Google Home is getting a big upgrade today: The smart speaker can now place voice calls, no cellphone needed. This feature was first announced back at Google I/O in May, but it's now ready to roll out to users in the US and Canada. It's yet another feature that helps keep the Home competitive with Amazon's Echo family, which added calling back in May. We haven't gotten to try it out yet, but it sounds like it should be pretty straightforward to get your Home working as a speakerphone. But there are a few things you'll want to know before you give it a shot.

You probably don't have a landline phone, because it's not 1995. But you miss it sometimes, don't you? Knowing where the phone was all the time, having something anyone could pick up and use, avoiding the rock-paper-scissors over who has to waste their cell phone battery calling Dominos. Earlier this year at its developer conference, Google promised to turn its Home smart speaker into a sort of futuristic landline. You can now call any business or person in your contacts, as long as they live in the US or Canada, just by asking Google to do so.

Amazon today announced a new program that gives developers a way to earn money for their Alexa skills – the voice apps that run on smart speakers like the Echo, and other Alexa-powered devices. According to the company, developers will be compensated for top-performing and "engaging" voice apps across over a half-dozen categories, including games, which were previously being compensated through a similar program. This program had first begun in May, when Amazon quietly introduced direct cash payouts to Alexa developers with popular games. Now, Amazon will begin to reward voice apps in other categories, including Education & Reference, Food & Drink, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Music & Audio, and Productivity, it says. The idea here is to offer developers a means of making money from their Alexa skills ahead of any formal monetization program.

Summary: There are five basic styles of recommenders differentiated mostly by their core algorithms. You need to understand what's going on inside the box in order to know if you're truly optimizing this critical tool. In our first article, "Understanding and Selecting Recommenders" we talked about the broader business considerations and issues for recommenders as a group. In this article we'll cover the five basic types of recommenders and their strengths and weaknesses. Given that Recommenders add 10% to 25% of incremental income to your ecommerce business you need to know exactly how these are working. Optimization will involve fine tuning as well as potentially combining different models.

Artificial Intelligence is radically changing the way we think of technology. It is progressing rapidly, with key advancements ranging from virtual assistants (such as Apple's Siri and Microsoft Cortana) to fraud detection. This emerging tech now plays a part in everyday life. Another study performed by Forrester Research predicted an increase of 300% in investment in AI this year (2017), compared to last year. "Artificial Intelligence" today includes a variety of technologies and tools, some time-tested, others relatively new.

Exoskeletons don't come cheap and they're not one size fits all, making them a daunting prospect for the average buyer. But, some companies are working towards changing that. In December, Hyundai promised to make the suits cheaper. And, researchers are using machine learning to make them more accessible for people with mobility issues. That's where Bionik Laboratories comes in.

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence IoT Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Anker, a hardware accessory manufacturer, will introduce a new, Echo Dot-sized smart speaker with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant built in, according to The Verge. The new speaker, which will go on sale August 16 for $35, will give consumers a new way to add an Alexa-enabled speaker to their homes and is an early example of Amazon's plan to move Alexa beyond just its own hardware. Amazon is looking to make Alexa widely available to give consumers a wide variety of device options.

According to Facebook, chatbots were going to change the way we get things done. Users were meant to be able to to buy flowers, order fast food and check in with their bank without ever having to leave the Messenger app. The company quickly dialed back its enthusiasm, admitting that they were somewhat overhyped, but its core technology, M, still underpins Messenger today. Most of that functionality has been limited to the US, but this week Facebook has brought what it calls "M Suggestions" to the UK, allowing users to enjoy recommendations from its AI-powered personal assistant. Facebook's M assistant is designed to pop up when it feels it can deliver content or provide timesaving advice inside an open Messenger chat.

Innovation is all around us, and the new conversational world is changing our world. If you are one if those unique innovative CIOs or CTOs, you also know that this change influences not only the way users interact with businesses but also the way businesses deploy and secure applications. The shift from a direct interaction using a browser or a mobile app to a mediated interaction using a third-party device or a platform such as Alexa, Messenger, and Siri creates new challenges for business, especially in highly regulated sectors like financial services or health. Security, compliance, and privacy is the basis for any digital strategy. The good news is that all major providers take security, compliance, and privacy seriously.

If you like being on the bleeding edge and aren't afraid of a few bugs, the Google Home Preview Program is now available to anyone who wants to sign up, as 9 to 5 Google noticed recently. If you'd rather not be an AI assistant guinea pig, fear not. When Google first announced the program, it assured users that "this is not beta software." Rather, it is production quality, and users are "simply getting earlier access to new features before they're released broadly." If that's so, it seems like every Home owner would sign up, so what's the catch?