Stream processing for the next generation of apps
Tuesday, September 1, 2020 by Richard Harris
Amazon Alexa can easily play a requested song or tell you the weather, but no one expects her to analyze road and vehicle conditions when providing travel guidance. The reason we expect so little from apps like Alexa (or Siri or Google Home) is because these virtual assistants still use traditional methods of machine learning to respond to simple queries, rather than ac...
Testing solution to make AI more human launches from Applause
Monday, January 13, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly reaching the mainstream. Once the stuff of science fiction, AI is now used to automate many mundane tasks to make our lives easier. And from a business perspective, AI helps brands personalize digital experiences, save money, and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
While the excitement around AI is substantial, one area ...
Alexa will soon be featured on the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8
Friday, September 28, 2018 by Richard Harris
The new Fire HD 8 has been announced by Amazon and comes equipped with always-ready, hands-free access to Alexa. With hands-free mode, Alexa is always ready to respond - Alexa can start a video call with family, play music, launch games, read Audible books, and more. The Fire HD 8 also includes an HD 720p front-facing camera and up to 10 hours of mixed use battery life....
Developers outlook 2018: big technologies, big changes
Tuesday, March 6, 2018 by Jason Thane
In 2018 changes in the technology landscape are creating fantastic opportunities for innovation in design and engineering. For decades, computers featured a TV screen for output, a keyboard for text input, and a mouse to point and click. Just a few years ago, the iPhone transformed everything by putting the first well-designed computer with a touchscreen in our pockets....
Oracle weighs in on chatbots for enterprise developers
Tuesday, December 5, 2017 by Richard Harris
From self-service to instant payments, the chatbot industry has seen great things from the latest advents in the field of AI. That's why we sat down with Oracle to learn more about how with all these new changes in the messaging industry enterprise can see the value that can be attained by adoption.We recently had a conversation with Suhas Uliyar, Vice President, A...
Software testing considerations for voicefirst applications
Saturday, December 2, 2017 by Do Nguyen
The names Alexa and Echo are household names and someday soon, most people will have these devices in their homes, ordering takeout, picking out a song, answering trivia questions. Welcome to the voice-first applications era. Amazon and Google have sold millions of Amazon Alexa and Echo and Google Home devices and 24.5 million voice-first devices are expected to ship be...
Voiceenabled AI smart art is coming for hotels
Friday, September 22, 2017 by Richard Harris
Soundwall and Volara have announced a joint solution that enables hotel guests to make verbal requests of their guest room “smart art” and seamlessly receive the requested service from the hotel. This new enterprise solution is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and other natural language processing platforms and integrates seamlessly into other hotel techno...
The future of the voice enabled AI
Friday, August 25, 2017 by Richard Harris
Eventually everything you own will be commanded with text or voice in the future. But specifically we may see that voice has the advantage over it's counterpart due to a more natural feel and simplicity of use. That is why things like Amazon Alexa are starting to take off. Voice recognition has finally got on par with text, and it’s now much faster to say a command than...
Walmart partners with Google and takes aim at Amazon
Thursday, August 24, 2017 by Richard Harris
Walmart announced a partnership with Google to offer hundreds of thousands of items for voice shopping via Google Assistant - the largest number of items currently offered by a retailer through the platform. One of the primary use cases for voice shopping will be the ability to build a basket of previously purchased everyday essentials.Walmart’s blog post acknowledges h...
IFTTT report shows we love talking to connected devices
Wednesday, July 12, 2017 by Richard Harris
Almost everything is connected, or wants to be. Taking a stroll down the isles of any electronics store and it’s not so much about the device can do by itself anymore, but what it can do online. I can testify personally that 80% of my own home is connected now. My electric source has two amp-clamps on it that report live power usage back to me. Most of our lighting...
Personal Financial Wellness API announced at Digital Banking Summit
Wednesday, June 14, 2017 by Richard Harris
Life and technology are becoming inseparable, with services like Amazon Alexa providing on-demand insights and forward-looking advice through the data we willingly provide to them. When it comes to leveraging that data to guide consumers in achieving financial balance and wellness, however, this type of simple, digital personalized guidance is lacking. This is surprisin...
Wifi vs Bluetooth vs BLE, choosing the right IoT tech
Tuesday, May 16, 2017 by Yuri Brigance
Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices are increasing in popularity and availability - think Amazon Alexa, smart thermostats & light bulbs, Internet-connected garage door openers, GoPro cameras, and so on. One thing these products have in common is that they communicate wirelessly with either a mobile device, the Internet, or both. As these devices become smarter and gene...
New Alexa voice commands now available for many Netgear products
Thursday, March 2, 2017 by Christian Hargrave
NETGEAR, Inc. is introducing support of voice commands for your home WiFi network using Amazon Alexa voice service platform. Your voice can now command NETGEAR Nighthawk routers, Nighthawk DSL modem routers and their Orbi Tri-Band WiFi System.The Amazon Alexa voice service has become a popular command center for smart homes. And now, using the NETGEAR skill for Alexa, y...
Blockchain, IoT, chatbots, and connected finance: Built.io predicts 2017
Saturday, December 31, 2016 by Richard Harris
Blockchain will play an integral role in improving IoT securityIn 2016 we saw multiple hacks and data breaches, including the massive DNS attack that caused widespread internet outages. This latest attack was a wakeup call to start thinking about security in terms of the Internet of Things (IoT). Because of that, in the next year we’ll start to see more securi...
Privacy will be the name of the game in 2017
Thursday, December 22, 2016 by Richard Harris
Editors note: 2017 predictions by Alan Duric, Co-Founder and CTO at Wire
2016 has seen a huge rise in machine learning and connected devices from Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant; to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The world has become truly connected but not without the growing pains that any emerging industry is bound to face.
In Dec...
Pebble Extends Platform to JavaScript Developers with New SDK
Tuesday, August 30, 2016 by Richard Harris
Pebble has announced that it has extended access to its open platform to JavaScript developers to make it easier and faster to create new apps. Developers using Rocky.js can now develop their own apps for Pebble. Along with this firmware update, Pebble also released new features that will enable quicker actions and faster access to the informati...
Built.io Releases New Functionality to its Flow iPaaS Integration Solution
Wednesday, July 13, 2016 by Stuart Parkerson
Built.io has released a number of new features to its Built.io Flow Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) which creates workflows and automates business processes for connected sensors, devices, systems and applications across mobile, web and IoT.Platform enhancements include: - Activity Builder: In addition to thousands of out-of-the-box integrations maintaine...
Pebble Core is Built on Top of Android And Will Integrate Amazon Alexa
Sunday, June 5, 2016 by Stuart Parkerson
Pebble has announced that it has integrated Amazon Alexa with its upcoming Pebble Core wearable, bringing Amazon’s voice services to the 3G-connected wearable device. Pebble Core is the company’s first foray into a non smartwatch wearable device featuring 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, an accelerometer, two programmable buttons, a headphone jack, and a hardware expansio...
