Tag: Alexa

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Amazon will continue laying off employees into the new year

Nov 22, 2019 Palo Alto / CA / USA – Close up of Amazon logo and Smile symbol at one of their corporate offices located in Silicon Valley, San Francisco bay area

Amazon will eliminate more roles in the new year, the company’s CEO told employees.

The company hasn’t finalized how many employees the layoffs will impact and what departments they come from, Andy Jassy said in a November 17th memo posted on the company’s website.

Layoffs in the devices and books departments have already occurred, with Canadians being among those impacted. The company confirms that future layoffs will impact its Stores and People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organizations.

“This year’s review is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and we’ve hired rapidly the last several years,” Jassy said.

Reports indicated the job cuts could impact as many as 10,000 employees.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Amazon

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon cuts employees working on Alexa, other devices and services

Amazon has begun to lay off employees with cuts in its devices and services organization.

In an internal letter posted to the company’s website, Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services, said impacted employees were notified of their dismissal on November 15th.

Limp blames the cuts on “an unusual and uncertain macroeconomic environment.”

Some of the impacted employees are based in Canada.

The same reasoning was used by various other tech giants for their layoffs. Meta began laying off 13 percent of its workforce last week. Shopify laid off 1,000 employees in July.

Limp’s letter says if the impacted employees can’t find another role in the company, they will be given separation payment and transitional benefits.

Despite the layoffs, the company says it will continue to invest in the department.

“I do want to emphasize that the devices & services organization remains an important area of investment for Amazon, and we will continue to invent on behalf of our customers,” Limp wrote.

It’s not clear how many employees have been impacted by the recent layoffs, as more cuts are expected soon. The company is expected to trim its workforce by 10,000 employees in its devices, retail, and human resources department.

Source: Amazon

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon’s Alexa writer’s room is where jokes go to die

After writing about Palmer Lucky’s lunatic attempts to recreate Sword Art Online, I thought I was done with the dystopic blog posts today, but alas, Amazon exists.

The Bezos-owned company published a blog post about how the Alexa personality team develops jokes and songs for the virtual assistant. I’ve likely read too many press releases over the years, but there’s just something about how random this one is that makes it a parody of itself.

The concept of the article seems to be written with the dull tone of any other fundamental PR pitch, but with jokes as the concept instead of some Amazon coding incentive. This means we get gems like this throughout, “Jokes that meet a high bar push to production,” and “a Friday afternoon joke review session.”

At first glance, this seems like a fun job, but the more I think about being stuck on the Amazon campus writing jokes for a robot, the more that ideal fills me with a fear I can’t describe.

And to top it all off, the company is even selling a joke book with 99 Alexa jokes and asks you if this blog post has improved your view of Amazon at the end of the post. If you’ve got to ask, the answer is no.

Overall, it’s just funny to think that Amazon is paying a team of engineers to”write” jokes and feed them into a machine that’s about as entertaining as a seven-year-old with a copy of 99 The Funniest Joke Book Ever!

MobileSyrup utilizes Amazon affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though MobileSyrup may earn a commission on purchases made via these links.

A few Alexa joke samples I got when I asked for jokes (not edited)

“A lot of people ask me if they’d look good with facial hair. If you mustache the question, the answer is no.”

“How many soccer players does it take to change a light bulb? I’m not sure, but it would be a lot less if they could use their hands.”

“What do you call a store that sells only bagels and donuts? Hole foods.”

(This was actually presented again)”A lot of people also me if they’d look good with facial hair. If you mustache the question, the answer is no.”

“What’s the Easter Bunny’s favourite kind of music? Hip Hop!”

“What has two wings, a tail and breaths fire? A chicken with heartburn.”

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Source: Amazon

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Mobile Syrup

Fossil will add Alexa to its Gen 6 smartwatch in the first half of 2022

Fossil announced two new versions of its Gen 6 Wear OS smartwatch at CES 2022 — one for gamers and one for Dutch jewelry enthusiasts. However, another announcement from the company that flew a little under the radar is that it will add support for Amazon Alexa to its Gen 6 watches.

As for when Fossil will add support, well, that’s not entirely clear. The company told 9to5Google in a statement that the Alexa update would arrive in the first half of 2022. It also told The Verge in a CES briefing that Alexa would come to Gen 6 smartwatches “early this year.” Moreover, The Verge’s Victoria Song received a Skagen Falster Gen 6 and the Razer X Fossil Gen 6 watches, both of which include an Alexa widget that simply displays a “coming soon” message.

With all that taken into account, that means Fossil could add Alexa to the Gen 6 smartwatch anytime between now and June. Presumably, Gen 6 owners won’t need to wait six months for the Alexa update, but we’ll see how it plays out.

The Verge also pointed out that Fossil teasing Alexa support may be a way to give customers something to look forward to until Wear OS 3 arrives (which could be anywhere from a few months to the end of the year). Plus, Alexa support would be a win both for Fossil and smartwatch customers. Currently, Apple Watches are Siri-only, Wear OS watches only have Google Assistant and Samsung watches force Bixby on users (although the Galaxy Watch 4 will eventually offer Google Assistant too). The only other smartwatches that offer a choice are Fitbit’s Sense and Versa watches.

In other words, most customers are limited to using whatever assistant ships on their smartwatch. Plus, Amazon’s Alexa is a relatively popular voice assistant, so Fossil’s move to support it will both give customers a choice in what assistant they use and give people access to Alexa on a smartwatch, which so far hasn’t been available outside of Fitbit’s smartwatches. Hopefully, this starts a trend with smartwatch makers and we see more watches offer a choice of on-wrist voice assistant.

Source: The Verge, 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

ICON.AI’s new Sound Mirror is an Alexa-controlled smart mirror for your home

Announced in the lead-up to CES 2022, ICON.AI made public a smart mirror dubbed Sound Mirror. It was granted an innovation award by CES and brings some neat features to the home.

The Sound Mirror is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a replacement fixture for your regular everyday mirror at home but is powered by Amazon’s Alexa assistant. The full-sized mirror features a hands-free smart speaker and will be available in two designs: a circular design as well as an ovular horseshoe shape.

As listed on the Sound Mirror website, the smart mirror supports BlueTooth as well as Wi-Fi for home networking. Users can cast music and podcasts from Spotify, Apple Music, TuneIn, Pandora, and iHeartRadio. Additionally, Alexa commands can also be made as the device will integrate right into the Amazon ecosystem.

ICON.AI describes the Sound Mirror as an “acoustic mirror”. It’s intended to be used in a vertical configuration. As such, the speaker can be found near the bottom quarter of the mirror face.

Of course, the mirror can be used as a replacement for any current bathroom mirror. It’s available in four finishes (gold, chrome, matt black, and matt white). Custom colours are also available.

Pricing and availability have not been outlined by ICON.AI as of the time of writing.

Image credit: ICON.AI

Source: TechRadar

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Mobile Syrup

To the annoyance of many, Amazon is trying to hold onto Alexa users in a declining market

Alexa has appeared on curated Amazon Christmas gift lists in one way or another for years. This contributes to the excitement around the smart speakers that allow users to complete tasks simply with the use of their voice.

But according to a recent analysis by Bloomberg Businessweek, the excitement around the gift quickly drops once given out. The organization examined internal data on the speaker between 2018 and 2021 and found that in some years, users were no longer active with the device just two weeks after receiving it.

Documents also showed the smart speaker market had “passed its growth phase” Estimates stated the market would only expand 1.2 percent annually over the next couple of years.

The company has desperately tried to increase interactivity by changing the way Alexa interacts with users. This includes using the speaker to do more than then setting a timer; every time Alexa is requested to do something, it follows up with related suggestions that many find annoying.

For example, if a consumer asks Alexa to pull up a specific recipe, Alexa will ask the consumer if they want to purchase something related (or not) to the command off Amazon.

The company has disputed the idea that Alexa has stalled.

“The assertion that Alexa growth is slowing is not accurate,” an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg. “The fact is that Alexa continues to grow—we see increases in customer usage, and Alexa is used in more households around the world than ever before.”

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

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Mobile Syrup

Voice profiles for Echo make parenting easier

Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices are an essential part of every smart household. Since the Echo’s launch in Canada back in 2017, the adoption of Alexa-enabled smart home devices has been on an uptrend, and families with kids love using the device.

When kids see their parents using the Echo to turn on lights, call friends and family or even ask answers to questions, their curiosity naturally rises. This abundance of information and knowledge can be beneficial for children to learn new things, but this is also worrisome for parents.

There are existing Alexa skills for kids, but parents want more parental control over what their children are looking at and for.

While gadgets like Amazon Fire tablets for kids have made parents worry less, the same doesn’t translate to other Alexa devices.

With new Voice Profiles, parents can teach Alexa what their children sound like, ensuring that whenever the kids ask a question or request a task, Alexa can recognize the voice and give an appropriate kid-friendly reply and suggest suitable apps, songs, stories, games or other parent-approved content.

Let’s say for example your child asks an Echo to play Better Now by Post Malone. Alexa would automatically recognize that the voice isn’t an adults, and will play the clean version of the song.

Parents can also set bed timings, or timings to pause the Echo in certain situations like for dinner, or when your kid is doing homework. Further, a range of parental controls are available in the Alexa app that can automatically default to a specific music service that you want your kids to be listening to.

Through the dashboard, parents can also turn off voice purchasing and review recent activity, including voice recordings and what questions Alexa was asked. Parents can also pre-approve select contacts they want their kids to have access to, such as emergency numbers or certain family members.

As a way of positive reinforcement, whenever your kid asks Alexa to do something politely, Alexa will reply in a positive way and compliment the fact that they asked politely.

You can create a voice profile for your children by heading to the Alexa app. Navigate to settings and tap on Amazon Kids and follow the prompts.

This range of controls offers ease of mind to the parents while budding children’s curiosity and making the overall experience fun.

Learn more about Echo’s parental controls and Amazon Kids on Alexa here.

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon server outage causing issues with Alexa, Ring, Disney+ and more

I’m waiting on the delivery of a package, so I decided to log into my Ring camera to make sure the battery was still charged.

Though I was entirely surprised by this given I’ve had a lot of issues with Amazon’s Ring doorbell line over the last few years, I wasn’t able to access my camera’s live feed. However, it appears this particular issue isn’t tied to the Ring Video Doorbells poor ability to remain connected to my Wi-Fi-.

According to The Verge, Amazon’s AWS cloud servers that power services like Alexa, Ring, Prime Video, Disney+ and more are currently down. Even Amazon.com and PUBG are experiencing issues.

Down Detector indicates that dozens of streaming services, games and other platforms are affected by the outage.

Amazon is aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

Via: The Verge 

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Mobile Syrup

Alexa can now detect running water, appliance beeps or motion

Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant will soon get a little smarter thanks to expanded sound detection capabilities and more.

Amazon detailed the changes in its monthly roundup for November, along with some other new features and details. Unfortunately, not everything in the roundup will land in Canada.

For example, Amazon shared that Alexa’s prescription refill skill is now available for Amazon Pharmacy customers, but Amazon Pharmacy isn’t in Canada. The roundup also highlights the rollout of ‘Conversation Mode’ to the Echo Show 10 in the U.S.

Alexa’s expanded sound detection features, on the other hand, are available in Canada. First up, Alexa users can set new sound detector routines for running water and appliance beeps. As an example, you could set up a routine that will have Alexa send you a notification when it hears the laundry machine beep to let you know it finished.

There are also new Ultrasound Motion Detection routines users can set up. Dubbed ‘Occupancy’ routines, people with compatible Echo devices (4th Gen Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Dot with clock) can set up their device to detect motion and trigger a routine, such as turning on the lights in a room.

Other new features include expanded preference teaching, which now includes food and sports. Plus, this can work with the new ‘Alexa, what should I eat’ that can help users find nearby restaurants or new recipes online.

Finally, Amazon revealed that its new Echo Show 15 is available for pre-order and will release on December 9th, 2021. Those interested in pre-ordering the new Echo Show can head to Amazon’s website. In Canada, the Echo Show 15 costs $329.99. You can learn more about it here.

Source: Amazon Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon reveals Alexa-enabled hockey puck-sized Air Quality Monitor

Amazon has revealed a new $89.99 Smart Air Quality Monitor shaped like a small white hockey puck.

The Alexa-compatible indoor air quality monitor is capable of monitoring the following: particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide (CO), humidity and temperature. A small LED light on the device indicates air quality, and a more comprehensive report is available through Amazon’s Alexa app.

Other features include smartphone notifications or Echo device announcements related to air quality and suggestions for how to improve the air in your space. You can also set up triggers through Alexa Routines for devices like smart ceiling fans, thermostats or blinds.

What separates Amazon’s Air Quality Monitor from the competition is its relatively low $90 price tag. In comparison, Dyson’s various air purifiers start at $399.99, though these devices actually purify the air and don’t just monitor it.

Amazon also sells its Air Quality Monitor bundles with the Echo Dot 4th-gen and the Echo Show 2nd-gen for $159.98 and $189.98, respectively. The online retail giant’s Smart Air Quality Monitor is currently available for pre-order now in Canada for $89.99 with a December 8th, 2021 release date.

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though MobileSyrup may earn a commission on purchases made via these links. 

Image credit: Amazon