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.”

To boost efficiency, the UK wants self-driving trucks that slipstream each other

Why it matters to you

Convoys of self-driving trucks will take up less road on the highway and cut down on carbon emissions.

Only 30 years ago, the idea of convoys of self-driving trucks would have been a high concept horror movie setup straight out of the Stephen King playbook. Jump forward to 2017, and the U.K. government has just announced that it is greenlighting a trial of the technology on public roads. How far we’ve come!

The technology involves connecting two or more autonomous trucks together using Wi-Fi-based “vehicle-to-vehicle communication” technology so that they operate as a single unit. It’s not entirely autonomous in the sense of having no human involvement whatsoever. Instead, the lead vehicle is controlled by a human driver, with the other self-driving trucks in the convoy following behind in close pursuit. While the other trucks use autonomous technology in their driving, it is the job of the human driver at the front to control the speed and direction of all the vehicles in the convoy, with the others following his or her lead with zero reaction time.

The rationale behind it is that convoys of multiple trucks will require less space on the highway, can take advantage of the slipstreams created by the lead vehicle to reduce carbon emissions, and will help get the public used to self-driving vehicles.

The $10.5 million trial is scheduled to start sometime in 2018. Prior to that, the trucks and human drivers are being put through their paces using a combination of training courses, simulations, and test track trials.

“The U.K. has an unprecedented opportunity to lead the world in trialing connected vehicle platoons in a real-world environment,” said Rob Wallis, CEO of the Transport Research Foundation (TRL). “TRL and its consortium of leading international partners, have the practical and technical knowledge gained from previous projects to understand what is required to put a connected vehicle platoon onto U.K. roads safely. The team is now taking that expertise and uniquely applying it within live traffic operations.”

With similar tech already tested in Singapore and parts of Europe, TRL’s trials are not a world-first. However, the U.K. trial represents one more step on the road to making self-driving vehicles an everyday technology.

Learn to develop apps for Android Oreo for just $34!

Have you always dreamt of developing your own apps for Android, but simply don’t have the knowledge or the tools needed to get started? And with every new Android release, you feel like you’re just falling further behind in reaching those dreams. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

You need to take advantage of this great offer by from Android Central Digital Offers. You can get the Complete Android Oreo with Kotlin Bundle for just $34 and learn how to develop apps for the latest version of Android. This bundle includes four separate courses with a combined 105 hours of course content spread over 600 online lectures.

Whether you already have a bit of a developer background or are completely fresh to app development, this course (regularly priced at nearly $800) can be yours for 95% off and will jumpstart your progress learning to code for Android using the Kotlin programming language.

The courses included are:

• The Complete Android Oreo Kotlin Developer Course
• The Complete Android Oreo App Development Course
• The Android Oreo & Java Developer Mastery Course
• The Complete Kotlin Developer Masterclass: Build Kotlin Apps

You get access to all these courses for life, so you can work through and refer back to them as needed as you learn. But this deal is only available for a limited time so make sure you buy soon!

See at Android Central Digital Offers

Google Assistant is making its way to third-party speakers and appliances

Google Assistant is coming to a lot of third-party devices later this year.

Amazon opened up Alexa to third-party developers last year, resulting in a series of products powered by the retailer’s digital assistant. Google followed suit earlier this year by making the Google Assistant SDK available to developers, and we’re now starting to see the first thrid-party products powered by Google Assistant.

At IFA, the company is showcasing three speakers powered by the digital assistant and is announcing integration with LG’s home appliances, including washing machines, dryers, and vacuums.

First up is Anker’s Zolo Mojo, a cylindrical speaker with two microphones. The $70 speaker looks like a miniaturized version of Google Home, with a set of touch-sensitive controls at the top. Anker sub-brand Eufy recently launched a $35 Alexa-powered speaker called the Genie, so it’s not surprising to see the company roll out a device powered by Assistant. The Zolo Mojo will be up for sale in late October.

Assistant will also be making its way to Mobvoi’s TicHome Mini — which was announced back in May — and Panasonic’s SC-GA10. Panasonic’s offering has two 20mm soft dome tweeters and an 8cm woofer, and is set to deliver Hi-Fi audio. The SC-GA10 will make its debut in early 2018.

Google says that availability will vary based on the device, but most speakers should be up for sale later this year in the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, Germany and France.

Google is also partnering with the likes of LG to integrate Assistant with the company’s home appliances. With the integration, you’ll be able to control LG’s vacuums, washers, or dryers by issuing voice commands via an Assistant-powered device — an Android phone, smart speaker, or the iPhone. For instance, you can say, “Ok Google, start vacuuming” to get your LG vacuum to start cleaning the house.

More devices powered by Assistant will be announced over the course of this week, so keep it locked to Android Central for all the details.

Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro hands-on: Simple improvements to one of the best fitness trackers

Don’t mess with a good thing.

Though it didn’t get as much fanfare as the Gear S2 and S3 in the last two years, the Gear Fit 2 was quietly one of the best all-around fitness trackers available since it was introduced in mid-2016. It wasn’t nearly as big as the smartwatches out there, yet it did many of the core smartwatch functions while also being a fully-featured fitness wearable.

Now for the end of 2017 Samsung is giving it a face-lift, moving to the new name of Gear Fit 2 Pro and adding a few subtle tweaks that make it even better without taking away any of the features that made the first iteration so great.

Sams solid design, now with a better strap.

When it comes to the core size and shape, the Gear Fit 2 Pro is understandably near-identical to its predecessor. The only two noticeable additions are the option of a red-backed color option and a design overhaul of the included straps. The straps now come together with a more traditional watch-like clasp, which is now extra-secure and fixes what was arguably the only design problem with the original version.

The other hardware change, which you can’t see, is the upgrade to 5 ATM water-resistance and salt water resistance, which will let you take the Fit 2 Pro pretty much anywhere you’d want to swim (up to 50 meters down) and not worry about it. Naturally that also means you’ll never have to worry about the Fit 2 Pro being damaged in the rain. To accompany the upgraded hardware there’s new swim tracking software, which comes from a partnership with Speedo.

Gear Fit 2 Pro specs

New partnerships mean you can track into your favorite platform — not just Samsung.

Software-wise, things are pretty much unchanged from the Gear Fit 2 — but that isn’t an issue. It still handles the basics of what most smartwatches can do in terms of notifications, timers, etc. — but is clearly mostly focused on fitness tracking. There’s deep integration with Samsung Health, of course, but Samsung is also opening things up to partner apps from Under Armour to get top-level integration. That means you can synchronize and feed data into MapMyRun, MyFitnessPal and UA Record just as you would with Samsung Health. That’s a big deal for someone who may be getting the Fit 2 Pro as their first Samsung wearable with a previously built-up activity database in another app.

When it comes to activity tracking Samsung has tweaked the software slightly to enable continuous all-day heart rate monitoring, as well as improve its workout detection so that it can start up dynamic workouts with full heart rate tracking without any user intervention. Standalone GPS for outdoor run tracking is of course still here as well.

Even though Samsung didn’t change much with the Gear Fit 2 Pro, that doesn’t reduce just how great of a fitness tracker it is. It’s thin, light, unassuming and smartly designed, but now with a much improved band that will keep it on your wrist in any type of activity. The addition of new water resistance levels and proper swim tracking opens up a new segment of the fitness market, as does the deep integration with the Under Armour suite of apps — you no longer have to get your data tied into the Samsung ecosystem if you don’t want. And it still offers some basic smart-watch like features, making it a good option for people who want a fitness tracker that can do a little more.

Unlike the Gear Sport watch, the Gear Fit 2 Pro has pricing and release information available right away. Pre-orders start on August 31, and it’ll hit retail channels just a couple weeks later on September 15. The price is also attractive for this kind of middle-ground convergent device: just $199, putting it $100 lower than the Gear S3 smartwatch and also $70 less than Apple’s lowest-end Watch.

Samsung Gear Sport hands-on: The Gear S2 refresh we all wanted

We really needed that ‘in between’ smartwatch again.

When Samsung released the Gear S3 Frontier and Classic, it made the watches substantially larger than the original Gear S2. And in doing so, the Gear S3 lineup kind of lost a lot of its appeal to those who wanted a fitness-oriented smartwatch rather than a general-purpose one. To remedy the situation, Samsung is releasing the Gear Sport: a smartwatch that has its eyes set on fitness and activity, returning to a comfortable size and weight in the process.

Even though the Gear S3 Frontier and Classic are a year old now, Samsung isn’t replacing them with the Gear Sport. The new watch actually just replaces the Gear S2, which Samsung was continuing to sell as a smaller, cheaper option to the chunky Gear S3s. Samsung still sees the Gear S3 as the flagship watch with all of the bells and whistles, while the Gear Sport is focused on activity tracking in its design and scaled-back set of features.

The Gear Sport is more or less the same size and weight as the Gear S2, but with the general styling of the Gear S3 Frontier. It has a 1.2-inch circular (360×360 resolution) screen surrounded by a 42.9 x 44.6 mm casing that weighs 50 grams without a band on it. It keeps the side buttons and rotating bezel, which quickly becomes second nature when navigating through the Tizen wearable experience.

Gear Sport specs

The case is a combination of a couple different textures applied to the 316L stainless steel, paired up with a plastic back that holds the heart rate monitor. It comes in two colors, nominally called black and blue, but the “black” is more of a gunmetal finish like the Gear S3 Frontier and the blue is so dark in some lighting it just looks the same as the black one. I expect most people will just opt for the black to keep it classic-looking.

The Gear Sport is extremely light and doesn’t feel bulky like the Gear S3 does, which is precisely the idea for a watch that’s designed to not get in your way when you’re on a run or a swim. The smartwatch is designed to be worn all day, though, and that’s why Samsung is highlighting its ability to straddle the look of both a fitness device and also a classier watch. With a swap of the bands and watch face the Gear Sport can definitely change personalities, and because it has the same full operating system of the Gear S3 it’s capable of handling all of the typical smartwatch tasks we want.

A smaller, lighter smartwatch that can go with you everywhere.

Samsung has new partnerships for app integrations from Under Armour and Speedo. The former brings Under Armour Record as well as the super-popular MapMyRun and MyFitnessPal for tracking both activity and food intake. Samsung Health is still alive and well, but if you want to use the Gear Sport purely to feed into another fitness platform you may already use, that’s now a top-level choice.

With its reduced size, the Gear Sport does lose a couple of things when compared to the Gear S3. It has a smaller battery to match its smaller screen, and also doesn’t have an LTE connectivity option. It has Samsung Pay, but only via NFC and not the industry-leading MST tech that allows you to pay at any card swipe-style terminal. Those are small prices to pay for most people considering how much more compact and manageable the Gear Sport is in comparison to its larger sibling.

For all of the people who just couldn’t handle the size of the Gear S3, or wanted a bit more of a full-featured smartwatch without giving up the sport tracking abilities of the Gear Fit 2, the Gear Sport looks to offer a very happy middle ground. It does a nice job of giving you all of the fitness tracking capabilities you could want, plus the general watch-like form factor that can stay on your wrist without looking out of place with a variety of clothing.

Samsung unfortunately isn’t talking about pricing or a specific release date for the Gear Sport yet, simply saying we’ll know more around the holidays. Considering that the Gear S3 starts at about $299 for the Classic version, and the last-gen Gear S2 is still on sale (for the moment) at about $200, we can expect the Gear Sport to split the difference around $250.

Samsung refreshes fitness-focused wearables with Gear Fit 2 Pro, Gear Sport and Gear IconX 2018

It’s a product portfolio that was in need of updating.

Samsung is taking to IFA 2017 in Berlin to refresh its fitness wearable lineup, with an improved version of the Gear Fit 2, refreshed Gear IconX earbuds and an all-new Gear Sport smartwatch. The naming is not subtle: Gear Fit 2 Pro, Gear Sport, and Gear IconX 2018.

The new set of wearables is all about building on what Samsung has already done in this market, with each product effectively just improving on a previous one rather than creating a whole new segment. Here’s what you can expect from the three of them when they hit stores later this year.

Improvements in all of the right places.

The Gear Fit 2 Pro, as was initially leaked, is a general update to the current Gear Fit 2 that was released back in mid-2016. It offers the same basic size and shape, walking the line between a smartwatch and a fitness-only wearable. The bands have been updated to be a bit more durable, with a proper watch-style clasp to keep it tight on your wrist. That’s important because the Fit 2 Pro is water-resistant up to 5 atmospheres — or about 50 meters — including salt water, and is now designed to track swimming as well as any other activity.

More: Gear Fit 2 Pro hands-on

The software experience remains effectively unchanged, aside from some new partnerships with Under Armour and Speedo to use the Gear Fit 2 Pro with all of those partner services. The Fit 2 Pro can also now track heart rate constantly throughout the day, including when a workout starts automatically from detected movement.

The Gear S2 refresh we all wanted to see.

On to smartwatches. The Gear Sport is an altogether new product that effectively takes the place of the Gear S2 line while leaving the top-end of Samsung’s wearables to the Gear S3. The new Gear Sport takes on many of the Gear S3 Frontier’s styling cues, but puts them in the same basic shape and size of the Gear S2 — with the same-sized 1.2-inch circular display.

More: Samsung Gear Sport hands-on

The Gear S2 offers the same automatic fitness tracking, GPS, and 5 ATM water-resistance as the Gear Fit 2 Pro, but with a full-featured smartwatch operating system that’s identical in capabilities to the Gear S3. There’s no cellular data option, and the battery is of course smaller, but then again it’s also much lighter and actually suited to use during fitness in ways the Gear S3 wasn’t. It also offers Samsung Pay, but only via NFC and not MST like the Gear S3 (and Galaxy S6 through Galaxy S8).

The one thing we needed in the IconX: more battery life.

Last but not least, Samsung has also updated its all-wireless Gear IconX headphones, which haven’t changed much in terms of form factor but have improved significantly in practicality. Samsung focused on battery life with this update — simply called “Gear IconX 2018” — and now quotes a full 7 hours of standalone music playback, or 5 hours of playback over bluetooth; those are numbers that easily triple the battery life of the original version. The earbuds still nestle into a case to receive a full charge without going to a wall socket, and the charger now has faster charging tech as well — Samsung quotes being able to get 1 hour of usage out of the new IconX buds with just 10 minutes of charging.

As for availability and pricing, Samsung is unfortunately only announcing details for the Gear Fit 2 Pro. The refreshed fitness-focused band will hit stores for $199 (or regional equivalent) and be up for pre-order right away on Aug. 31, with a full retail launch on Sept. 15. As for the Gear Sport watch and Gear IconX 2018, we’ll have to wait for the holiday season before Samsung drops any more info on us.

Samsung has new Gear to keep you Fit: MrMobile hands on

Samsung’s Gear Sport, Gear Fit2 Pro, and Icon X are all variations of designs we’ve seen before. The Gear Sport is an evolution of the Gear S3 Frontier, Samsung’s outdoor smartwatch I reviewed last year. I didn’t get as close a look at the Gear Fit2 or the Icon X earbuds – but maybe that’s just as well, given how much the newer models improve upon their forebears. With MIL-STD 810G durability and 5ATM water resistance the Gear Sport and Fit2 Pro bring a strong outdoor game, while the 2018 revision of the Icon X earbuds improves battery life many times over. All that’s pretty exciting stuff even for a non-athlete such as myself – and to hear Samsung tell it, that’s kind of the whole idea.

Click on through to the video above to catch MrMobile going hands-on with the Samsung Gear Sport, Gear Fit2 Pro, and Icon X 2018! Then be sure to check out Android Central’s own in-depth coverage, and stay tuned for much more mobile tech coming out of Berlin as IFA 2017 rolls on!

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This $130 Brother monochrome printer does it all and does it fast

Brother makes some awesome printers, and this is one of the fastest models going for one of its lowest prices!

The Brother MFC-L2740DW monochrome all-in-one printer is down to $129.99 refurbished. This is the lowest price ever on this printer, refurb or not. It normally sells for $170, and it has dropped as low as $150.

New versions of this same model of printer sell as high as $200 or more at Amazon and Newegg.

This printer can do it all with duplex printing, scanning, copying, and even faxing for you fans of the 1980s. This particular model is one of Brother’s fastest, and it can print up to 32 pieces of paper a minute. That’s great for heavy loads for school, work, or even something like tax forms. It has a 2.7-inch touchscreen with easy-to-navigate menus.

My favorite feature of the Brother printer I own is how easy it is to print from mobile devices, which requires minimum setup to accomplish.

Brother offers a one-year warranty.

Being a monochrome printer already means it will go through less ink than a color printer, but even so this printer is compatible with Amazon’s Dash replenishment program that will automatically order toner when it runs low (if you want it to). You can add one of these Hammermill Dash buttons to the side of it so you can easily re-order paper, too.

See at Amazon

More from Thrifter:

• How to avoid baggage fees
• The Best Amazon Sample Boxes

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Keep some Texan pride on your home screen with these wallpapers

Texas is a big state with a big heart.

We believe in helping our neighbors, in opening our doors and our hearts to anyone in need. We believe that we are stronger together, and in times like these, we know that our fellow Texans will band together to help. Whether you call the Lone Star state home or not, whether you’ve ever sampled the amazing cuisine at Port Aransas or dreamed of the stars at Space Center Houston, everyone has Texas in their hearts, minds, and you should have Texan beauty on your home screen, too.

Also, please donate to the Red Cross now and consider donating to the rebuilding effort that will take years.

I’m not gonna say it. I’m not gonna say it. I’m not gonna say it.

Houston’s most famous and misquoted phrase is certainly apt this week, and thankfully, Space Center Houston hasn’t been hit as hard as many other parts of the city. NASA’s got a little cleanup to do, but thankfully one of Houston’s most famous attractions will be open again before too long. This wallpaper comes from when the Space Shuttle Endeavour was flown over Houston in 2012, and it’s a beautiful sight to see the shuttle over a city that means so much to and has gotten so much from the space program.

Endeavour over Houston by NASA

Keep Calm and Carry on may be a British propaganda poster, but Texas is a cultural melting pot and we take our memes from all sides. Houston, in particular, receives more refugees that some entire states, and has a vibrant multi-ethnic and LGBTQ community, and from queso to kolaches, we bask in the food and beauty of all cultures that contribute to our state. This wallpaper is also helpful because as chaotic as things have been in the last week, we could all use a reminder to breathe in, breathe out, and maybe go get a sweet tea from Sonic Happy Hour, because it’s going to be a long, humid day.

Keep Calm and Love Texas

Trey Ratcliff, the truly awesome photographer whose photographs have graced your Chromecasts for years, is a Texan, and while he has many, many pieces from his photo-hunting around the state, this is one of my favorite Texas pieces from him. Dallas as a city is seen as massive urban sprawl. Heck, our airport alone is bigger than Manhattan, but this doesn’t mean our city is an urban jungle of concrete. This wallpaper beautifully juxtaposes the skyward spires of downtown with the colorful serenity of a flower garden and it makes me want to stop and smell the flowers more than an embankment of bluebonnets.

Dallas, Texas by Trey Ratcliff

Texas is home to a mind-boggling amount of good food, and Houston alone can make a foodie weep tears of ecstasy… and barbecue sauce, because man does Houston love her some ‘cue! Harlem Road Texas BBQ calls Houston-area Richmond home, and while they’re not open to guests yet, they are whipping up their best barbecue for first responders as they tend to the city and its people, which makes them more than just damn good barbecue masters: it makes them damn good Texans.

Harlem Road Texas BBQ

People say sunsets and sunrises are beautiful everywhere, but they’re bigger and better in Texas. I mean just look at that! Highway and natural wonder as far as the eye can see! Tell me that doesn’t make your heart soar. The rest of the day of driving across Texas might be a little less fun, but we can’t help it if driving across our state takes hours and hours and hours. We can only put the speed limit so high, after all.

Texas Sunrise by Curtis Simmons