At the beginning of the year, Amazon flipped the switch on Dash Replenishment, a service aimed at bringing the instant reordering of its devoted product buttons directly to connected devices. The idea being that you don’t have to, say, order ink for your printer or batteries for your smart lock – the devices will do it for you.
The retail giant has already announced a slew of different partners for the program, including Brother Printers, the Gmate SMART blood glucose monitor, and a GE washing machine, all of which went live in the first round.
Today the company announced a number of new additions. The highest profile of the additions is GE, which will be extending its involvement to driers and dishwashers, which will be updated to order fabric soften and dishwasher detergent, respectively, when supplies start to dwindle.
Neato joins the list as well, bring the WiFi-connected robot to the service in order to order replacement filters and brushes, while Petcube’s Kickstarter-supported Bites camera will be able to order pet food. Also on the list are the Behmore Connected coffee brewer, Simplehuman trashcan and SmartThings platform.
Even The Hershey Company has been added to the stable with an unnamed device. That should be interesting.
The rollout of Amazon Alexa-enabled devices that transcend the Echo continues to grow, this time with its first touchscreen video device called Nucleus.
Roughly the size of a tablet (9 inches x 7 inches and just 2.1 pounds), the Nucleus combines touchscreen video screens with embedded cameras that can be accessed via app on your smartphone, allowing you to communicate with any room in your home or office equipped with a Nucleus device.
Those features alone are widely accessible through some existing, high-end home communications systems as well as something as simple as FaceTime through an iPad and iPhone. But by embedding Alexa in the Nucleus system, suddenly your communication screen-enabled home is also powered with the voice commands and information available to Alexa, as well as the inventory of Amazon's online store.
The integration of Alexa into the Nucleus touchscreen system came about after the company was accepted into the program.
"Integrating Alexa into Nucleus was a natural fit," Steve Rabuchin, Amazon Alexa vice president, said in a statement sent to Mashable. "Voice and the Alexa services provide an easy way for families to stay organized, manage their busy lives and have fun. We opened up [Alexa Voice Service] to device makers and developers for free and it’s exciting to see Nucleus take advantage of the service and bring their innovative technology into homes."
When Nucleus' video screen is being used for a call, the Alexa features are disabled, so there won't be any accidental video chat interruptions simply because someone said "Hey Alexa." But once a video chat is over, the Nucleus interface, which shows a selection of the rooms and remote devices accessible, defaults to Alexa mode, waiting for your commands.
The Nucleus device in its Alexa listening mode.
IMAGE: NUCLEUS
When a command is uttered, a slick waveform appears onscreen to indicate that Alexa on Nucleus is recognizing and processing your voice command. You'll know Alexa is about to respond because on the Nucleus screen Alexa's familiar sky blue ring icon appears (in the lower right corner) as it answers your question or request.
"Traditional intercom systems are … hard to install – and video chat services like Skype are tricky for some to maneuver," said Jonathan Frankel, cofounder and CEO of Nucleus, in a statement sent to Mashable. "But with Nucleus, my family is there when I need them at the tap of a button. And now with Alexa, there’s even more value for parents, like adding groceries to a shopping list or checking on the weather when their hands are tied."
IMAGE: NUCLEUS
As a plug and play system for the next generation of video intercom devices, Nucleus is indeed an attractive, and relatively affordable solution. But when paired with Alexa, it appears to deliver the powerful smart home environment most of us have only seen on television or in films in the homes of the wealthy. This time though, it has an affordable entry price.
The Nucleus device, which uses your home's Wi-Fi connection, costs $249 for one device, a price that drops to $199 per device when purchasing two or more. The app that connects the devices to your smartphone is available for both iOS and Android.
However, beginning Thursday, the devices will only be available on Amazon.com and at select Lowe's[ stores around the U.S.
Yahoo finally found a buyer, Mobileye and Tesla broke up, and some of the largest tech companies reported quarterly earnings. These are the biggest tech stories of the week. You can now get the Weekly Roundup sent straight to your inbox, delivered Saturday mornings.
1. Verizon (which owns AOL, which owns TechCrunch) announced it is acquiring Yahoo’s core business for $4.83 billion in cash. This includes Yahoo’s advertising, content, search and mobile activities. It’s crazy to think that in 2000, Yahoo was worth a whopping $125 billion. If you won the last computing platform and are on the cusp of the next one you’re not built for, you might want to sell your company. It’s easier to pivot than make a comeback, after all.
3. Once promising AR motorcycle helmet startup Skully is no longer. We discovered that the company’s shutdown will leave several vendors and Skully’s manufacturer Flextronics with unpaid bills and at least 50 full-time employees out of a job. It’s unclear if any of the vendors will be paid.
5. WikiLeaks published a searchable database of 19,252 DNC-related emails packed with personal and financial information. Following the leak, Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced she will be stepping down from her role as the head of the Democratic National Committee after the end of the event.
6. Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump participated in a Reddit AMA, managing to answer 13 questions on topics ranging from NASA to media bias.In a separate facepalm-inducing moment, Trump invited Russia (yes, the entire country of Russia) to hack into Hillary Clinton’s inbox and release “the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.” Yikes.
8.Upthere, a new company from Apple and Oracle vets, came out of beta with $77 million in funding. The company believes that cloud storage should be your primary storage and not just a place for keeping backups. It’s now generally available for OS X/MacOS, Android and iOS.
9. Xiaomi announced its first laptop, and it sure does look familiar. The Mi Notebook Air comes in two sizes — 13.3-inch and 12.5-inch — running Windows with a full-HD display, full-metal body and type-C USB charging and two USB slots. The Macbook Air rival will come as cheap as $540.
10. Amazon debuted a dedicated shop for Kickstarter projects. Amazon is now hosting 300 successful Kickstarter products across a variety of categories, now all available for purchase.
11. Uber cofounder and CEO of Expa Studios Garrett Camp unveiled Expa’s latest project, Haus. Haus is a real estate play that focuses on digitizing the discovery, buying and selling of residential property.
When the Amazon Echo debuted, it could only only play music, tell you the weather, set alarms and timers, read news flashes, tell corny jokes, add things to your Amazon shopping list, tell you the weather and recite basic trivia. Cool tricks, all, but nothing spectacular.
The Echo's Alexa voice assistant was a cool look at how voice commands could control the home.
Today, the Echo family now is now a family of three. Including theEcho, there's also the Echo Dot and Tap.
With the power of Alexa, an open API and and a willingness by third-party companies to get their smart devices to work with the Echo products, Amazon's magical tube devices have become more feature-packed than when it launched.
There's so much it can do with Alexa and new features are being added every week. We've compiled our favorite things the Echo can do that you may not have known about.
1. Smart home control
A home filled with Philips Hue smart light bulbs.
IMAGE: PHILIPS
One of the most useful additions to the Echo after it launched was the addition of smart home control. Initially limited to a few devices like Philip's Hue smart light bulbs, the the Echo now works with many different smart home brands and devices. SmartThings, Wink, Insteon and Nest are just some of the major ones. You can find the full range of smart lights, outlets, thermostats and more that work with the Alexa here.
Setting up a smart home isn't cheap, but it's so worth it when you can say "Alexa, turn on the lights in the bedroom" or "Alexa, decrease the thermostat by two degrees."
2. Manage your Google Calendar
Everyone uses Google Calendar (no other calendars matter). All jokes aside, as a personal assistant, Alexa's more of a secretary than before now that she can add events and review calendar events.
To activate the feature, launch the Alexa app and go to Settings > Calendar, select Google Calendar and then select "Link Google Calendar account." Log into your Google account and you're set to use these commands:
"Alexa, when is my next event?"
"Alexa, what's on my calendar?"
"Alexa, what's on my calendar tomorrow at [time]?"
"Alexa, what's on my calendar on [day]?"
"Alexa, add an event to my calendar."
"Alexa, add [event] to my calendar for [day] at [time]."
3. Track your packages
IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
Waiting for packages sucks. One day we'll have our ordered packages delivered within minutes by drone, but until that day comes, we're stuck waiting for it arrive by truck.
A recent update to the Echo added the ability to track packages ordered from Amazon and see where they are in the delivery route.
Just say "Alexa, where's my stuff?"
4. Call an Uber
IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
Uber made it easy to use an app to call up a car, and now with Alexa, it's even easier. To set up Uber on the Echo, go into the Alexa app and search for the Uber skill within the "Skills" section. Enable the feature and then log into your Uber account. From there, set the address for your Echo (most likely your home or office) in the "Device Location" section. Once it's all configured, just ask Alexa for a car:
"Alexa, ask Uber for a ride."
"Alexa, ask Uber to get me a car."
"Alexa, ask Uber to request an UberX." (or UberBlack, UberSUV, UberXL, Uberselect)
"Alexa, ask Uber where's my ride?"
5. Order Pizza from Domino's
IMAGE: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
If there was any doubt that the Echo is a magical tube from tube from the future, let this dispel all doubt.
Ordering pizza from Domino's is as effortless as saying: "Alexa, open Domino's and place my Easy Order."
To get pizza-on-demand set up, log into your Amazon Alexa account by visiting the website or opening the Alexa app. Then click "Skills" and search for the Domino's skill and enable it. Next, go to Dominos.com and create an account (or sign if you already have one). Set up an "Easy Order" with your preferred pizza and make sure to include all of the related information (billing, delivery address, etc.).
6. Get sports scores
IMAGE: NBAE/GETTY IMAGES
Sports fans will love Alexa's ability to keep up with all kinds of league-based competitive recreations. Alexa can pull up scores for finished and in-progress games and even upcoming matchups in several leagues, including the English Premier League, MLB, MLS, NBA, NCAA men's basketball, NCAA FBS football, NFL, NHL and WNBA. Here are a fewsports-related questions you can ask Alexa:
"Alexa, what is the score of the New York Knicks game?"
"Alexa, who is winning the Yankees game?"
"Alexa, when do the New York giants play next?"
7. Check stocks
IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
Want to keep tabs on securities? No problem! Enable the Fidelity Investments skill within the "Skills" section of the Alexa app and you'll be able to get quotes for stock market updates.
"Alexa, ask Fidelity to get a quote for Google."
"Alexa, ask Fidelity for a market update."
"Alexa, ask Fidelity how Apple is doing today."
8. Do a quick workout
IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
Fitness is important, but not everyone has time to hit up a gym and crush it like a boss. Enabling the "7-Minute Workout" skill within the Alexa app lets you start a rapid-fire workout that'll only take you seven minutes to complete. It's perfect for mornings or right before bed.
Once the skill is enabled, you can start a workout by saying "Alexa, start a seven minute workout." Alexa will then get your blood flowing with short bursts of jumping jacks, wall sits, pushups, squats, step ups onto a chair and more.
You can also find images and tutorials in the Alexa app if you don't know how to do a certain exercise.
9. Talk politics
IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
This year has certainly been a very interesting election year, and Alexa up to date on it all. Enable the NBC News skill within the Alexa app and you can ask her election-related questions like:
"Alexa, ask NBC News how Donald Trump is doing."
"Alexa, ask NBC News for New York primary results."
"Alexa, ask NBC News when the next debate is."
The NBC News skill also gives Alexa intel on top headlines on the election, candidate bios and an election calendar.
10. Read Kindle ebooks or Audible audiobooks
IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
Audio books are great for when your hands aren't free (like when you're cooking). With a simple "Alexa, read me a Kindle book" or "Alexa, read me an audiobook" (Audible audiobooks), the Echo will start reading out a book for you.
There's no need to do anything special. You just need to have ebooks in your Kindle library or audiobooks in your Audible library.
11. Recite Pi
IMAGE: PRESS HERALD VIA GETTY IMAGES
"Alexa, annoy us all to death." Just kidding. Not only is Alexa great at calculations, but she's nerdy, like really nerdy. Try asking her to recite the first 100 digits of Pi and she'll go on and on...
Sadly, Alexa won't go higher than 100 digits of Pi. Nice try, but she's not gonna recite up to 1,000 or a million.
Amazon shattered expectations when it reported second quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.78, when Wall Street was forecasting $1.11. Amazon also beat revenue predictions, posting $30.4 billion for the quarter when analysts were expecting $29.55 billion. Shares ticked up 2 percent in after-hours trading.
The company saw a significant increase in sales and profit from the same period last year. Net sales were up 31 percent and net income was $857 million, a large jump from last year’s $92 million. Amazon also spent many years unprofitable, while it invested in growth.
In a statement, CEO Jeff Bezos touted the early success of their Indian business. “The team in India is inventing at a torrid pace, and we’re very grateful to our Indian customers for their welcoming response.”
The company announced that it expects its revenue for the third quarter to be between $31 billion and $33.5 billion. Operating income had a wide range, forecasting somewhere between $50 and $650 million.
Amazon tends to make a lot of experimental bets. They’ve had early traction with their Alexa voice-activated personal assistant device. And they have also built up momentum in their Amazon Web Services division, providing storage and cloud services for many large businesses.
AWS has seen significant growth. The group accounted for $2.9 billion of Amazon’s quarterly revenue, up from $1.8 billion in the same period last year.
The company has built up a robust Prime business, where users pay annual subscriptions to get faster shipping and access to content like movies and music. Notably, Amazon created its own discount holiday last year called Prime Day. The sales day generatedsignificant traction this year and will be included in next quarter’s earnings.
The earnings release referenced this year’s Prime Day, calling it “the biggest day ever for Amazon.” They said that worldwide orders grew by more than 60 percent when compared to last year’s inaugural day.
Other Amazon experiments have missed the mark, however. They did not find success with their Fire Phone and the company recently shut down their Gilt Groupe competitor, MyHabit.
Going forward, the company is betting that drone deliveries will cut down on costs and improve efficiency. Amazon is also expanding its grocery business.
The stock is up 43 percent in the past year. The company has a market cap of $355 billion.
3-D pens! The Veronica Mars movie! This weird speaker thing! Kickstarter has brought so much joy into our lives since it founded in 2009. Now, however, products from the site will be even easier to hoard: Amazon has officially partnered with Kickstarter to bring 300 projects to the retailers crowd-funding portal, Launchpad.
“We’re thrilled to collaborate with Amazon Launchpad on creating a new path for those projects to be discovered, experienced, and loved," Kickstarter CEO and Co-Founder Yancey Strickler.
Currently, the portal mostly features gadgets, books, home goods, movies and board games. There's quite a range, from this totally inconspicuous posture fixer featured on Shark Tank to gluten-free banana flour. Some of it looks odd, but then again, as Amazon points out, there's already a proven market for these products.
"Working with Kickstarter is a great way for us to hear directly from customers what products they care about, since they truly hold the power to bring these products to life," Amazon Vice President Jim Adkins said.
The collaboration is the next step for Amazon's Launchpad program, which debuted about a year ago. Its goal was next-level crowd-funding — to connect interested venture capitalists with eager innovators. Since then, Amazon claims it has worked with over 100 leading venture capital firms, startup accelerators, and crowd-funding platforms, and launched more than 1,000 startups. It sure helps that they have Amazon's audience, with roughly 188 million visitors a day.
"Our goal is to enable them to reach Amazon’s hundreds of millions of customers and to overcome one of the biggest challenges any startup faces — bringing their product to market successfully," Adkins said.
3-D pens! The Veronica Mars movie! This weird speaker thing! Kickstarter has brought so much joy into our lives since it founded in 2009. Now, however, products from the site will be even easier to hoard: Amazon has officially partnered with Kickstarter to bring 300 projects to the retailers crowd-funding portal, Launchpad.
“We’re thrilled to collaborate with Amazon Launchpad on creating a new path for those projects to be discovered, experienced, and loved," Kickstarter CEO and Co-Founder Yancey Strickler.
Currently, the portal mostly features gadgets, books, home goods, movies and board games. There's quite a range, from this totally inconspicuous posture fixer featured on Shark Tank to gluten-free banana flour. Some of it looks odd, but then again, as Amazon points out, there's already a proven market for these products.
"Working with Kickstarter is a great way for us to hear directly from customers what products they care about, since they truly hold the power to bring these products to life," Amazon Vice President Jim Adkins said.
The collaboration is the next step for Amazon's Launchpad program, which debuted about a year ago. Its goal was next-level crowd-funding — to connect interested venture capitalists with eager innovators. Since then, Amazon claims it has worked with over 100 leading venture capital firms, startup accelerators, and crowd-funding platforms, and launched more than 1,000 startups. It sure helps that they have Amazon's audience, with roughly 188 million visitors a day.
"Our goal is to enable them to reach Amazon’s hundreds of millions of customers and to overcome one of the biggest challenges any startup faces — bringing their product to market successfully," Adkins said.
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