If you’re wondering what happened to Amazon’s new and improved version of its Alexa voice assistant, you’re not alone. Bloomberg reports that the new Alexa is still stuck in its developmental phase and Amazon has cut off access to its beta phase including its new “Let’s Chat” phase. As a result, a planned late 2024 launch has been pushed back to next year. The problem seems to be with its large language models (LLMs). The new Alexa is designed to understand more complicated questions from users but it’s also more likely to fail doing some of the most basic things the old version could do quite easily like create a timer or operate smart lights, according to a follow up report from The Verge. Amazon originally planned to unveil its new version of Alexa AI in October but now the timeline has been extended into next year. (As you might have noticed, October has come and gone.) The original timeline planned to premiere the next evolutionary step in Alexa’s advancement on October 17 but Amazon decided to pivot and used the date to show off its new line of Kindle ereaders. Then in August, news surfaced that the new Alexa would be powered by Anthropic’s Claude AI and come with a monthly subscription fee. As ChatGPT began to rise in popularity in the summer of 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wanted to see if Alexa could compete if it had an AI upgrade. Jassy reportedly started peppering Alexa with sports questions “like an ESPN reporter at a playoff press conference” and its answers... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2024-11-01 21:50:42 UTC ]
This may be one of your best chances of scoring a smart speaker or e-reader before the holiday rush. Amazon is selling multiple recent Echo devices (plus a Kindle reader) at very low prices. To start, the fourth-generation Echo speaker is on sale for just $60 (usually $100), or the same as its... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-10-31 14:22:12 UTC ]
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Thriller author Rachel McLean has won the £20,000 Kindle Storyteller Award for her novel The Corfe Castle Murders after a "record number" of submissions. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-23 09:39:42 UTC ]
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October kicked off with a bunch of good tech deals across the web. All of Apple's wireless earbuds remain on sale at Amazon, so you can pick up the AirPods Pro for $179 or even the standard AirPods with the wireless charging case for $129. The new Beats Studio Buds are $25 off while a couple of... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-10-08 15:30:39 UTC ]
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We’ll get into why Facebook saw its entire business fall off a cliff on Monday, but first: e-readers.It’s a device category we don’t see much development in — probably because it’s very much a device for reading text and not much else. Amazon’s Kindle, thanks to its powerful online e-book store,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-10-06 11:15:08 UTC ]
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Richard Osman’s The Man Who Died Twice (Penguin) has swiped the Bookstat e-book top spot for a third week running, once again charting top for the week ending 2nd October. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-05 18:35:55 UTC ]
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Romance, crime and science fiction novels are among the five shortlisted books for the £20,000 Kindle Storyteller Award, which this year received a record number of submissions. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-29 00:11:05 UTC ]
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This week brought iPhone reviews, new Surface devices and a bunch of tech deals across the web. Apple's MacBook Air M1 returns to the best price we've seen it while the iPad Air remains discounted by $100. Some of our favorite Sennheiser wireless earbuds are $100 off, too, and you can still grab... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-24 15:45:20 UTC ]
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It's fall, and new gadget season has officially begun! This week, Cherlynn and Devindra dive into all of Microsoft's new hardware: The Surface Laptop Studio, Pro 8 and Duo 2. Also, Commerce Editor Valentina Palladino joins to chat about the iPhone 13, 13 Mini and her iPad Mini review. And of... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-24 12:30:45 UTC ]
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As indicated in a leak earlier this week, Amazon is updating the Kindle Paperwhite. The fifth-gen Paperwhite (which marks the first refresh in nearly three years) has a larger, 6.8-inch display, compared with the previous model's six-inch screen. The company says the 300 ppi screen is glare-free... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-21 13:00:32 UTC ]
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Official news came much sooner than expected. On Tuesday, just a day after leaks surfaced on the company’s Canadian and Mexican sites about models with a bigger screen and dramatically more LEDs, Amazon confirmed the launch of three new Kindle Paperwhites. In addition to a successor for the... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2021-09-21 13:00:00 UTC ]
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The waterproof e-reader now comes in three different options, with bigger, brighter screens and faster response times. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2021-09-21 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Victoria Hislop's One August Night (Headline) has climbed 15 places to hit the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction number one spot, as its Kindle price dropped to 99p. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-08 02:00:28 UTC ]
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Amazon is offering discounts on a swathe of Kindles and Fire tablets for Labor Day. While the price cuts might not be quite as hefty as those you'd find on Prime Day, they're still solid, and you'll save around a third on most of the devices. Each version of the Fire 7 tablet, which Amazon says... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-06 14:39:41 UTC ]
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Traveling with young children is like trying to turn a cruise ship: It’s cumbersome, takes a significant amount of planning and requires a team effort. Because I apparently lack any amount of common sense, I recently took a 3,000-mile RV trip with my partner and two toddlers. Traveling with... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-01 12:30:02 UTC ]
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Now might be a good time to buy an e-reader for school — or that end-of-summer vacation. Amazon has cut the price of the ad-supported 8GB Kindle Paperwhite to an all-time low of $71 in a one-day-only sale, well below the official $130 sticker. That's lower than what we saw just two weeks... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-08-29 15:44:54 UTC ]
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The internet was awash with tech deals this week, with some of the best coming from Apple and Amazon. Apple's AirPods Pro dropped to $180 while the MacBook Pro M1 received at $200 discount. Amazon kicked off its "off to college" sale by reducing the prices of its Echo speakers, including the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-08-20 15:50:10 UTC ]
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If your Kindle has ads or “Special Offers” showing onscreen, it’s because you made a deal. You chose to save money on your Kindle’s purchase price by accepting the "Ad-Supported discount (formerly known as the “With Special Offers” discount). It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2021-08-18 22:51:00 UTC ]
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Amazon’s oldest Kindles are being cut off from the internet. But don’t blame Amazon—these e-readers are collateral damage in the phaseout of 2G and 3G cellular service.The first two generations of Kindle e-readers used a cellular antenna to connect to the internet for downloading content.... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2021-08-18 16:45:00 UTC ]
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Reading devices with E-ink displays are an absolute must for hardcore readers. Can you read books using a traditional Android tablet or Apple iPad? Sure, but the screen can cause eyestrain. An E-ink reader, such as Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite, makes reading digital books much more enjoyable --... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2021-08-16 21:49:10 UTC ]
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Last Thursday, with confirmed cases of COVID-19 again rising across the US, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, issued his first advisory since the Biden administration took office: health mis- and disinformation, he said, has prolonged the pandemic, not least by exposing Americans to... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-07-21 12:37:08 UTC ]
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