Amazon's Echo Dot is the most cost-effective way to add voice-activated control to your smart home. There's an Alexa skill for just about every smart-home platform, DIY or custom installed, and second-generation Echo Dot's cost just $50 each. I have six deployed in my own house, connected to a Vivint Smart Home system. The Vaux speaker dock changes that and delivers a bonus: A rechargeable battery that lets you take Alexa all over your house--and out onto the porch, too. The Vaux costs $50, so it and an Echo Dot still cost less than Amazon's own portable Alexa solution, the Amazon Tap. The Vaux's speaker not only sounds better than the Tap, it doesn't force you to press a button to get Alexa's attention like the Tap does.

Farming is, by far, the most mature industry mankind has created. Dating back to the dawn of civilization, farming has been refined, adjusted and adapted -- but never perfected. We, as a society, always worry over the future of farming. Today, we even apply terms usually reserved for the tech sector -- digital, IoT, AI and so on. So why are we worrying? The Economist, in its Q2 Technology Quarterly issue, proclaims agriculture will soon need to become more manufacturing-like in order to feed the world's growing population.

Gamescom, the world's largest video game event, has just taken place in Cologne, bringing 400,000 visitors – including Angela Merkel – to the vast Koelnmesse for a week of hype and hands-on action. Here are the 11 games we most enjoyed amid the chaos. This long-awaited platformer matches its astonishing 1930s cartoon art-style with manic gameplay inspired by classic console titles from the 1980s and 90s. The run-and-gun action is deceptively tricky, thanks to some seriously challenging bosses, but its meticulous detail will keep you in awe while you die over and over again. Gets extra points for its soundtrack, composed by a 10-piece ragtime jazz band (including the occasional tap shoe sound effects).

Most data turns out to have a greater value than the sum of the parts. There's a story about a global courier firm that said it saw a large drop off in its monthly orders at some point in 2007, not too long before the bottom fell out of the global economy. Traditional economic forecasting did not see an issue, but had there been some visibility into trade finance data at that time it would have shown many contracts had been cancelled, affording us some warning of what was ahead. Macro-economic forecasters and statistical analysts know that trade data provides the most precise window into the global economy there is. Trade finance data has always been a notoriously opaque part in the supply chain, but we are now seeing end-to-end digitisation, as a multitude of banks and software providers test out trade/supply blockchains and other digital platforms.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) are just some of the technology phrases that are becoming part of business discussions at insurance companies across South Africa. Kelly Preston, data analytics manager at SilverBridge, discusses how they contribute to next-level data analytics. Even though insurance companies are incredibly data rich, very few of them harness the potential of data for more customised solutions tailored for an increasingly knowledgeable customer base. It is no longer good enough to provide generic products and services. The connected citizen expects more nuanced offerings that consider their specific wants and needs.

Learn more about how to implement AI at the Artificial Intelligence Conference, September 17 - 20, San Francisco, CA. It has been seven years since Apple unveiled Siri, and three since Jeff Bezos, inspired by Star Trek, introduced Alexa. But the idea of conversational interfaces powered by artificial intelligence has been around for decades. In 1966, MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum introduced ELIZA--generally seen as the prototype for today's conversational AI. Decades later, in a WIRED story, Andrew Leonard proclaimed that "Bots are hot," further speculating they would soon be able to "find me the best price on that CD, get flowers for my mom [and] keep me posted on the latest developments in Mozambique."

Drone delivery is finally getting off the ground. And the action is happening in East Africa. Zipline, a pioneering drone startup that began delivering blood packs to Rwanda's remote hospitals in October 2016, today announced a major expansion into Tanzania. In early 2018 the company will begin flying its delivery drones to more than 1000 health care facilities around Tanzania, bringing urgently needed medicines and supplies to big hospitals and tiny rural clinics alike. Keller Rinaudo, founder and CEO of Zipline, says that "the richest companies in the world" are still trying to figure out how to make instant drone delivery work as a commercial service (as IEEE Spectrum has noted in it's coverage of Google's Project Wing and Amazon's Prime Air).

Drones soon will be used in Tanzania to deliver medicines to health facilities across the East African country, continuing a trend of African governments embracing drone networks to deliver critical services.

Few technological advancements have been as divisive as artificial intelligence (AI), especially in matters where human lives could hang in the balance. For example, AI is already seeing increased use in the medical industry, but many consumers view AI as unpredictable, or even dangerous, not to mention entirely superfluous. For reference, AI refers to any machine or automated process that's designed to imitate human intelligence, usually in the realms of learning, reasoning, or self-correction. Modern AI algorithms often fall into the category of machine learning, where complex algorithms can "teach" themselves to improve certain skills, such as recognizing diagnostic criteria for certain diseases. Despite the fears associated with it, AI is becoming increasingly necessary in many cases to advance medical treatment and improve outcomes.