We're hurtling toward the holiday shopping season, which means companies are putting the finishing touches on their gadgets and getting them ready for the impending crush of consumerism. This week, we met a bundle of new Alexa-based products from Amazon, and Spotify sent everyone on your friends list into a full-on nostalgia bender. Here's what you might have missed last week. Amazon gave the Echo smart speaker lineup a near-total refresh last week. Taking the place of the old $179 Echo are two new devices: an adorably small $99 Echo speaker, and a $150 Echo Plus--which has bigger speakers and more advanced smart home controls.

With its cannon and claw accessories, last year's Mambo drone from Parrot was more a toy than a photography tool. The latest version of the mini drone looks to be at least more fun, if not more useful, than its predecessor. The Mambo FPV comes with a camera attachment and a headset, so you can stream what the tiny flyer is seeing right into your eyes. Last year's Mambo came with a cannon that shoots six pellets up to six feet and a "Grabber" claw that picks up very small objects weighing up to four ounces. The new version isn't physically different -- it just comes with different accessories (the older ones are also compatible). Parrot increased the wireless range between the Bluetooth controller and the drone so you can now fly it up to 100 meters (330 feet) away, up from 60 meters before.

Now, scientists are testing so called human robots with artificial intelligence that speak and express emotions.

Sibyl harnesses artificial intelligence that is capable of learning when to schedule individual patients in order to increase utilization.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used more and more in devices including virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa.

Technology firms and advertisers for years have been trying to figure out how to use cloud technology and digital data to curate programming tailored to individual viewers. Zone TV, which has offices in Santa Monica and Toronto, on Monday announced the latest experiment in that pursuit. The company plans to launch a group of 14 subscription video-on-demand television channels, including Foodies, Great Outdoors, Motors, Stylers, Mancave and Playground for children. The twist: rather than employing TV executives to program the channels, Zone TV said it uses artificial intelligence to select and serve videos to individual viewers. Zone TV said it has secured license agreements with various content owners, including NASA, the production firm behind the children's show "Bob the Builder," and traditional magazine publishers including Field & Stream and Outdoor Life to construct a small library of programming.

For decades, we have listened to a one-way radio to get our daily dose of news and music. Spotify came along and redefined the whole experience of consuming music. And now, we, at CityFALCON, are changing your consumption experience for news. Get started by activating our skill for English-US or English-UK on your Echo. You could create new watchlists, add topics to follow (from stocks, commodities, foreign exchange, indices, cryptocurrencies, and more), and identify opportunities through trending topics.

Japan's pop culture is dominated by two inextricably linked industries – video games and animation. The twin forces even form part of the country's Cool Japan ambassadorial project, pushing Japanese creativity to a global market. Yet in the west, although anime fandom has grown significantly, we still tend to see the fields as separate, aficionados of one medium only occasionally crossing over to the other. Anime is a powerful storytelling platform in its own right though, and with increased home video releases and a cavalcade of titles available on streaming platforms such as Netflix and Crunchyroll, it's never been easier for players to explore a medium that has inspired thousands of video games over the last 40 years. Here are 10 titles absolutely rooted in gaming culture.

Not long ago one of my clients told me he badly needed "Artificial Intelligence for Dummies."