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      Amazon virtually kills efforts to develop Alexa Skills, disappointing dozens

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 11 April - 21:27

    amazon echo dot gen 4

    Enlarge / The 4th-gen Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker. (credit: Amazon)

    Alexa hasn't worked out the way Amazon originally planned.

    There was a time when it thought that Alexa would yield a robust ecosystem of apps, or Alexa Skills, that would make the voice assistant an integral part of users' lives. Amazon envisioned tens of thousands of software developers building valued abilities for Alexa that would grow the voice assistant's popularity—and help Amazon make some money.

    But about seven years after launching a rewards program to encourage developers to build Skills, Alexa's most preferred abilities are the basic ones, like checking the weather. And on June 30, Amazon will stop giving out the monthly Amazon Web Services credits that have made it free for third-party developers to build and host Alexa Skills. The company also recently told devs that its Alexa Developer Rewards program was ending, virtually disincentivizing third-party devs to build for Alexa.

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      Avec un deal à -55%, l’Echo Pop est l’enceinte idéale pour débuter avec Alexa

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · Friday, 22 March - 14:15

    Amazon Echo pop

    Les Echo Pop sont les dernières enceintes connectées d'Amazon, elle offre un son clair ainsi que des fonctionnalités qui s'appuient sur l'assistant Alexa.
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      3 choses qui font du Amazon Echo Hub, le centre de contrôle que tout le monde attendait

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · Thursday, 7 March - 16:42

    Hub19

    Annoncé il y a plusieurs mois, le Amazon Echo Hub est finalement disponible depuis quelques jours en France. Nous l'avons testé et voici pourquoi il pourrait vous intéresser.
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      Alexa dopé à l’IA : Amazon lance de nouvelles expériences étonnantes

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · Friday, 12 January - 12:30

    Splash Ai Alexa

    Dans le cadre du CES 2024, Amazon a dévoilé de nouvelles expériences Alexa basées sur l'IA. L'assistant a pris le virage de l'intelligence artificielle générative en fin d'année dernière.
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      Amazon lays off Alexa employees as 2010s voice-assistant boom gives way to AI

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 21 November - 21:17

    Amazon's third-gen Echo Show 5.

    Enlarge / Amazon's third-gen Echo Show 5. (credit: Amazon)

    Amazon is going through yet another round of layoffs, reports Computerworld , and once again the company’s devices-and-services division appears to be bearing the brunt of it. The layoffs will primarily affect the team working on Alexa, the Amazon voice assistant that drives the company's Echo smart speakers and other products.

    "Several hundred roles are impacted," the company said in a statement, "a relatively small percentage of the total number of people in the Devices business who are building great experiences for our customers."

    Amazon says these layoffs result from "discontinue[d] initiatives" that have been discarded as the company invests more resources in generative AI products; the company didn't specify exactly which initiatives were being discontinued. Amazon hasn't released an AI-powered version of Alexa yet, but it showed "an early preview" of its efforts in September , "based on a new large language model that's been custom-built and specifically optimized for voice interactions."

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      Nos conseils pour faire des économies d’énergie

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Monday, 20 November - 07:15

    Chauffage connecté, création d'un planning hebdomadaire, applications pour suivre sa consommation d'énergie… Alors que l'hiver risque de faire grimper les factures d'électricité et de gaz, il existe plusieurs moyens pour limiter ses dépenses. [Lire la suite]

    Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/

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      Alexa just cost Amazon another $46.7 million

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 10 November - 22:31

    An

    Enlarge / The first Amazon Echo speaker. (credit: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

    A Delaware federal court has ordered Amazon to pay $46.7 million for infringing on four patents belonging to VB Assets with Amazon's Echo smart speakers and Alexa virtual assistant. A lawsuit from Nuance Communications-owned VB Assets, previously known as VoiceBox Technologies, claimed to have already invented a circular speaker that could connect to the web and answer voice-dictated prompts with a female, robotic voice.

    Wednesday's judgment [ PDF ], initially reported by Reuters , orders Amazon to pay the sum via running royalty rather than a lump sum. The ruling follows a jury verdict [ PDF ] finding that Amazon infringed upon four of VoiceBox's patents. The patents relate to providing network-coordinated conversational services, a conversational voice user interface, and tying advertisements to natural language processing of voice-based input. VB Assets originally accused Amazon of infringing on six of its patents.

    Amazon still has time to appeal the judgment, and VoiceBox has time to seek reimbursement for related costs.

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      After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 8 November - 17:46

    Close-up image of Smart Television screensaver of roaring , dancing flames from beach barbecue burning wood against night sky, domestic life concept

    Enlarge / A non-Amazon TV displaying a fire. (credit: Getty )

    People who buy a Fire TV from Amazon are probably looking for a cheap and simple way to get an affordable 4K smart TV. When Amazon announced its first self-branded TVs in September 2021, it touted them as being a "great value." But owners of the devices will soon be paying for some of those savings in the form of more prominently displayed advertisements.

    Charlotte Maines, Amazon's director of Fire TV advertising, monetization, and engagement, detailed the new types of ads that Amazon is selling on Fire TVs. In a StreamTV Insider report from November 1, Amazon said the new ads will allow advertisers to reach an average of 155 million unique monthly viewers.

    Some of the changes targeting advertisers, like connecting display placement ads with specific in-stream video ads, seem harmless enough. Others could jeopardize the TV-watching experience for owners.

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      15 % d’économie en électricité ? Leroy Merlin lance des modules pour contrôler le chauffage

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Wednesday, 8 November - 08:00

    L'écosystème Enki de Leroy Merlin s'enrichit d'un module pour piloter son chauffage électrique à distance et d'un récepteur connecté pour ballon d'eau chaude. Des installations simples, pour mieux gérer sa consommation énergétique cet hiver. [Lire la suite]

    Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/