All posts tagged: Amazon Alexa

Amazon Ember Artline Review: A Stylish Art Television

Amazon Ember Artline Review: A Stylish Art Television

Published by skeptic

One unique feature is a free “moving artwork” functionality. Imagine a static painting where a portion of the art, such as a river or mist over a mountain, is moving slightly. It’s calming and beautiful. At least dozens are available, but I’m not able to add my own. The TCL NXTVISION also features paintings in a slowly moving video format, but the video art on the Ember Artline looks more realistic. In particular, I was blown away by some of the subtle clips, including one scene that shows the sun passing over a mountain range in extreme hi-def. Another unique feature is Match the Room. It uses a photo where the TV is situated, then generates AI images that fit within the space’s color scheme. Having my TV display art that fits the aesthetic of my family room’s brown walls and dark blue couch made me feel like an interior designer. Then there’s the Omnisense feature, which claims to know when you leave the room. At that point, it turns off the art display, then …

Amazon Alexa+ comes to the UK and I saw it in action

Amazon Alexa+ comes to the UK and I saw it in action

Published by Sam Flores

I caught a glimpse of Alexa in the UK before the public launch. While Alexa’s voice remains the same as it was before, the level of understanding has jumped hugely, with conversations that are more like Google’s Gemini or ChatGPT. You can now say what you want and have discussions, which previously would be greeted with “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that”. But Alexa loves to waffle. In many of the demos I witnessed, it’s clear that Alexa is happy to keep supplying information beyond the original question. This sort of contextual gumpf is typical of AI systems, with Gemini and ChatGPT both doing the same. During the demos, Trevor Wood, Amazon’s lead speech scientist, said that a lot of adaptation had been made to cater for the UK’s 40 regional dialects. I noticed that Alexa would occasionally say “mate”, while at one point, it said, “I’ll just have a gander at that”. Hopefully, Alexa won’t always talk like a London cabbie in conversation. For smart home users, creating ‘routines’ should be much easier. …