The Morning After: Amazon's Alexa-powered microwave, iOS 12 reviewed

The Alexa-powered Amazon microwave you didn't ask for is here. The company's big hardware splurge encompasses your car, your kitchen and even your walls. There's upgraded Echo devices, too, if that's what you were looking for. Meanwhile, Apple's iOS 12 is an update worth your time, and life insurance companies are very interested in your step count.

Alexa vs. Everybody
Amazon's new Echo lineup targets Google, Apple and Sonos

The company announced not one, not two, but seven new Echo products at an event in Seattle. With so many new Echo speakers and companion products, Amazon is clearly flexing its dominance in the personal-assistant space, as if thumbing its figurative nose at the likes of Google and Apple, who both arrived relatively late in the smart-speaker category. Pretty soon, everything in your life will be powered by Alexa, and you might not even realize it.

Voice control everywhere.Here's every Alexa device Amazon announced yesterday

Amazon caused a few gasps at its Alexa event Thursday when it revealed it had 70 things to announce. If that sounds like a lot to take in, fret not -- not all of those were hardware announcements. We've rounded up all of the Alexa-infused products Amazon showcased, including speakers, an in-car device and, um, a microwave?

The AmazonBasics Microwave is powered by Alexa

Amazon's new Echo Dot offers better sound at the same price

Amazon's new Echo Show packs a larger display and improved audio

Fire TV Recast offers both DVR and streaming on the go

Amazon's Echo Link is its answer to high-end audio

Amazon's Echo Input offers Alexa for your existing speakers

Amazon's Echo Auto puts Alexa in any car

Amazon's new Echo Plus has a better speaker and temperature sensor\

Amazon's new Echo Dot offers better sound at the same price

Screen Time can't magically give you self control.
Apple iOS 12 review: Less mess

iOS 12 doesn't pack loads of new features or a massive redesign -- just lots of polish and a few really thoughtful additions. Chris Velazco said "By focusing on polish over breakneck progress, Apple has put together what feels like the most complete, thoughtful version of iOS I've seen in a long time." The best part, though, is that if you're still hanging on to an older iOS device, you'll probably notice a boost in performance, too.

Sign up for a daily newsletter of the most important stories in tech.
Just enter your email and we'll take care of the rest:

The company is completely doing away with traditional policies.
John Hancock will require fitness tracking for life insurance

Life insurance company John Hancock, one of the oldest and largest underwriters in the US, has announced it will only sell policies that track fitness and health data. This isn't John Hancock's first foray into health and fitness tracking for its life insurance policies. The company began offering "interactive" programs back in 2015. Last year, John Hancock offered customers a $25 Apple Watch if they met certain fitness goals. Now, the company isn't offering its customers a choice; traditional life insurance plans will be converted to Vitality plans starting in 2019.

New features, same $399 price
GoPro Hero 7 Black review: An action camera for the social age

The HyperSmooth upgrade in stability alone will save hours of potential memories from the trash can. SuperPhoto makes the GoPro a more robust choice for stills, and the addition of live streaming is a plus for everyone. If you live on social or love to share in real time, the Hero 7's portrait mode, snackable videos, TimeWarps, live streaming and improved HDR images are all going to sing to you, or at the very least, give your trusty phone a run for its money.

Heard of Xbox Game Pass? It's like that.
PlayStation Now users can download certain PS4 and PS2 games

PS2 and PS4 on PlayStation Now are downloadable as well as streamable. Moving them to your system from the cloud cuts out annoying lag, but it does mean that Sony will require an occasional online check-in to verify your subscription to keep them functioning -- the same thing it teased for Xbox a few years ago.

But wait, there's more...

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't Subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.



via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2MTinTC
RSS Feed

If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me


Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more