Google Assistant now compatible with over 5,000 devices

Google's voice-powered assistant is now compatible with 5,000 devices. Showing that Google is growing its ecosystem to compete with Amazon's Alexa, which is has 12,000 can work with smart home devices from over 2,000 brands. Google Assistant can be accessed using smartphones, Google Home smart speakers, Wear OS devices and Chromebooks.

“Over the past year, we’ve made great progress ensuring that the Google Assistant can work with all types of connected devices, and now every major device brand works with the Assistant in the U.S.,” Google’s Michele Turner writes. She notes that the smart devices with which Google Assistant is compatible include “cameras, dishwashers, doorbells, dryers, lights, plugs, thermostats, security systems, switches, vacuums, washers, fans, locks, sensors, heaters, AC units, air purifiers, refrigerators, ovens [and more].”

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Amazon Alexa can recap NBA and NHL game stats for you

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It’s not an entirely novel idea that voice assistants can give you details about your favorite sports. But Amazon promises it can go a little deeper to help you get to the stats that matter to you. The latest update coming to Alexa will let you recap NBA and NHL games and even get individual stats for different players. You can find out how many points a player scored or summarize a match for you. It can let you know when the next NBA or NHL playoff games begin and which teams made the cut. You can get playoff-specific stats, too. So, if you’re a big fan of these two leagues, you might appreciate this new Alexa feature a whole lot.

Source: Engadget

Your Amazon Echo speakers can now work as an intercom

For Canadian and U.S. owners of Amazon Echo speakers, you can now turn your speakers into a one-way intercom system. The setup of Alexa Announcements isn’t complicated. All you need to do is talk to Alexa and say things like, “Alexa announce that dinner is ready.” And then all the Echo devices in your home will make the announcement. Or you can use other hot words like “Alexa, tell everyone…” or Alexa, broadcast…” It isn’t clear yet if this will work on other Alexa-enabled devices but for now we’re assuming it’s only for Echo speakers.

Source: Android Authority

Amazon claims its working on the laughing Echo devices

It’s like one of our worst nightmares coming true. Some Amazon Echo users are reporting that Alexa has started laughing at random without any prompting. One user on Twitter claims it started to laugh as he was about to fall asleep, another one on Reddit describes the laugh as sounding almost like a real person (after Alexa refused to turn off his lights after three tries). Amazon says they are aware of the issue and are working on the matter.

Here’s Amazon’s official statement about the issue: “In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase ‘Alexa, laugh.’ We are changing that phrase to be ‘Alexa, can you laugh?’ which is less likely to have false positives, and we are disabling the short utterance ‘Alexa, laugh.’ We are also changing Alexa’s response from simply laughter to ‘Sure, I can laugh’ followed by laughter.” 

Source: Gizmodo