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Echo Show

How To Let You Know When Alexa and Google Assistant Start and Stop Listening

You can set your Amazon Echo and Google Home or Nest devices to give you audio cues when they start and stop listening for commands.

Both Amazon’s and Google’s smart speakers (such as the Echo Dot and the Nest Mini) and smart displays (e.g., the Echo Show and the Nest Hub Max) always keep an ear out for the “Alexa” or “Hey Google” wake words respectively, but it’s only after you’ve summoned Alexa or Google Assistant that they’ll record and transmit your requests to the cloud.

By default, Alexa and Google Assistant stop listening as soon as they’ve fulfilled a command or answered a query, although you can also set them to keep listening for follow-up questions. If you’ve enabled the “Follow-up Mode” (for Alexa) or “Continued Conversation” setting (for Google Assistant), your device will keep listening for several more seconds in case you want to ask more questions or issue more voice commands. read more

Amazon Launches New Alexa Skill That Identifies Groceries for People Who Are Blind and Visually Impaired

Amazon launched a new first-party Alexa Show skill called Show and Tell in order to help the visually impaired identify groceries and other household items like boxes, cans, or other packaged items that are hard to identify by touch.

Amazon worked with the Vista Center for the Blind in Santa Cruz, California, as well as its own blind and low-vision employees to develop Show and Tell. Users can ask Alexa on their Echo Show “what am I holding?” or “what’s in my hand?” to activate the Show and Tell feature. Alexa first helps guide the user in placing the object in front of the camera on the smart display, then using a combination of computer vision and machine learning, Alexa is able to identify the item and tell the user. Right now, Show and Tell is restricted to second-generation Echo Show devices in the U.S., though there are plans to extend it to other countries soon. read more

Amazon Unveils a Plethora of New Products with Alexa

Amazon’s line of Echo products is set to expand significantly over the next few months. At a surprise event in Seattle, Washington, Amazon announced a variety of new Alexa-enabled Echo products, including a revamped Echo Dot, a new Echo Plus, a dedicated subwoofer called the Echo Sub and other Alexa-enabled accessories.

Coming to Canada is The new third-generation Echo Dot, which follows the release of the previous version back in Fall 2016, features softer edges and a fabric cover that more closely resembles the 2nd-Gen Amazon Echo. In fact, the third iteration of the Dot looks very similar to Google’s Home Mini. read more

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