Sonos has revealed how its speakers will use Apple's new AirPlay 2 technology. Soon, anyone with a Sonos speaker will be able to listen to music just by clicking on their phone or asking Siri to put it on. But only if they have the right speakers. Last summer, Apple announced that it would give people new technology to let internet speakers communicate with their phones, computers and other products. That immediately led to questions about how other services would integrate the updated version of AirPlay.

Amazon has just introduced a new Alexa-powered speaker that's targeted at young users. Called the Echo Dot Kids Edition, the all-new Amazon smart speaker is a child-friendly device with a brightly colored protective case. On Wednesday, the Amazon product page for the Echo Dot Kids Edition went live, revealing all the important details about the $79.99 device. The new smart speaker comes with a protective case that has three color options: Blue, Green and Red. Preorders are now open, and the product is expected to ship on May 9. "Now Alexa is a kid-friendly DJ, comedian and storyteller -- and she's always getting smarter. Just ask and Alexa will play music, answer questions, read stories, tell jokes and more -- all with younger ears in mind," Amazon said in the product description for the Echo Dot Kids Edition.

We present Sounding Board, a social chatbot that won the 2017 Amazon Alexa Prize. The system architecture consists of several components including spoken language processing, dialogue management, language generation, and content management, with emphasis on user-centric and content-driven design. We also share insights gained from large-scale online logs based on 160,000 conversations with real-world users.

Amazon.com's Alexa has a little something to teach your kids about manners. After receiving feedback from some parents concerned about how voice assistants are affecting their kids attitudes, the company updated Alexa to reward children who asks for things nicely. Kids are some of the biggest fans of voice assistants, with some learning to talk to Alexa, Apple's Siri or Google's Assistant before they can form full sentences. But some parents have worried that having voice assistants around the house will make their children more rude, since the youngsters can bark out demands for a favorite television station or song at any time. Amazon heard from parents in comments on its products that they wanted a way to teach etiquette while using the voice assistant, the company said in statement.

Amazon.com's Alexa has a little something to teach your kids about manners. After receiving feedback from some parents concerned about how voice assistants are affecting their kids attitudes, the company updated Alexa to reward children who asks for things nicely. Kids are some of the biggest fans of voice assistants, with some learning to talk to Alexa, Apple's Siri or Google's Assistant before they can form full sentences. But some parents have worried that having voice assistants around the house will make their children more rude, since the youngsters can bark out demands for a favorite television station or song at any time. Amazon heard from parents in comments on its products that they wanted a way to teach etiquette while using the voice assistant, the company said in statement.

Amazon's smart assistant Alexa can now be made to encourage children to say: "Please," and: "Thank you," when issuing it voice commands. The new function addresses some parents' concerns that use of the technology was teaching their offspring to sound officious or even rude. In addition, parents can now set time limits on when requests are responded to, and can block some services. The move has been welcomed by one of Alexa's critics. In January, the research company ChildWise published a report warning that youngsters that grew up accustomed to barking orders at Alexa, Google Assistant or some other virtual personality might become aggressive in later dealings with humans.

Whether it's accidentally ordering a $170 dollhouse without mom and dad's permission or learning poor manners, the Amazon Echo's increasingly pervasive presence in the home has caused considerable concern for parents. Now, Amazon is hoping to address issues like these and make the Echo a more appealing learning tool for children with the debut of several new features and a new $79.99 The Echo Dot Kids Edition, which starts shipping on May 9, comes with Amazon's FreeTime parental controls, one year of FreeTime Unlimited (Amazon's $2.99 per-month subscription program for children's content), a child-friendly case for the device, and a two-year warranty. The Echo Dot Kids Edition will come in black with the option to pair it with a blue, green, or red case. Parents who already have an Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Plus don't need to purchase the Kids Edition to get the new software features, however.

Fast-food restaurants are working to provide experiences through mobile and digital channels to meet customer preferences and differentiate themselves from competitors in the crowded fast-food ecosystem. Domino's has long-term ambitions of being a leader in the fast-food chain world by weaving emerging tech into its daily operations, and the introduction of Dom to automate phone orders is another step toward that goal. A key promise of AI is to boost the accuracy of food ordering, especially as human employees juggle several tasks or face an onslaught of calls, by freeing employees to focus on making pizzas and other aspects of the business. Considering that pizza orders are highly customizable, the chances of errors multiply. By potentially cutting down on errors through the use of technology, restaurants like Domino's could improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs and make their employees more efficient on the job.

Conversica, the leader in conversational AI for business, today announced that its AI-based sales assistant technology is now deeply integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and is available from the Microsoft AppSource online marketplace. The Conversica AI Sales assistant integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 enables Microsoft customers to easily leverage Conversica's state-of-the-art conversational AI technology to automatically follow up with leads in their CRM and marketing automation systems. Conversica assistants, powered by advanced natural language processing and machine learning technology, carry on natural, two-way conversations with leads to engage and qualify them for sales. This automated lead follow-up ensures that 100 percent of marketing's leads are contacted 100 percent of the time and results in more meetings and, thus, more opportunities for sales. "Microsoft Dynamics 365 customers are some of the most sophisticated marketing and sales teams; however, they can still struggle with ensuring all the leads generated by marketing are qualified and handed off to sales at the right time," commented Victor Belfor, Senior Vice President of Business Development of Conversica.

It's important not to overstate the security risks of the Amazon Echo and other so-called smart speakers. They're useful, fun, and generally have well thought-out privacy protections. Then again, putting a mic in your home naturally invites questions over whether it can be used for eavesdropping--which is why researchers at the security firm Checkmarx started fiddling with Alexa, to see if they could turn it into a spy device. They did, with no intensive meddling required. The attack, which Amazon has since fixed, follows the intended flow of using and programming an Echo.