Siri and Alexa Battling to Become Go-To Voice Assistants in Hotel Rooms

Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa are being put through their paces in a “tech incubator” hotel chain, in order to determine which voice assistant brings more to the table for guests wanting to order room service, control lights, change TV channels, adjust the temperature, and more (via Bloomberg). The main incubator for the test is happening in Aloft Hotels, which are owned by Marriott.

The Aloft Hotel in Boston is using Amazon Echo devices and a collection of iPhones and iPads to gather information on which voice assistant will ultimately best serve guests in the long run. Marriott hasn’t divulged information on who might be the winner as of yet, but the company did say that it expects to decide if it will expand the test to more chains besides Aloft Hotels “as early as mid-year.”

Marriott expects to decide whether to adopt the technology for one or more of its chains as early as mid-year, potentially boosting sales for the device of choice. More important, it will increase the winning company’s exposure in the market for voice-activated devices, which are gaining more mainstream traction.

“Those two players are in the game right now,” said Toni Stoeckl, who oversees the Aloft, Element, AC and Moxy chains as global brand leader for lifestyle brands at Marriott. There are almost 130 Aloft hotels in the U.S., and more than 100 additional ones planned.

Carolina Milanesi, a market analyst with Creative Strategies, compared the introduction of voice assistants into hotel rooms to when the hospitality industry began putting iPhone docking stations into rooms so guests could easily charge their phone and listen to their own music. Still, personalization with the voice assistants remains a key question for the new tests. As of now it’s unclear whether guests will be able to somehow access their own accounts to use Alexa and Siri, or be treated with a “standard set of skills relevant to a hotel stay,” concerning news reports, weather forecasts, and other default commands that might be easier for guests unfamiliar with voice assistant technology.

In regards to the overall voice assistant battle over hotel rooms, Alexa currently appears to be winning. Amazon’s assistant and its connected speaker system Echo are now helping out guests in hotels like the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, with Alexa devices installed in 10 of 1,002 rooms and plans to add around 100 more as early as next month. On an even bigger scale, the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas plans to equip all 4,748 rooms with an Echo speaker by this summer.

Although most users agree Siri is inferior to other assistants from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, Apple isn’t out of the running yet in the battle to win hotel rooms, and Siri’s advantageous support of multiple languages could give it a leg up over its competition with international travelers. According to Toni Stoeckl, Marriott’s global brand leader, the company is searching for which voice assistant can become the “ideal solution” and ultimately turn into “a global platform” with Siri or Alexa installed at multiple of its locations around the world. Stoeckl said that the company should have an indicator of where it’s headed by the end of 2017, so “the race is still on.”

Marriott’s Stoeckl said his company is “looking for the ideal solution to make this a global platform.” Aloft hotels act as a “tech incubator” for new concepts, and a successful test may determine whether digital assistants — and which ones — are installed at other Marriott chains, he said.

Of course that means that neither assistant could win, but the company said it will continue to test both out in its Aloft Hotels, and even plans to add more “concierge-like” services in the future, which hint that more personalized experiences are likely to be introduced. These include the ability to connect with a guest’s personal smartphone to fuel actions like setting an automatic wake-up temperature or creating an activation time to open the room’s drapes.

Voice assistants continue to be a dominant factor in the smartphone and tablet market, and thanks to devices like the Echo speaker, they’re expanding into unique product categories as well. Reports have been scarce lately, but last year Apple was said to be “pressing ahead” into prototype testing for its own standalone Siri speaker. The Cupertino company is also believed to be working on “enhanced Siri” capabilities that should beef up the assistant’s presence on iOS devices, likely to begin with this year’s “iPhone 8.”

Tags: Siri, Amazon, Amazon Echo, Alexa
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The Morning After: Wednesday, March 22nd 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

How would you like a stealth delivery of Apple announcements? Well you’ve got them. While there’s nothing earth-shattering, there is a new tablet, a vivid new iPhone and a new video app. Also in today’s Adult Week series, we digitally clear out our PC and feel all the better for it.

Say goodbye to the Air. Apple’s new 9.7-inch iPad is its cheapest yet

Apple just simplified its tablet lineup in a big way. The company has introduced a new 9.7-inch iPad — not the Air 3, just… iPad. You’ll find a slightly older but still speedy A9 processor inside instead of the Air 2’s aging A8X chip, and Apple has doubled the capacities to give you either 32GB or 128GB of storage. There are some drawbacks, however, that come with that cheaper price tag.

Beats two different shades of black. Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus now come in red

Apple has also just snuck out a new special edition red iPhone 7, with barely any fanfare. (Although rumors that something was afoot began earlier today when Apple’s online store went down.) The red aluminum iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will be launching globally, adding some welcome color to the black and plainer metallic shades we’ve had until now. The pair of iPhones (with either 128GB or 256GB of storage) will launch in stores and online this Friday, March 24th, starting at $749.

The 16GB iPhone is dead.Apple doubles the storage of the iPhone SE and iPad Mini 4

Apple is also increasing the storage across all iPhone SE and iPad Mini 4 configurations. The lowest-capacity 4-inch iPhone SE is now 32GB, up from 16GB, and the 64GB model has been scrapped in favor of a 128GB version. Basically, Apple has doubled the storage and finally killed off the last 16GB iPhone, but good news: The prices haven’t changed.

You can try it out todayMeet Android O

Google has officially announced the next version of Android, and it’s O. There’s no dessert-themed nickname yet, but the next big update will have some tweaks aimed at extending battery life. They’ll work by managing how apps operate in the background, limiting services, location updates and broadcasts to help squeeze out more time between charges. Other new features include picture-in-picture on phones and tablets, and an autofill feature that should make it easier to use a password manager. If you want to get an early jump, there’s a developer preview available right now for several Nexus and Pixel devices.

It involves more than just emptying your Trash folder Adult Week: The life-changing magic of tidying up (your computer)

Now that many of us have terabytes of storage at our fingertips (or in the cloud), there’s a temptation to keep everything, from apps to old bookmarks. Despite that, Dan Cooper tried applying strategies from Marie Kondo’s famous book to his digital life, hitting the delete button on things that don’t provide some form of joy.

Deal from the middleThe hidden depth of mobile puzzle game ‘Where Cards Fall’

This top-down 3D puzzler will have players follow a handful of teenagers over the course of ten years, building houses of cards to navigate them along the way. Coming from the developers of Alto’s Adventure, Where Cards Fall will arrive later this year on iOS, Apple TV and Steam with more complex mechanics and story than we’re used to seeing in a mobile game.

How did it not have this already? iTunes movie rentals finally work across multiple devices

Nearly a decade after iTunes added movie rentals, Apple has finally made it work across devices. Previously, if you watched a rental on one phone, tablet or Apple TV, it would be stuck there until it expired. With the latest update, viewers can pause and resume on another iPhone or anywhere else they’re logged into the app. The only problem is that for now, the feature is limited to beta and developer builds, but it should be available widely soon enough.

But wait, there’s more…

• Manually mark your parking spot in Google Maps for extra precision
• UK also bans devices from cabins on flights from Middle East
• Adult Week: I don’t know how to drive and I may never have to learn
• Adidas ‘Knit for You’ pop-up shop uses robots to make your clothes on the spot

Finally, iTunes movie rentals now let you ‘rent once, watch anywhere’

Why it matters to you

If you have more than one Apple device, this update gives you more freedom when it comes to watching your movie rentals.

Up to now, if you rented a movie on iTunes, you had to finish watching it on the same device.

In other words, if you started watching it on your Apple TV one evening and wanted to watch the rest of it in bed on an iPad or iPhone, you couldn’t. There was no way of switching between devices to carry on from where you left off.

Apple has finally put that right with an iTunes update rolled out on Tuesday.

Version 12.6 of the media-playing software offers what the company calls a “rent once, watch anywhere” feature, telling users, “Now you can enjoy your movie rentals across your devices with iOS 10.3 and tvOS 10.2.”

Ah, hang on … the more observant among you will have noticed that those two software versions aren’t officially out yet, though with both currently available in beta — and with Apple citing them as part of its iTunes update — it shouldn’t be at all long before they make it to the masses.

Regardless of whether you watch a rented iTunes movie on one device or on several, don’t forget that you have 24 hours (in the U.S.) or 48 hours (non-U.S. locations) to finish it. And you must start watching it within 30 days of renting it or you’ll have to start over.

You can grab the latest iTunes update now from the Mac App Store.

More: Apple could offer iTunes rentals of movies still in theaters

Apple’s iTunes update came on the same day that the tech titan quietly rolled out a couple of new products — an all-new 9.7-inch iPad called simply “iPad” that replaces the iPad Air 2, and a special-edition “Product (RED)” iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. A few other extras were also pushed out by the company on Tuesday — here’s an overview of everything you need to know.

Samsung Pay officially rolls out in India with UPI and Paytm integration

Samsung Pay is now officially available in India.

After rolling out Samsung Pay early access a few weeks ago, Samsung has now officially launched its digital payments service in the country. Samsung has teamed up with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express for payment processing, and Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards and Standard Chartered Bank customers will be able to use Samsung Pay starting today. Citibank credit cards will soon be added to the platform.

Samsung is also offering a UPI payments solution that will be powered by Axis Bank. UPI payments aren’t live yet on the service, but Samsung mentions that the feature will be added shortly. The platform also has Paytm integration, allowing you to pay by scanning QR codes, undertake peer-to-peer money transfers, and more.

Samsung Pay is available for those using the Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017) and the Galaxy A7 (2017), and will be available soon for the Gear S3.

By integrating digital wallets and UPI, Samsung Pay is offering a comprehensive list of options for Indian customers, and its ability to work with NFC as well as older MST POS machines makes it convenient to use the service at a majority of offline retailers across the country.

India is the 12th country to pick up support for Samsung Pay, and the service is live in the U.S., South Korea, China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Sky Q voice search now live, you can finally use that button on the remote

Sky has begun to roll out new firmware for its Sky Q set-top-boxes that adds voice search and a few new features.

Some customers will have the update by now although others might have to wait as it’s being rolled out in stages. All Sky Q customers will have the new software by the “end of spring”, however.

Voice search has been one of the features promised by Sky since the launch of Sky Q. Indeed, the voice button has been on the touch remote since the beginning, but hasn’t been needed until now.

It enables you to find content simply by pressing the button, found on the side of the remote, and simple say what you are looking for. It could be the name of the show, a more generic term, such as “Liverpool game”, or even a famous quote from a movie.

• What is Sky Q, how much does it cost and how can I get it?
• Virgin TV V6 box vs Sky Q: What’s the difference?

The voice recognition engine will also recognise genres, star ratings and actors. For example, you can search by just saying “Tom Hanks movies with five star ratings”.

In addition to voice search, the latest update changes the navigation pages and user interface. You will now land on My Q as the homescreen, with recommendations based on your viewing habits being front and centre. A continue watching section will enable you to pick up where you left off in an episode.

Navigation has also been simplified, with the TV guide and recordings being one swipe (or tap) away.

Customers can also link their Facebook profiles to the new UI, which will enable viewing of Facebook videos and photos from within the my photos section.

Netflix launches support for Firefox on Linux

Linux users have a new option if they want to watch Netflix — the streaming service is now compatible with Firefox for the platform. Before this, only Google Chrome could play videos from the website outright. There was even a time when users had to make sure they’re using a version of Chrome with the required Encrypted Media Extension (EME) support. Sure, they could trick the platform into thinking they’re on Chrome when they’re actually using Firefox. That’s easy enough to set up for someone with a Linux PC. But this development means there are no extra steps to take to enjoy Netflix on Mozilla’s browser.

In fact, users don’t have to install any plug-in, and they certainly don’t have to borrow Chrome’s digital rights management (DRM) as a workaround for the limitation anymore. Mozilla added EME support for Firefox on Linux last year, allowing the browser to play encrypted content. It might have taken the organization some time to enable playback of DRM-protected HTML5 videos, but now that it’s here, Linux users can simply load the website on Firefox and hit play.

Source: Netflix

Sky Q’s promised voice search feature is finally here

Ever since Sky first started talking about its next-gen TV service, Sky Q, voice search was pitched as one of its fancy features, though clearly labelled as coming eventually. A year and change after Sky Q launched, it’s finally arrived. Subscribers can now — or, by the end at spring of the latest due to a staggered rollout — pick up their glossy Touch Remotes, hit the dedicated voice search button, and well… you get the idea.

Similar to the voice search features on Rokus, Amazon Fire TV streamers et al, Sky Qers can search through live TV and all on-demand content simply by speaking the names of actors, shows, films and directors into the Touch Remote’s microphone. You can also search by genre, age rating, average reviews and other descriptors, as well as compound these for more specific searches — Sky gives examples such as “Tom Hanks’ movies rated five stars” and “films with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.”

It gets a little bit smarter than that, too. Phrases such as “live cricket on this weekend,” “what’s on Sky Atlantic tonight” and “Liverpool game” should turn up the search results you’re after, so there’s some contextual leeway. Sky has even thrown a bunch of easter eggs, letting you to track down classics by reciting popular lines. Give “you had me at hello,” “show me the money” and “say hello to my little friend” a go, for instance.

As part of the update that enables voice search, Sky has also improved the My Photos app so it can play your Facebook videos, and notably, done away with the Sky Q home screen. The personalised My Q tab, complete with recommendations from across the service, takes its place — which is exactly the kind of curated home screen MPs are thinking about regulating, potentially forcing pay-TV providers to do more to promote the efforts of public service broadcasters.

A security expert’s guide for digital domestic violence victims

Domestic abuse takes many forms. And given the future we live in, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that your digital life is another venue for intimidation. If you find yourself in such a situation where your phone is being used against you, Hack*Blossom has put together a guide for how to protect yourself from location stalking and text abuse, among other scenarios.

“Without judgment or obligation, DIY Cybersecurity for Domestic Violence explores cybersecurity strategies that offer immediate and tangible protection for survivors,” Hack*Blossom’s Noah Kelley writes. “Every strategy is written for accessibility, emphasizing the security potential of existing technologies while minimizing the need for new products.”

Kelley says that what started as a feminist guide to cybersecurity quickly turned into something different, as readers began detailing what they’d been through. “It was a hacked iPhone recording texts. It was a fake Facebook profile threatening physical harm. The loftier threats of political surveillance started to feel irrelevant,” he writes.

Some advice is simple, like using two-factor authentication to guard against unauthorized logins and password changes. Other information is a little more in depth, like explaining how to guard against intimate media being distributed online, and who to contact if it is.

If you or someone you know are yourself in an abusive situation, The National Domestic Violence Hotline offers 24/7 support at 1-800-799-7233 and 1-800-787-3224. Live chat is available online from 7am to 2am Central Time if making a phone call isn’t possible.

Source: Hack*Blossom (1), (2)

Bear Notes 1.1 Update Adds Infinite Nested Tags, Note Merging, 3D Touch, New Code Syntax Support, and More

Flexible writing platform Bear Notes received its first major update on Tuesday, bringing a number of highly requested features to the popular Mac/iOS app.

Perhaps top of the list is the new ability to infinitely nest tags. Previously, users could organize their notes by structuring tags in simple hierarchies, so a parent tag could have one child tag. Now, nested tags can go infinitely deep, allowing for more nuanced note organization.

A handful of other general updates include the ability to bulk delete and rename tags, change the note list font, a new way to exclude search terms, additional support to import from other apps such as Day One, code syntax highlighting in exported documents, and better Word exports.

There’s also a new High Contrast theme ideal for visually impaired users, three additional font choices, new shortcuts, expanded support for programming language syntax highlighting, and the ability to undo completed tasks.

Meanwhile, a raft of Mac and iOS specific enhancements have also been made to the writing platform.

On the Mac side, Bear introduces Touch Bar support, tag drag and drop, multiple note merging, Quadro app support, QuickLook preview support, and a new Firefox extension.

For iOS users comes the ability to Peek and Pop notes in the notes list via 3D Touch, enhanced formatting options for importing web pages via the Bear Notes extension, haptic feedback options for multiple actions, and the ability to ask Siri to read Bear notes.

The full list of updates and enhancements can be found on the Bear Notes blog.

The core version of Bear Notes v1.1 is a free download for Mac and iOS. Bear Pro is offered as a $1.49 monthly or $14.99 yearly subscription, and enables syncing between devices, exporting notes, and switching themes.
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U.S. confirms cabin ban affecting large gadgets on flights from multiple airports

Why it matters to you

If you’re impacted by the new rules, be sure to carefully pack your larger gadgets inside your hold luggage.

New rules banning plane passengers from taking electronic devices larger than a mobile phone into the cabin will go into effect this week for airlines flying to the U.S. from eight countries.

The move, put in place by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Tuesday, comes in response to new threat intelligence received by the U.S. government. No American airlines are subject to the new rules.

Ten airports will now have to ensure that devices such as laptops, tablets, e-readers, portable DVD players, and cameras are packed inside checked luggage and kept out of the cabin, until further notice.

These are:

• Dubai International in the UAE
• Abu Dhabi International in the UAE
• Istanbul Ataturk in Turkey
• Cairo International in Egypt
• King Abdulaziz International in Saudi Arabia
• King Khalid International in Saudi Arabia
• Queen Alia International in Jordan
• Kuwait International
• Doha International in Qatar
• Mohammed V Airport in Morocco

The affected airlines include Emirates, Etihad, Turkish Airlines, EgyptAir, Saudi Airlines, Royal Jordania, Kuwait Airways, Qatar Airways, and Royal Air Morocco. The ban will begin on March 24, according to information released by Royal Jordania.

The U.K. has also implemented a similar rule for in-bound flights from particular countries.

If you’re wondering how sending electronics to the hold instead of the cabin improves the safety of an aircraft in the face of a security threat, ABC News points out that the machines scanning checked luggage are in most cases more powerful than those used for hand luggage, so have a better chance of pinpointing suspicious contents.

More: The 5 longest flights in the world make NY to London feel like a hop

If you’re heading to the U.S. and you’re hit by the ban, best you load up your smartphone with content and maybe get back to basics by taking a few printed books with you. Of course, you’ll want to take extra care packing your tech gear in your suitcase — use bubble wrap or soft foam before placing it inside a tough case, and then bury it among your clothes. It goes without saying that you should use luggage locks, a measure that provides at least some protection against those on the hunt for pricey freebies. And don’t forget to password protect your laptop, just in case it does disappear en route.

The ban is sure to be a pain for carriers as well as passengers, but Emirates and Turkish Airlines have been quick to use it to trumpet their respective in-flight services:

Let us entertain you. pic.twitter.com/FKqayqUdQ7

— Emirates airline (@emirates) March 21, 2017

2 Billion minutes of entertainment on air #TurkishAirlines pic.twitter.com/2RnfZDqUWT

— Turkish Airlines (@TurkishAirlines) March 21, 2017