Hey, Alexa, What Can You Hear? And What Will You Do With It? 

Mar 31, 2018 | algo, audio, networking, trends

A diagram included with an Amazon patent application showed how a phone call between friends could be used to identify their interests. Credit United States Patent and Trademark

Amazon and Google have filed patent applications, many still under consideration, that outline how digital assistants can monitor more of what users say and do.

Source: Hey, Alexa, What Can You Hear? And What Will You Do With It? – The New York Times

Alexa’s Creepy Laughter Is A Bigger Problem Than Amazon Admits

Mar 9, 2018 | algo, audio

Alexa owners report being startled by Alexa’s phantom chuckles, revealing one of the flaws of today’s voice assistants.

Source: Alexa’s Creepy Laughter Is A Bigger Problem Than Amazon Admits

Is The Internet Of Things Dead, Or Is It Growing Up?

Feb 12, 2018 | algo, audio, mobile, networking, trends, video

The internet of things has never quite found its footing, and some proclaim the once-hyped concept is dead. Even as tech companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google pour money into smart speakers, there’s no real, tangible use for them. Other companies have tried–to little avail–to sell us dumb smart products like smart refrigerators and smart water bottles. And smart homes? They spy on users–and they’re just plain annoying.

For Matt Webb, a technologist at R/GA London, the potential of the internet of things isn’t inside your home. It’s outside of it. “It’s where we can finally start assembling parts to make products or services or companies with a smaller number of people or with greater ambition than before,” he says. “IoT is solving problems in the business space really clearly.”

Source: Is The Internet Of Things Dead, Or Is It Growing Up?

Are the Most Innovative Companies Just the Ones With the Most Data?

Feb 11, 2018 | algo, trends

Do you still use Yahoo? Do you still remember MySpace? Compaq? Kodak? The cases of startups with superior ideas dethroning well-established incumbents are legion. This is the beauty of “creative destruction” – the term coined by innovation prophet Joseph Schumpeter almost a century ago. Incumbents have to keep innovating, lest they be overtaken by a new, more creative competitor. Arguably, at least in sectors shaped by technical change, entrepreneurial innovation has kept markets competitive far better than antitrust legislation ever could. For decades, creative destruction ensured competitive markets and a constant stream of new innovation. But what if that is no longer the case?

Source: Are the Most Innovative Companies Just the Ones With the Most Data?

Test finds HomePod’s Siri ‘at the bottom of the totem pole’ in smartspeaker AI

Feb 10, 2018 | algo, audio, trends

While the Apple HomePod is the “best sounding” smartspeaker and has a “measurably better” user experience in many areas, its underlying AI assistant — Siri — failed dramatically in a query test versus Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana, according to Loup Ventures.

Source: Test finds HomePod’s Siri ‘at the bottom of the totem pole’ in smartspeaker AI