Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant service is hitting the headlines a lot recently, as accessory makers scramble to include the open service in their products, and competitors rush to improve their own digital assistants. We’ve got a trio of updates today, as we look at a new (free!) iPhone and Android app for Alexa, a clever accessory for making the Amazon Echo portable, and an early rumour on Google’s Alexa competitor, Chirp.
Amazon’s vocal assistant Alexa is the cornerstone of its recent releases, popping up in the Echo speaker, the Echo Dot and the Tap… but none of these devices have yet come to the UK. It’s also coming to the Triby, as we reported earlier, but that device hasn’t been updated with Alexa support yet. What’s a Brit to do? If you have some basic programming skills, then one answer could be just to build your own Alexa-powered speaker… and Amazon have revealed exactly how to do it.
Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant is at the heart of its coolest recent product, the Echo home speaker. The virtual assistant is improving quickly to rival Siri and Cortana, with lots of useful integrations that let it control your lights, answer questions, order an Uber or adjust your house’s temperature. Amazon announced Alexa is coming to two new devices this week, the Amazon Tap and the Echo Dot. Both are interesting takes on the original Echo, designed to be used in slightly different environments.