Alexa can now lock your BMW and feed it directions
Remember when James Bond drove his BMW in a parking garage from the back seat by remote control? Yeah, the automaker’s latest Connected app won’t do that. But, it’ll at least make you feel like “007 lite” with Alexa, Apple Watch 2 and Android support. The Alexa integration is the most fun, letting you use voice commands with an Echo or Echo Dot to lock your vehicle’s doors, load up a scheduled trip and check battery and fuel levels.
BMW isn’t the first automaker with an Alexa skill. Hyundai already offers the service with its luxury Genesis brand, and Ford will support it by year’s end. Ford’s service will offer a few more features, letting you start your car with voice commands, communicate with your smart home and use the AppLink service to talk to Alexa while you’re in the car. It will only work on three of Ford’s models, however: the Focus Electric, Fusion Energi and C-Max Energi, according to Reuters.
With BMW’s latest iOS version, you can use your Apple Watch Series 2 to check driving times based on current traffic or see a navigation map without pulling out your smartphone. As with the Alexa, you can use the wearable to lock your doors and check vehicle parameters from the comfort of your couch.
Finally, the company finally launched an Android app with similar features to the iOS version. Those include walking directions to your car’s parking spot, departure notifications based on your appointments and traffic, and the ability to set points of interest. New features include EV charger searches filtered by the type of charging and payment method you prefer, and a smartphone battery-conserving mode. You can now download the iOS and Android apps via BMW’s site, or by enabling the Alexa skill and linking your BMW account.
Via: BMW Blog
Source: BMW
Amazon makes food delivery cheaper for Prime members
Amazon has cut the price of an AmazonFresh membership down to just $14.99 a month as long as you also subscribe to Prime. For that, you’ll be entitled to unlimited grocery deliveries in the locations where the service operates, including Boston, Seattle and San Francisco. It makes the business effectively a bolt-on for Amazon’s paid tier which has developed substantially in the last few years. Users will be able to save almost $120 with the new charges compared to its predecessor, which was a $299 flat rate for a whole year. That should help beat back competition from traditional retailers like Walmart and Target, who are trying to catch up on this whole tech-based delivery lark from a standing start.
Unlimited grocery delivery just got even easier! #AmazonFresh is now $14.99/month, exclusively for Prime members: https://t.co/D00Pf3qaxy pic.twitter.com/BygThOn2IG
— Amazon (@amazon) October 5, 2016
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Amazon
Amazon’s rumored Echo streaming music service may be coming soon
Amazon has offered a very basic streaming music service for a few years now, but it looks like the company is nearly ready to significantly revamp its offerings. An Echo-only streaming music option may be coming in the next few weeks, claims a report from The Verge — and a full-fledged Spotify competitor that isn’t tied to the Echo might be available in early 2017. The Echo-only service would cost $5 a month, while the more expensive $10 per month option would work across any device.
A second report today from AFTVnews contains info showing the service may be known as Amazon Music Unlimited, a boring but logical name. The publication found an Amazon Music Unlimited banner and ad inside the Amazon music app on the Fire TV.
Amazon’s new music offerings have been rumored for a while now — in June, it was first reported that the company was working on its full-fledged competitor to Spotify and Apple Music, coming in at the same $10 per month price point as most other services. Then, in August, the first rumor of an Echo-only service popped up. It seems Amazon originally wanted both services to launch simultaneously, but — as is often the case — it sounds like talks with the music labels is slowing things down.
Amazon has found success with its streaming video service which is bundled into Amazon Prime (like its current music service) , but getting a foothold in the increasingly competitive and cutthroat music landscape is far from a done deal. Android and iOS smartphones both offer a built-in streaming music service, and Spotify of course works on just about any device out there. What Amazon will offer here to stand out remains to be seen, but more competition is rarely a bad thing.
Source: The Verge, AFTVnews
Amazon picks up ‘Lore’ TV series
Though comic conventions might traditionally be the domain of superheroes and space epics, Amazon Studios used its New York Comic Con panel today to announce that Amazon Prime will be the home of the upcoming Lore TV series, based on the popular nonfiction podcast of the same name. Producer Gale Anne Hurd and program creator Aaron Mahnke were on hand to talk about the show, set to debut on Amazon Prime in early 2017.
Gale Anne Hurd and Doug Mahnke
As announced back in April, the show will be a mixed-media program, using narration and some re-enactments to delve into the background of various popular myths and legends. Hurd further elaborated on this premise, stating that the team is currently in talks with various documentary makers to contribute work to the show. But there’s also still going to be a fictional flair to the series, as they’ve enlisted the help of X-Files alum Glen Morgan — Mahnke specifically name-checked classic creepfest episode “Home” as an inspiration.
I’m super excited to announce that the TV version of Lore will be an original production from Amazon Video.
— Lore Podcast (@lorepodcast) October 6, 2016
Graham Yost, Giovanni Ribisi, Barry Josephson, Ben Edlund and moderator Jamie Hector
Also in attendance at the panel were Sneaky Pete writer and producer Graham Yost and star Giovanni Ribisi, as well as Ben Edlund and Barry Josephson of the recently-greenlit Tick live-action TV series. Edlund hinted that a big part of the upcoming season of his show will involve a government organization that oversees superheroic activity, and that the writers are looking to build a “superhero comedic universe you can invest in and care about.”
Sneaky Pete and The Tick will also debut on Amazon Prime next year.
Blue Origin successfully tests its crew escape system
Blue Origin’s escape system test went by without a hitch. Jeff Bezos’ private spaceflight outfit successfully ejected the crew capsule from the New Shepherd rocket about 45 seconds after launch, shooting it away at about 400MPH before parachutes carried it safely to Earth. On top of this, Blue Origin landed New Shepherd again — there were worries that the capsule’s rocket would damage the booster and prevent it from landing safely. You can watch it yourself below, starting at the 1:05:58 mark.
This should be the last time you see this New Shepherd rocket in action, since Bezos said he would put it in a museum if it made the landing. It certainly has quite the storied (if brief) history: it’s the first reusable rocket to visit space and safely land, and also the first to actually see reuse. It managed the feat five times before retirement.
It’s a sharp contrast to what we’ve seen with rivals like SpaceX. Elon Musk’s company has yet to reuse a rocket, but it’s the only one of the two firms to have delivered honest-to-goodness payloads into space, or to manage sea landings. Blue Origin simply isn’t interested in cargo runs, though. It’s focused on manned flights, and space tourism in particular (service could start in 2018) — it may have have a narrower scope, but it’s making more progress within that scope.
Source: Blue Origin (YouTube)
Amazon’s latest Prime perk is free books and magazines
While members of the Amazon Prime club get all kinds of benefits with their subscription, bookworms don’t receive a great deal of special treatment. Sure, they can borrow one e-book for free each month and access new novels early, but the all-you-can-read Kindle Unlimited service requires a separate, $10 per month subscription of its own. That isn’t changing today, but Amazon has just announced something of a light version of Unlimited called Prime Reading, which is now available to Prime subscribers in the US.
Prime Reading lets members access over a thousand “popular” books for free, from The Hobbit to Lonely Planet guides, as well as full issues of well-known magazines, comics and short works from the Kindle Singles catalog (including Classics). The carousel of content will rotate too, so you should find new things added to the Prime Reading list fairly often. With winter fast approaching, it’s time to get your neglected e-reader recharged, the fire stoked and some free stuff downloaded.
Source: Amazon
ComiXology Originals are precisely what they sound like
Taking an, ahem, page from Netflix and parent company Amazon, Comixology is working on its own line of original, exclusive comics, aptly named comiXology Originals. And they don’t seem priced too far out of line against offerings from Marvel and DC. When Adventure Time Marshall Lee Spectacular and the four-part Valiant High arrive they’ll run $3.99 each. Marley’s Ghost (a graphic novel take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol) will set you back $9.99, according to The New York Times.
“We want to make sure there is a comic for everyone,” co-founder and CEO of the service tells NYT. “If it’s super successful and becomes its own thing, hallelujah. But we’ll continue to experiment to attract new readers and hit the core [user].”
TechCrunch writes that you can pre-order these right now, with Adventure Time and Valiant High coming out next January and Marley’s Ghost next October 15th. Presumably, they’ll be available via the all-you-can-read Unlimited subscription.
Via: The Verge
Source: New York Times
With Assistant, Google is becoming a lot more like Apple
Google may have finally taken control of its hardware with the new Pixel phones, but the company’s still focusing on software. In particular: artificial intelligence. The AI-powered Assistant is an integral part of its new phones, Allo messaging app and smart speaker, making for a more uniform and useful experience across all of Google’s (and other brands’) devices. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Apple brought Siri to multiple platforms first.
Assistant brings voice control to the new Google Home smart speaker, in addition to the new Pixels, and lets you control your Chromecast playback with your voice. The goal, said the company’s CEO Sundar Pichai, is to make Assistant “universally available.” This means we can look forward to more integrations across other Google products, possibly including Chromebooks and Android wearables.
Imagine a not-unlikely future where you can use Assistant on your wrist to tell your Chromecast to pause Netflix when you go to the bathroom. You could even get rid of those Netflix socks altogether. Since Android Wear already offers built-in OK Google capability, it’s not a stretch to imagine that being supplanted by Assistant. Again, that’s similar to what Apple already allows for with Siri on Apple Watches and MacBooks. And just as Google is bringing its Android OS to televisions and (possibly) laptops, Apple has software that is the same (or very similar) across its TV, phone and tablet operating systems. It’s one platform for all devices.
The iPhone maker has long been criticized for its closed ecosystem, as Google has been hailed as a crusader for open platforms. But while Android remains an open OS, Assistant’s rollout is reminiscent of other Apple tools such as HealthKit and HomeKit, where developers get access to APIs a period of time after launch. Of course, Google doesn’t appear to have the intention of blocking access to Assistant’s code, and unlike with HealthKit and HomeKit you can build Assistant into your own hardware. But it’s worth noting that it’s implementing features in a way that’s more like its rival.
I’d be remiss if I overlooked the couple other players in the digital assistant space. Microsoft is making Cortana accessible and uniform across its phones and desktops, but it doesn’t have the breadth across product categories to take on Google and Apple. And although Amazon’s Alexa currently doesn’t exist in phones or laptops, it’s in a variety of speakers (Echo and Tap), the Fire TV and third party devices like this quirky smartwatch, and is catching up to Siri in what it can do and control.
Google’s method has one glowing difference that sets it apart: its approach to and expertise in artificial intelligence. The Assistant showcase comes after a slew of announcements about machine learning, including those around translations and image recognition, that evidence the tech giant’s commitment to AI. And while Microsoft and Amazon themselves have pretty advanced artificial intelligence, and are farther along there than Apple, Google’s history of being the world’s favorite search engine (and basically being in everyone’s business) provides a wealth of knowledge of user behavior and gives it quite the edge. It has more historical data to refer to and more information to train its machine-learning systems on, which should make it smarter, faster.
Pichai said the company intends to create a “personal Google” for everyone — a search engine-powered helper that knows exactly where all your pictures, receipts and emails are, as well as all of your upcoming events and their locations and how to get there. Although it may be later to the party than Apple was, the popularity and proliferation of Google’s services, as well as its AI prowess, could very well make Assistant the digital helper of choice.
Amazon bans reviews posted in exchange for free products
Amazon has banned “incentivized reviews” done in exchange for free products after a large study showed that they’re biased. In a blog post, the retail giant said that it has updated its terms of service to ban the practice, while making an exception for its own Vine program.
Amazon doesn’t allow paid reviews, and has sued both providers and individuals that offer them. Until now, however, it has allowed reviews done in exchange for the product being rated, provided that reviewers add a disclaimer. Incentivized users are certainly prolific, writing an average of 232 reviews compared to just 31 for regular Amazon buyers.
The change was likely motivated by research done by ReviewMeta, as Techcrunch points out. The study of 7 million reviews, detailed in an article and video (below), found that the average review from incentivized users is much higher (4.74 stars) than a regular review (4.36 stars). Incentivized reviewers were also 12 times less likely to leave a one-star review, and gave overall positive reviews four times more often.
ReviewMeta says it noticed that consumers were becoming more distrustful of incentivized reviews and wanted to see if that they had reason to be. It also noticed that the problem has increased at an “alarming” rate. “Two years ago, incentivized reviews accounted for less than two percent of new reviews. Since February of this year, they make up the majority of all new reviews on Amazon,” it notes.
Incentivized reviews will only be allowed from now on if they come from Amazon’s Vine program. In that case, “Amazon — not the vendor or seller — identifies and invites trusted and helpful reviewers on Amazon to post opinions about new and pre-release products,” Customer Experience VP Chee Chew wrote. “We do not incentivize positive star ratings, attempt to influence the content of reviews, or even require a review to be written.”
Amazon told Techcrunch that it will retroactively pull reviews that are clearly “excessive,” but will still leave many others up. Hopefully, it will strike all the ratings from users like “Amazon Lover,” who has written 4,368 out of 4,379 hyperbole-laden five-star reviews (including those shown in the image, above) since March 23rd, 2015.
Via: Techcrunch
Source: Amazon
Google hires Amazon exec to develop its new phones
Google has hired one of the key personnel in Amazon’s hardware division, according to The Information. The Big G has apparently signed up David Foster (no, not the composer) to head up the development of its Pixel phones and fill a new position in the company. He’s now Google’s vice president of product engineering, underlining Mountain View’s bigger focus on hardware going forward. Foster was with Amazon for five years, leading hardware development of the Echo speakers, the Kindle Paperwhite and Voyage, among other devices at Lab126.
That laboratory, as you might know, is Amazon’s formerly secret hardware facility, which was originally formed to create the Kindle e-readers. It eventually spawned not just the Echo speakers, but also the company’s other devices, such as the Dash buttons, Fire tablets, TV and even the late Fire phone. The last one turned out to be a huge flop — Amazon kept slashing its prices for a year in an effort to move stocks before killing the product altogether. Due to its failure, the company decided to shelve its sequel and several other projects in the pipeline.
Before Amazon, Foster worked on hardware for Microsoft, helping create the Zune HD. He was also with Apple for five years, developing hardware components for its devices. It’s not clear what role he played in creating the Pixel phones Google is expected to reveal tomorrow. But the company’s future devices will have his fingerprints all over them.
Google just hired a key Amazon Lab 126 hardware guy to lead development of the Pixel phones you’ll see tomorrow. https://t.co/ohmQ9qi8VA
— Amir Efrati (@amir) October 4, 2016
Source: The Information
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