom Tickets with an end-goal of a single free movie ticket to a film of the user's choice. The folks at Atom Tickets likely enabled this promotional bit of work in order to tie users' minds to the idea that ordering a movie ticket via Alexa (and Atom) would be the best (and most default) way to go through the future. In any case - it might be worth the process, depending on movie ticket prices in your area.

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Today a new Google Nest Mini appeared at the FCC, and with it, confirmation of Google's continue expansion to every room in your home. Google has a plan with Google Assistant - that plan is to cover your entire world in Google-made natural voice smart assistant coverage, wall to wall, environment to environment. Google already has a first-gen Google Home Mini - the Google Nest Mini won't be particularly different in approach.

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Voice control was meant to save us from the TV remote, but even with heavy-hitters like Amazon and Apple in the living room, we're still not quite there yet. That's a problem startup Dabkick believes it can fix, with its Dabby streaming entertainment system. Pairing a flexible dedicated tablet with an unexpectedly capable AI-powered search, it promises voice access to any content you can find online - without falling foul of the media behemoths.

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When I mention the cost of this garbage can, you may recoil in horror. How dare I even consider recommending anyone pay two hundred and fifty US dollars for a can into which garbage should go? I thought the same thing at first, then I considered how often I'd replaced my kitchen garbage can in the last decade. Then I got to thinking about how much I hated the fact that no garbage can I'd ever owned really did a great job of masking smells of any significant strength, ever. Then I wondered if a can of this caliber could actually be a good investment.

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Google began updating their voice match phone unlock system with a more modern Google Assistant assisted system starting this week. This is coming into full effect on devices, now - but was first initiated with the release of the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. Voice Match was released several years ago as a feature for unlocking smartphones (and as a general part of voice recognition.) This simple system will be updated this year on all Android smartphones.

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While some voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant are duking it out for smart home dominance, there are others that focus on offering more specialized voice support. One such assistant is the new one being launched by Pandora today. Soon, everyone listening to Pandora on iOS and Android will be able to navigate the app, discover new music, and play songs using voice commands.

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Functionality from Amazon's voice assistant Alexa was added to Razer Chroma this week. In the near future, users will be able to command the many combinations of colors and color functionality on their Razer Chroma light-embedded devices. This comes at the same time as the Razer Chroma Connected Devices program, now active, tags on 15 new parters and 300+ Chroma-enabled devices.

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Samsung has yet to even release its Galaxy Home, a new smart speaker that combines the Bixby assistant with premium audio features, and we're already hearing rumors about a second model being in development. First announced in August, the Galaxy Home still doesn't have a set price or release date, but it seems like Samsung is working on a cheaper version for when that days does arrive.

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Your family might have a question or two about Amazon's Alexa and/or a very inexpensive Echo device this holiday season. As such, we've compiled a list of 10 simple points that you might want to relay. This isn't a cheerleading list, and it's not the list you'll want if you're looking to convince your family that Echo devices and Alexa are a great idea. Then again, it's not all bad.

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Samsung's own Bixby assistant has been around for a few years now, but it still trails far behind Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant in usage. This is due to a number of reasons, including poor performance and a lack of features, but also because of Alexa and Assistant's third-party support, which has resulted in widespread integration with other apps and services. It now looks like Samsung is ready to have Bixby take a stab at learning new skills too.

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