Mercedes-Benz sees self-driving EVs as the future of car sharing

Earlier this year, Daimler announced plans to develop a self-driving, car-sharing system with fully autonomous vehicles geared towards city living. Today, the company says that the first part of that vision — Smart’s Vision EQ Fortwo concept vehicle — will be presented at the 2017 Frankfurt International Motor Show next month.

The EQ Fortwo is a level five, fully autonomous car with no steering wheel or pedals. Via an app, riders can hail the car and have it pick them up from wherever they like. The outside of the car has a panel in the front that can display information like who it’s picking up, that it’s on its way to a pickup or information for pedestrians crossing in front of it. The side doors, which open upwards over the rear axle, can also display information like weather or news updates.

Inside the car, there’s a large screen that can display various things depending on the riders’ preferences and a lounge-like bench that can seat up to two people. The EQ Fortwo’s functions can be managed with a phone or with voice controls. If a single rider is open to sharing the car with a stranger, the vehicle will suggest an additional passenger based on their location to the original trip’s path as well as information from both riders’ personal profiles. Once two passengers are in the car, the interior display will show interests shared by both, such as concerts they both went to or sports that they both enjoy.

Daimler says that over ten new electric cars are scheduled for production by 2022 ranging from small Smart cars to larger SUVs. “The Smart vision EQ Fortwo is our vision of future urban mobility; it is the most radical car sharing concept car of all: fully autonomous, with maximum communication capabilities, friendly, comprehensively personalisable and, of course, electric,” Smart CEO Annette Winkler said in a statement.

Image: Daimler AG

Source: Daimler

Watch ASUS’ IFA 2017 event in under seven minutes

The first official day of IFA 2017 isn’t until Friday, September 1st, but the pre-event festivities are already in full force. Like Acer and Samsung, ASUS had its big press conference today in Berlin, where it revealed a slew of new mainstream, multimedia and gaming laptops. It also shared more details about its upcoming Windows Mixed Reality headset, which promises to be a solid, premium device — so don’t expect it to be cheap. You can catch these and other announcements in this highlight reel we put together, just for you.

Follow all the latest news from IFA 2017 here!

‘Nexus Dawn’ explores story leading up to ‘Blade Runner 2049’

Blade Runner 2049 picks up 30 years after the classic original movie, but what happened in the interim? Denis Villenueve, the sequel’s director, tapped three creators to make short films exploring the events between the films. Watch the first one, 2036: Nexus Dawn, below:

Fans get their first look at one of 2049’s prominent characters: Niander Wallace, the vision-afflicted replicant manufacturer played by Jared Leto. In this intermission, we see him lobbying a board of regulators to repeal a replicant prohibition seemingly established after an unknown catastrophe called “The Blackout.” Wallace comes to prove the law’s folly by bringing his own creation: A seemingly obedient replicant that will never rebel, but still feels pain.

Nexus Dawn might be a little on-the-nose for Blade Runner, dropping more context in a few lines of exposition than the original did in the whole film. The civilized world is narrowly evading some serious problems, like food scarcity and overpopulation, reflecting more of our current anxieties than the first film bothered with. But don’t worry: The existentialist are-replicants-alive debate is still central.

More cute trivia: the Nexus Dawn short was directed by Luke Scott, son of Ridley Scott, who helmed the original Blade Runner. The sequel comes out on October 6th, so expect the other two short films to arrive before then and shed light on what went down since the first film.

Via: Paste

Source: ‘2036: Nexus Dawn’ (YouTube)

Researchers create a new fusion recipe that boosts energy output

Nuclear fusion is an attractive way to create energy. It generates hardly any waste, doesn’t pollute the planet and takes advantage of elements that we have plenty of. But fusion takes a lot of work and the energy payout isn’t yet at the level that makes it suitable for producing power. But researchers at MIT have developed a new fusion recipe that boosts energy production by ten-fold.

Previously, the group was using a method that required two types of ions — deuterium and hydrogen — with deuterium making up around 95 percent of the mixture. With the ions contained in a fusion reactor called a tokamak, radio waves tuned to target only the less abundant hydrogen ions were used to heat them up. With all of the energy of the waves focused on just the hydrogen ions, the ions were able to reach very high energy levels, causing them to slam into the deuterium ions and generate heat and power through the resulting fusion reaction.

However, the researchers decided to try out a three ion solution, adding helium-3 ions at very small amounts into the mix. And when the waves were trained on to the few helium-3 ions, the ions were able to achieve energy levels that have only been generated in full, activated fusion reactors, not small experimental reactors like the one being used at MIT.

The results were so promising that researchers at Europe’s largest nuclear fusion device, the UK’s Joint European Torus, decided to try the method out themselves. They replicated the results successfully and the two groups were able to focus on and measure two different properties of the particles undergoing the reaction, meaning the two were able to get a fuller picture of how the experiment was working than either could have separately. “The fact that we had a basic theory realized on two different devices on two continents came together to produce a strong paper,” John Wright, a researcher with the project, said in a statement.

The results paint an encouraging outlook for the future of nuclear fusion as a power generator and the method could also help researchers looking to better understand solar flares, which result from a similar process. The research was recently published in Nature Physics.

Via: Popular Mechanics

Source: Nature, MIT

Samsung Announces Two New Smart Watches and New Wire-Free Gear IconX Earbuds

Samsung today held an event at the IFA trade show in Berlin, where the company introduced two new smart watches and a second-generation version of its Gear IconX wireless earbuds. The two new watches come just weeks ahead of the prospective launch date of Apple’s third-generation Apple Watch, which is expected to feature LTE as its main selling point.

The new Samsung Gear Sport is positioned as a fitness-focused smart watch with a round 1.2-inch 360 x 360 AMOLED display and a 20mm strap, making it one of Samsung’s slimmest smart watches. It features an improved interface, “military-level durability,” and comes in two colors – blue and black.

Inside, there’s a 1.0GHz dual-core processor, 4GB storage space, 768MB RAM, a 300mAh battery, and the traditional sensors, including a heart rate monitor, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, and more. It runs the Tizen operating system and is compatible with Android and iOS devices. Pricing for the Gear Sport has yet to be announced, and Samsung says it’ll be available for purchase during the holiday season.

Samsung’s Gear Fit2 Pro, available in red and black, is described by the company as an advanced GPS fitness band rather than a true smart watch. It includes GPS tracking functionality and a curved 1.5-inch 216 x 432 AMOLED touchscreen display. It also features a Dual Core 1.0GHz processor, 4GB storage, 512MB RAM, a 200mAh battery, and it comes in two sizes to fit different wrists.

The Gear Fit2 Pro, priced at $199.99, will be available for preorder starting on August 31 at 9:00 a.m from retailers like Amazon. Shipments will start arriving on September 15.

Both the Gear Sport and the Gear Fit2 Pro feature heart rate monitoring that Samsung says offers improved accuracy, water resistance and swim tracking in collaboration with Speedo, auto activity detection, and personalized wellness plans with fitness goals to reach.

Samsung’s final new wearable is a second-generation version of its Gear IconX wire-free earbuds, which are Samsung’s equivalent to Apple’s AirPods. Samsung says the new IconX earbuds are lighter weight and more ergonomic, making them more secure and comfortable in the ear. They come in Black, Gray, and Pink, and support features like Bixby with gestures to activate the personal assistant.

The new Gear IconX features improved battery life (up to five hours of music streaming or seven hours of standalone playback), 4GB internal storage per earbud, and a charging case. The Gear IconX is set to be released this fall, but pricing has yet to be announced.

Tags: Samsung, Gear
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Review: Chamberlain’s MyQ Garage and Home Bridge Add HomeKit Support to Your Garage Door

Back in January at CES, Chamberlain announced plans to release MyQ Home Bridge, a hardware hub to allow connected garage openers in the company’s MyQ ecosystem to work with HomeKit. The MyQ Home Bridge was initially scheduled to launch in April, but as is common with these types of products needing to gain HomeKit certification, it was pushed back a bit and had a brief quiet launch earlier this month with an official launch coming just yesterday.

The MyQ Home Bridge requires that your existing garage door opener already support MyQ wireless connectivity through one of three methods: built-in MyQ Wi-Fi support within the opener, a non-smart garage door opener linked to a MyQ Garage hub, or add-on Wi-Fi connectivity for a MyQ-enabled opener using a MyQ Internet Gateway.

Box contents of MyQ Home Bridge (left) and MyQ Garage (right)
I own a Chamberlain chain drive garage door opener from 2009, but it does not include any MyQ technology built in, so in order to add HomeKit support to my setup I needed to install two separate pieces of hardware: a MyQ Garage for basic Wi-Fi support and then the new MyQ Home Bridge to add HomeKit compatibility.

Alongside the original MyQ Home Bridge announcement in January, Chamberlain also disclosed plans for a Smart Garage Hub that will consolidate both the MyQ Garage and MyQ Home Bridge functions into a single piece of hardware. The Smart Garage Hub was originally planned to debut in July, but Chamberlain tells me its launch has been delayed and the company is not yet sharing any new target dates for it.

MyQ Garage

Working with my current dumb garage door opener, the first step was to install the MyQ Garage to get my opener online. It was a simple, straightforward process that only took about 15 minutes. The system uses a couple of screws to attach a metal bracket to the ceiling in the general vicinity of the garage door opener, at least two feet away from the opener itself but still visible when standing in the garage door opening.

MyQ Garage bracket screwed to garage ceiling
The MyQ Garage slides onto the metal bracket and a power adapter plugs into an outlet, with excess cord able to be wrapped around the metal bracket.

MyQ Garage hub mounted on ceiling
A separate door sensor is affixed to the top panel of the garage door itself, with either velcro strips or screws. The simple sensor wirelessly informs the MyQ Garage hub whether the door is up or down, based on the sensor’s orientation. It runs on a replaceable CR2450 button battery.

Door sensor
The rest of the setup happens within the Chamberlain MyQ app, which requires you to create a MyQ account and instructs you to connect to the MyQ Garage via Bluetooth to enable sharing of your device’s Wi-Fi settings during setup. Once the MyQ Garage is online, the app walks you through the steps of pairing the MyQ garage with your opener through the opener’s program button, tests the door sensor’s communication with the main hub, and lets you name your opener in the MyQ system.

The app isn’t particularly pretty and it hasn’t even been fully optimized for recent larger-screened iPhones, but it gets the job done. It does support Touch ID, so it’s easy to authenticate your MyQ account credentials whenever you open the app. The app lets you easily see your garage door opener(s) and their current status, as well as how long they’ve been open or closed for. Tapping on the door in the app will raise or lower it.

On the safety side, it’s important to note that garage doors are inherently dangerous, as children who are not paying attention have occasionally been injured or killed by closing doors. As a result, modern garage door openers are equipped with sensors that detect if there is anything underneath the garage door at ground level as the door is descending, automatically reversing the door if an obstruction is detected. Garage door opener instruction manuals also encourage users to visually supervise the door as it opens or closes to ensure safe operation.

Because connected garage door openers can be operated remotely via app and thus without visual confirmation of safe operation, the MyQ Garage includes warning signals just prior to the door closing. Tapping the garage door in the app to lower it results in several seconds of fairly loud, high-pitched beeping, accompanied by flashing, bright white light from the MyQ Garage hub prior to the door starting to come down.

The audio and visual warnings alert anyone in the vicinity that the door will be descending, and the beeping continues for the entire time the door is closing. It’s an important safety feature, but it also means you may want to avoid using the app to close the door at certain times if the opener is, for example, located directly below a bedroom where someone may be sleeping.

Alerts and Schedules

The Chamberlain MyQ app allows you to set up alerts and schedules for your garage door, making sure you’re kept up to date on the status of your door and letting you automatically ensure the door is closed every night, for example.

With alerts, you can choose to receive them via push notifications, email, or both, and you can be alerted whenever your garage door is open or closed. Options allow you to specify only certain days and times during which you want to be alerted, as well as whether you want to be notified as soon as the event happens or after a certain time threshold is reached.

For example, you can set up an alert to be notified only if the garage door has been open for more than an hour. With multiple alerts, you can account for your daily schedule, such as setting up immediate alerts during the workday when no one is expected to be home, but only notifying after an hour or so at other days and times when people are more likely to be around the house.

Schedules, as the name suggests, allow you to set up a fixed time of day (every day or only specific days of the week) to close the door, for example. For garage doors, only closing the door is supported, so you can’t set the garage door to open on a specific schedule within the MyQ app.

If you have other devices such as remote lights integrated with your MyQ system, you can also schedule them to turn on or off. Even without HomeKit, schedules are a great way to automatically make sure your garage door is closed in the evenings before heading to bed, and you can receive confirmation via email or push notification.

Chamberlain’s MyQ system also supports integration with Nest (including the ability to adjust Nest thermostats and view Nest Cam video), as well as smart home integrations through XFINITY Home, Wink, and IFTTT.

MyQ Home Bridge

If you’re lucky, you already have a garage door opener with MyQ support built-in and you can start the process of getting it integrated with HomeKit here. Similarly, if you already had a MyQ Internet Gateway, you’ll be able to replace that with the MyQ Home Bridge. And if you’re like me, you just went through the process of installing a MyQ Garage and now you’re ready to install your second hardware box.

Installation of the MyQ Home Bridge is very similar to the MyQ Garage, using the same style of mounting bracket and then sliding the bridge onto the bracket, plugging it in, and wrapping excess cord around the bracket.

The Chamberlain MyQ app then walks you through setting up the bridge with the MyQ and HomeKit systems. It just takes a few steps, after which you’ll need to reset your MyQ Garage or MyQ-enabled opener to transfer over to connecting through the bridge.

Once that’s done, you’re all set and you can control your garage door through Apple’s Home app or using Siri, or you can continue to use the Chamberlain MyQ app to control the door.

HomeKit integration in iOS 11: Control toggle in Home app (left), Siri control (middle), and scene creation (right)
HomeKit support also means you can include your garage door within scenes in the Home app, such as for making sure your home is secured, lights turned out, and thermostat adjusted at bedtime.

Wrap-up

The MyQ Home Bridge is available from Chamberlain’s website for an introductory price of $49.99, with the price rising to $69.99 at some point in the future. If you need to add on a MyQ Garage, that’s an additional $129.99 from Chamberlain, although some retailers such as Amazon at $99 may have it for less. Regardless, the total is a good chunk of change to lay out if your garage door doesn’t already support MyQ, enough to give me pause about whether it’s worth the expense.

The MyQ app could also use some updating. It generally works just fine, but its lack of large-screen optimization leading to an oversized status bar, keyboard, and date/time pickers is glaring, and there’s really no excuse for not having fully updated the app for the larger screens seen on the vast majority of iPhones bought in the past three years.

I must admit, however, that the garage door is a nice addition to my HomeKit setup, and if my opener was already MyQ-enabled and I only had to spend the $50 for the MyQ Home Bridge, it would be a no-brainer for me. With HomeKit integration and other compatible devices around the house, you can easily set up scenes and triggers involving your garage door opener to maximize your security and convenience. It’s extremely handy to be able to do things like make sure the garage door is closed as part of a “Good Night” scene that also turns off lights and adjusts the thermostat, or turn on other lights in the house when you open the garage door at night.

If you’re going all-in on HomeKit integration and already have a MyQ-enabled garage door, the new MyQ Home Bridge is a worthy purchase. But if you have an older opener that would require installing both a MyQ Garage and a MyQ Home Bridge, I’d probably hold off a bit longer until the announced Smart Home Bridge integrating both functions into a single box becomes available. That should simplify installation and setup and hopefully come in at a cheaper total price than having to purchase two separate hardware boxes.

Note: Chamberlain provided the MyQ Home Bridge and MyQ Garage to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Tags: HomeKit, Chamberlain
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Autonomous Vehicle Startup Zoox Snags 17 Former Apple Automotive Engineers

Seventeen automotive engineers who previously worked for Apple left the company to join self-driving startup Zoox following Apple’s shift away from developing a full autonomous car, reports Bloomberg.

The group of engineers, who originally came to Apple from several Detroit carmakers and suppliers among other automotive companies, are said to specialize in designing hardware like braking and suspension systems.

One of the Lexus SUVs Apple is using to test its self-driving software
Many engineers who were recruited for Apple’s car project left as Apple pivoted away from developing its own autonomous vehicle and instead began work on an autonomous driving system. Under the leadership of Bob Mansfield, the “Project Titan” car team is now developing autonomous software and testing that software out on the road in Lexus SUVs.

The latest exodus to Zoox suggests Apple is less likely to revive ambitions to make a car itself. The engineers found themselves increasingly sidelined and surplus to requirements at Apple, and were hired by the startup in piecemeal fashion in recent months, the people said.

It’s not entirely clear yet what Apple plans to use its autonomous driving software for, but the company is exploring options like self-driving shuttles to ferry its employees from campus to campus as part of further testing. In the future, Apple could partner with a ride-sharing company or a car manufacturer to deploy its software.

Zoox, meanwhile, is working on an a full autonomous car in order to create a fleet of autonomous vehicles. The company has raised more than $250 million and has a valuation of more than $1 billion.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
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Gear Up: Cut the cord with these Anker wireless charging pads

Wireless charging has been around for quite a few years, but has come and gone depending on how the smartphone market is shaped each year. It seems that we’re in a current state of flux as many devices are launching with the ability to wirelessly charge (even the iPhone 8 could have it).

However, part of the problem with wireless charging is that OEM’s hope that you buy the one they released, which is usually priced at more than $50. Thankfully, there are a plethora of different options on the market that will save you a few bucks while making sure you can cut the cables.

If you’ve been following AndroidGuys for awhile, then you’ve likely heard of Anker and its array of reliable accessories for all of your devices. The company was gracious enough to send out not one, but two wireless charging pads so that everyone can get a better idea of what to expect.

Anker Wireless Charger with micro USB

Starting us off today is the standard micro USB wireless charging pad from Anker. The pad features a non-slip grip on the bottom, making it easy for you to stick it on your desk, and use it without worrying about the pad moving all over the place.

Around the edges, you’ll notice a plastic edge, which holds a pretty awesome feature – LED indicators. These LED indicators allow you to know when your device is charging, and they pulsate every 10 seconds just to keep you up-to-date on what’s going on with your phone.

Other than the LED indicators, the best feature of this charging pad may just be how slim and sleek it is. I’ve already packed this in my bag with my on the go so that I can charge my phone at the coffee shop by simply plugging in the charging pad to my laptop.

Now, there is a 10W fast charge mode, but you must be using a Quick Charge wall adapter, which is not included in the box. If you aren’t using Quick Charge, you’ll charge at the standard rate, which is to be expected.

As for pricing, the standard Anker Wireless Charging Pad, you won’t be charged an arm and a leg. Instead, you can hit the button below to snag this for just $19.99 with One-Day Prime shipping!

Buy the Anker Wireless Charging Pad!

Anker Wireless Charger with USB-C

The next wireless charging option we’re going to look at is the Anker Fast Wireless Charger with USB-C. This wireless charging pad includes many of the features of the aforementioned wireless charger, with some slight improvements. First and foremost, this version comes equipped with USB Type-C, which may make some of you out there pretty happy.

Additionally, this wireless charger also includes a LED indicator ring, but thanks to the button located on the bottom, you can easily turn it on or off. Plus, you don’t have to flip it over every time, as you can just push on the edge of the charging pad to activate/deactivate the LEDs.

This option would be better suited for your desk at home or the office, versus being taken on the go. This is due to the fact that it’s a tad bit thicker than the standard wireless charger, measuring in at 0.5 inches, versus the 0.3 inches of its brethren.

By no means is that a knock on this product, it’s just something to make note of if you’re comparing the two head-to-head. But if you do end up using this at your home or office, there is a non-slip ring on the bottom which makes sure that it doesn’t move around while you’re putting your phone on the charger or taking it off.

Now, considering that this charger comes with USB Type-C, the price is a little bit higher than the other option. This wireless charger comes in at $25.99, but also is available with Amazon’s One-Day Prime shipping. So if you’re interested, hit the button below to check it out!

Buy the Anker Wireless Charger with USB Type-C!

Conclusion

Both of these wireless chargers are great options if you happened to be in the market for one, and neither will break the bank. If you are looking to travel, I would recommend the standard Anker wireless charger, but if you’re looking for an option for your home or office, the USB Type-C option would probably be the better choice.

Let us know what you think about these and if you’ll be looking to pick one up for yourself!

Destroy your boredom and battle cars with CATS: Crash Arena Turbo Stars (Review)

Overview:

CATS: Crash Arena Turbo Stars is an action packed fun game where you have to use the skills of the engineer and the designer in you to build the perfect battle machine to defeat the world’s most evil creatures, cats. Both the player and the opponent are cats which might sound cute but is actually savage.

CATS is a physics based classic battle game developed by ZeptoLab which is known for the popular physics based game, Cut the Rope. The game is set in a backyard where cats with powerful vehicles clash with each other and gravity plays a major role here. Even though there is a lot of destruction and violence involved, the game is still ideal for everyone in the family to play because your enemy, is a cat.

Developer: ZeptoLab

Cost: Free (With in app purchases for gems)

Setup:

Before you can start destroying the battle cars of your enemy cats, you have to do the basic setup. This includes giving a nick name for your cat, (mine is Caty) and then connecting your Google Play account to record your scores and achievements. After this initial setup you can dive right into the game. You can also compete against your friends and share your best scores and achievements with them.

CATS has a very simple and a straightforward gameplay much like other robot battle games out there, destroy your opponent. But, unlike those games, you don’t have to keep tapping on your screen to throw away your punches and kicks. Instead, you have to spend some of your time or maybe even some money to build your battle car.

The game requires you to have a basic knowledge about which parts should be used and which of them should be fused together. There are three main parts that make the battle car which include, the body, the wheels and the weapons of mass destruction. You can drag and drop parts to fuse together to upgrade their strength.

Impressions:

CATS is a downright destruction game and once you spend some of your time to create a perfect war machine or battle vehicle you can easily work your way to the top of the champions list. There is a cat which would guide you throughout the game and instructs you what to do on every stage.

The initial stages are somewhat difficult to pass through as your opponent cats would have massive weapons while you only have a basic saw which fails to destroy the battle cars of your enemies 90% of the time. But as you progress through the levels, you will be gaining more gems using which you can either buy new weapons or upgrade the old ones.

Since the game has no manual controls to attack your enemy and it is purely based on gravity, the only way you could defeat your cat opponent is by designing the perfect vehicle. The key to climb up the leader board is to make sure that you fuse together the most powerful weapons and use the right kind of wheels to your body. Small wheels might prevent you from pushing your opponent while large wheels might put you in the danger of getting flipped and ultimately destroyed. So, choose wisely, because the gems are limited.

CATS needs you to complete a specific number of battles to move on to the next level. You can upgrade your components and add new ones at the end of every stage. If you feel like you are losing a lot of gems, you can either make in app purchases or consider betting on live battle games happening in the game arena. You have to bet on a player using a weapon you have and if the player of your choice wins, then you would get bonus points in terms of weapon upgrades.

1 of 3

The graphics of CATS is too good that sometimes it feels like you are watching a trailer of an animated movie when the bet match is being played. The visual effects are also cool with wrappers popping up when you win a bet and cats escaping with the help of parachutes when their vehicles are destroyed. The game developer has kept things as cute as possible and also makes sure that they are quite savage at the same time.

Conclusion:

The final thoughts on CATS is that it aims at keeping the audience engaged and entertained at all times and after destroying a ton of vehicles in the game, I have to say that they have successfully achieved their aim.

If you have some time to spare and would like to spend it by destroying some vehicles of cute little cats, then you can definetly give CATS : Crash Arena Turbo Stars a go. But keep in mind, everything in this game is fictional and you don’t have to hate cats in real life just because they destroyed your vehicle consecutively for the 10th time in the game.

Download CATS : Crash Arena Turbo Stars from the Google Play Store.

Microsoft and Amazon want Cortana and Alexa to talk to each other

Why it matters to you

Want to use Cortana on your Echo, or Alexa on your Windows 10 machine? You’ll soon be able to do just that.

Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana may not be the best of friends, but they’ll soon get to know each other a little better.

On Wednesday, August 30, Amazon and Microsoft announced a partnership that will see the two companies’ AI-powered assistants work together across devices, software, and core services.

In the coming months, you’ll be able to invoke Cortana on Alexa devices with the command, “Alexa, Open Cortana,” and pull up Cortana on Windows 10 computers with, “Cortana, Open Alexa.” But that’s just the start. Eventually, Alexa-powered Echo speakers, smartphone apps, and smartwatches will gain tight integration with Office 365, Outlook, and Exchange, and other Microsoft productivity platforms.

It’s the fruit of a year-long, behind-closed-doors effort, reports the New York Times. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos proposed integrating Alexa and Cortana in May to Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, who was receptive to the idea.

“The personality and expertise of each [assistant] will be such that if they interoperated, the user will get more out of it,” Nadella told the New York Times in a phone interview. “There are going to be multiple successful intelligent agents, each with access to different sets of data with different specialized skill areas,” said Bezos in a statement. “Together, their strengths will complement each other and provide customers with a richer and even more helpful experience.”

The collaboration stands to benefit both companies. Amazon says Alexa has sold millions of Echo devices, which account for an estimated 70 percent of the market for smart speakers. And in August, the retailer announced that developers had contributed more than 20,000 skills, or third-party apps, to the Alexa platform. Those include food-ordering apps like Dominos and Grubhub, ridesharing apps like Lyft and Uber, and smart home platforms like Philips Hue, Logitech Harmony, and Samsung SmartThings.

Microsoft, meanwhile, says that there are 145 million active monthly users of Cortana through its Windows 10 operating system.

But the two incumbents face pressure from rivals like Google and Apple. Google recently launched Google Home, a voice-controlled smart speaker powered by its eponymous Google Assistant, and brought the Google Assistant to tens of millions of Android smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat and newer. And Apple earlier this year unveiled the HomePod, a Siri-equipped home entertainment system that goes on sale in December.

Nadella told the New York Times that he’d welcome Google and Apple’s participation in a cross-voice assistant development effort. “Hopefully, they’ll be inspired by [what we’ve done with Alexa],” Mr. Nadella said. “At least that would be my hope.”