New Alexa feature announces songs before they start playing

This new feature for Amazon Alexa could be either very annoying or very useful. Called Song ID, the virtual assistant will announce the name and artist of whatever song is playing before the song plays. It’s a feature available exclusively to Amazon Music. Amazon added the feature because it thinks it’ll help with music discovery. Perhaps a lot of people have been asking the virtual assistant what song is playing. If you do find the feature annoying, you can ask Alexa to “Turn off Song ID.”

Source: The Verge

Update on Friday, March 8, 2019 at 10:06PM by Nicole Batac

The feature is currently only available in the US.

CES 2019: Lenovo’s new 2-in-1 device has Echo Show capabilities

We knew a Lenovo-made tablet was coming with Echo Show capabilities. And now at CES the said device (or we should say devices) has made its debut. The Lenovo Smart Tab works both as an Android tablet and an Alexa Smart Display. You get the latter when you dock it with the included smart speaker dock. This feature is already available with Amazon’s own Fire tablets but in that iteration, you needed to buy the speaker dock separately. Lenovo, on the other hand, is bundling the dock with the tablet. The company is calling it a tablet first with Echo Show features as a nice bonus.

Click to read more ...

Samsung’s new TVs get Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa support

So, Samsung is trying to bring more value to its new TVs. On top of its support for iTunes and AirPlay 2, Samsung is also bringing support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. But there’s a caveat to this. The new TVs will respond to voice commands from these two digital assistants through Alexa- and Google Assistant-powered smart speakers. The built-in voice assistant and one you can talk to through the remote will still be Samsung’s Bixby Assistant. The commands it can execute is rudimentary at the moment. Using Google Assistant or Alexa, you’ll be able to turn on the TV, change channels and volume, or switch between inputs. There’s no word yet if richer features are coming, but Samsung should update us if they are bringing more.

Source: Engadget

‘Human error’ gives Amazon Alexa user access to another user’s voice recordings

Embed from Getty Images

One Amazon Alexa user in Germany requested access to his activities on the service but he got more than he bargained for. The customer got access to thousands of recordings from another Amazon Alexa user. Amazon claims this happened because of “a human error” made by the company and is an isolated case. The customer was able to access and download 1,700 audio files from a stranger when Amazon sent him a link for his information. What can you glean from these recordings? A lot, apparently. The German trade publication c’t was able to contact the user who had his files shared by just listening to the recordings.

According to c’t, the first customer didn’t get a reply to Amazon initially when he raised the issue but then the files were deleted from the link provided. However, as we mentioned, he already downloaded the files. An Amazon spokesman said they’ve resolved the issue with the two customers involved and “took measures to further optimize our processes.” The company also contacted “relevant authorities” about the matter.

Source: Reuters