Tag Archives: alexa

How to use Alexa with an iPhone

Now playing: Watch this: How to use Alexa on your iPhone 1:47 Alexa has started to turn up in some unusual places, from the dash of new cars, to televisions and appliances. But one of the more predictable moves is Alexa coming to phones. Amazon made a Moto Mod for Motorola’s modular Moto Z ($220 at …

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Amazon now lets you turn your Fire tablet into an Echo Show

Amazon wants you to think of your Fire tablet as not just a tablet but a full-fledged Alexa-enabled device — or more precisely, a slimmed down Echo Show.  It’s called Show Mode, and it’s coming as a free software update for current generation Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 tablets. Like the Echo Show, the new mode serves up …

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Amazon Alexa iOS adds voice control

You can now control Alexa’s iOS app with your voice, three months after its release. If you’ve got an iPhone or iPad you can now use spoken commands to ask Alexa questions, play music and communicate with your Echo and other devices. But since Apple has its own assistant, Siri, you’ll still have to physically tap the app to activate …

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Sonos speakers will support Apple AirPlay 2 in July

One of the first speaker makers to support Apple’s new AirPlay 2 system for whole-home audio was Sonos, and now we know when it’s coming: July. AirPlay 2 allows you to control multiple compatible speakers like the HomePod or Sonos, or Apple TV devices, around the home, and stream music to them using an iPhone, iPad or Mac computer. Supported …

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Apple’s WWDC 2018 highlights little things adding up, especially in iOS 12

This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET’s complete coverage from and about Apple’s annual developers conference. If you were looking to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference for big game-changing leaps or new hardware, you might have walked away a little disappointed. Monday’s keynote, it turns out, was about the little things.  That’s not to say the changes were insignificant. Indeed, …

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12 things we want to see on Apple’s iOS 12 at WWDC

This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET’s complete coverage from and about Apple’s annual developers conference. Apple’s WWDC conference is almost here, and while we expect a focus on software and services over hardware, we can be sure of one thing: a preview of the next version of iOS. The last version of Apple’s iPhone and iPad operating system, iOS …

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LG ThinQ TVs get their Alexa update

At CES 2018 LG announced it was adding Google Assistant and Alexa voice control to its OLED and Super UHD TVs with ThinQ (its branded AI); now Amazon joins Google with LG’s roll out of Alexa support. Its LG SmartThinQ Skill for Amazon Alexa allows you to ask your Echo to play your favorite show, launch LG WebOS apps and …

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Block explicit lyrics in music subscription services

A while back I offered advice on choosing the best music service for your family, with an eye toward convenience, versatility and especially price. One important consideration I completely forgot was explicit lyrics. Given that pretty much every modern song contains bad language (that’s right, I said it — now get off my lawn!), parents might want the option of …

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Alexa coming to Acer Spin notebooks from May 23

Acer’s quick to grab the credit for shipping out Alexa-enabled laptops, but the reality is more complicated.  The manufacturer sent out a press release Monday morning declaring “First!” on shipping laptops with Amazon’s voice assistant preinstalled. That’s fine, but the first notebook to ship with it installed will be the Acer Nitro 5 Spin, which won’t be shipping until next month. …

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Samsung’s Bixby assistant now controls your ovens and robo

Samsung is expanding its Bixby smart assistant way beyond phones. The Korean electronics giant is reportedly adding its AI voice assistant to the robot vacuum cleaners and ovens Samsung makes as well this year, according to ZDNet.  The feature, known as Bixby Voice, will allow you to issue voice commands to control your appliances. So, now you can tell Bixby to queue …

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