The United States has 41 million native Spanish speakers living in the country today, and another 11.6 million people who are bilingual. Despite that, Amazon’s Alexa — the most popular voice assistant available in the U. S. — almost exclusively speaks English. That’s about to change. Amazon has announced that it will be introducing support for the Spanish language in its Alexa Skills Kit, the software development tool that developers use to create apps and skills for the voice assistant. Amazon’s rollout for Spanish-language skills will start later this week. Developers will be able to create new skills that use Spanish-language voice commands, which will be reviewed by Amazon to be certified for publication. Once approved, users will be able to download the skills from the Alexa Skills Store. Those skills will be available to users who are enrolled in the Alexa Preview program, who get to see features before the general public. Amazon will add … [Read more...] about Hola, Alexa. Voice assistant will soon add support for Spanish speakers
Which voice assistant is best
Alexa’s chief scientist wants to give the voice assistant a robot body
Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant is learning new things and adding new skills all the time, but there’s only so much it can learn bottled up in the smart speakers and other devices that come equipped with the artificial intelligence (A.I.). According to Rohit Prasad, the head scientist in Amazon’s Alexa division, to truly understand the world and how the people Alexa is designed to help interact with it, the disembodied voice needs a body. Speaking at The EmTech Digital A.I .Conference held by MIT Technology Review in San Francisco, Prasad raised the idea of letting Alexa learn about the world by experiencing it like a human might. “The only way to make [a]smart assistant really smart is to give it eyes and let it explore the world,” he said. That would include giving Alexa a physical form. While the idea might seem a little out there, we’re already closer to the possibility than one might imagine. In some cases, Alexa already has access to … [Read more...] about Alexa’s chief scientist wants to give the voice assistant a robot body
Consumers no longer think voice assistants are mediocre
It's been a rough start for voice assistants. Not too long ago, Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa were buggy and didn't know the answer to plenty of obvious questions.While those problems still exist, consumers have found these digital helpers work much better than they did before. Now, 54 percent of US consumers say voice assistants work well. Forty-one percent said they work OK and just 5 percent said they work poorly. The results come from a late January survey of over 1,000 US adults by Adobe.The results, published Tuesday, are a substantial jump forward from Adobe's mid-2017 voice survey. It found that just 37 percent of customers thought voice assistants worked "very well" or good," 26 percent said they were "OK," and 37 percent described them as "not good" or "terrible."The shift in consumer sentiment should help sales of smart speakers and connected home devices, which have already been seeing positive growth. Amazon, for example, said its Echo Dot smart speaker was its best … [Read more...] about Consumers no longer think voice assistants are mediocre
Which voice assistants does Samsung SmartThings support?
Best answer: SmartThings works seamlessly with both Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa. It takes a few extra steps to get up and running, but it's smooth sailing once set up. Talk to Me One of the best things about SmartThings is that it truly does integrate extremely well with a ton of different devices and services. Unlike some other smart home products, SmartThings can easily be controlled using Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. The integration and control are extremely fluid and care-free once set up, and it all truly does bring your home one step further into connected bliss. In addition to what you can do in SmartThings, you can use the Google Home or Alexa app to automate your devices by creating custom scenes and routines that fit your daily lifestyle. To set up either voice assistant (or both, if that's your thing) you'll need to use the respective Alexa or Google Home app on your phone or tablet. You can choose to allow all or some of your SmartThings devices (depending on … [Read more...] about Which voice assistants does Samsung SmartThings support?
Amazon Echo or Google Home: Which smart speaker is right for you?
If you’re in the market for a small speaker, you can go for an Apple HomePod with Siri inside or this $2,250 Bang and Olufsen deal, but if you’re looking for the most value, top features, and a solution that lets you spread music throughout your home, you only really have Amazon’s Echo speakers and Google’s Home lineup. Statistically speaking, you are likely to buy more than one speaker, and depending on the size of your home, if you get three or four, you should be able to cover your entire home with those smart speakers. You can also access a wide range of games, apps, and services, from making phone calls and checking your calendar to sending messages and making phone calls. Many of the places where Google Assistant and Alexa meet can be fought more or less to a draw. Both provide a range of at least half a dozen speakers you can mix and match that range in price and sound from the $49 Echo Dot and Home Mini (the Home Mini is actually better) to the $130 Echo … [Read more...] about Amazon Echo or Google Home: Which smart speaker is right for you?