Jessica Rickards

CityMapper, a transit planning and navigation app for iOS, Android and the web, has partnered with the city of London to create a Smart Bus system. Some of the buses will be smaller, for the tighter places, others will be the larger city buses you’re used to, but all of them will have the same smart features. Real-time tracking so you’ll always know where they are and how long you’ll have to wait, and updated ETA for each stop. This service is the result of data gathered since 2012 via CityMapper. They hope to expand this service, but for now London is the first test city. CityMapper itself has a focus on accessibility and incorporating transit navigation access into urban areas where it may not always easy to find this information. Who knows, in future we may see more of these partnerships throughout the world as more cities embrace technology to address accessibility.
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For the first time this week, Amazon introduced a new Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) for Alexa. Like markup for other languages might allow developers to alter the style or look of a webpage or application, this language allows developers to alter certain aspects of Alexa’s speech. Features released so far include the ability to whisper, spell out words, and modify swear words. Developers are encouraged to test these new features on their skills, so be on the lookout for some interesting new developments. Who knows, your Alexa may just whisper those sweet nothings to you after all! read more

Google announced that they are making the Google Assistant SDK available to third party developers. This means that consumer products, such as coffee machines, toy robots, vacuum cleaners, or home automation systems could have the assistant built directly into their interface rather than needing to use a Google Home device. Companies would still need to maintain a partnership with Google in order to run the Assistant, but they could customize it to fit their own unique needs.