If you've been contemplating purchasing one of Amazon's voice-enabled Echo smart speakers, now is a particularly good time to pull the trigger. Just in time for Amazon's Prime Day blowout sale, which kicks off at 9 p.m. ET on July 10, the company has slashed the prices of its Echo devices. The standard model will cost $89.99 Amazon's portable Tap speaker will be selling for $79.90, a $50 markdown. Amazon Echo Show with an Arlo security camera, Amazon will chop $75 off the total price. All Alexa-enabled devices can access third-party "skills," or voice apps, and are compatible with music streaming services including Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, and TuneIn.

By now most of us have learned first-hand that human-AI relations need some work. Amazon's Alexa personal assistant is plugged into one of the world's largest online stores and can pull information from Wikipedia. But can it help you when you yell out what in the moment feels like a simple request to play that summer banger you just heard, starting at the catchy chorus? "I'm sorry, I don't understand the question." All supposedly smart helpers including Apple's Siri and Google's prosaically named Google Assistant are capable of frustrating feats of what can feel like artificial stupidity. It's one reason that Google is starting a new research push to understand and improve the relations between humans and AI.

Google may strike me down, but I'm going to say it anyway: Some of the best Android apps I've used come from Microsoft. I'd even go so far as to say that as an Android developer, Microsoft has done what it couldn't with its own mobile platform--actually make you a Microsoft phone. If you use a Windows PC, there's ample reason to explore the company's suite of apps and services, as it can streamline the work you do between the desktop and your mobile device. It's not yet nearly as smooth as what Apple offers between the Mac and iOS, but Cortana and some other Windows 10 tools can make the experience pretty seamless. The most critical piece of the link between the desktop and mobile is Cortana.

Smart devices are steadily becoming a part of our daily lives, with gadgets like smart speakers, which are a combination of voice commands and artificial intelligence, being very useful in emergency scenarios. While users may be coming to terms with the idea of a slew of smart devices inside their homes, in their pockets or on their wrists, these devices are evolving fast in their capabilities in responding rapidly in emergency situations. Reports said a smart speaker saved the life of a woman and her daughter in New Mexico by alerting authorities to an alleged assault last week. Eduardo Barros allegedly pointed a gun at his girlfriend and posed the question: "Did you call the sheriffs?" This exchange triggered the speaker to call 911.

Major tech firms have been keen to sell speakers equipped with voice-based artificial intelligence agents recently. The debuts of smart speakers are seen as the prelude to an AI era, ushering in a new technological age in which virtual assistants are expected to become as ubiquitous as the smartphone, allowing people to connect to the internet by voice with greater ease. Whether these speakers will really take off and whether the technology will be popular in Japan remain to be seen. The following are answers to these questions as well as why AI speakers are creating a buzz and what will be the role of Japanese firms in this field. What makes AI speakers special?

First impressions count – and nowhere more than in online dating. But how lifelike are the selfies posted on websites like Tinder? New research shows both sexes are prone to manipulating their images to create the right impression for potential lovers. Men are much more likely to take their selfies from around waist height to make them appear taller, more powerful and more likely to be able to protect their partner. And women are much more likely to take them from above head height to accentuate facial features and disguise any concerns over body weight.

Here at Engadget UK, we want to deliver the latest technology news to wherever you are, on whatever device you happen to be using. You can already find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube, but today we're adding a new "app" to the mix: an Engadget UK Flash Briefing for the Amazon Echo. Simply install our Echo skill and have Alexa read up-to-the-minute updates on what's happening in the world of technology. Engadget UK Flash Briefings are free and take just seconds to install. First, head on over to Amazon UK, and then click the Enable button inside the "Get This Skill" box.

Artificial intelligence is helping the Army keep its Stryker armored vehicles in fighting shape. Army officials are using IBM's Watson AI system in combination with onboard sensor data, repair manuals and 15 years of maintenance data to predict mechanical problems before they happen. IBM and the Army's Redstone Arsenal post in Alabama demonstrated Watson's abilities on 350 Stryker vehicles during a field test that began in mid-2016. The Army is now reviewing the results of that test to evaluate Watson's ability to assist human mechanics, and the early insights are encouraging. The Watson AI enabled the pilot program's leaders to create the equivalent of a "personalized medicine" plan for each of the vehicles tested, said Sam Gordy, general manager of IBM U.S. Federal.

In this episode of WRLWND Radio, Marcello Sukhdeo talks about the rapid growth of voice-powered apps on Amazon's Alexa voice platform, also, a study that reveals that extreme Internet usage can lead to mental illness and he touches on the growth of video-gamers worldwide. Amazon's Alexa voice platform has now passed 15,000 skills, these are the voice-powered apps. This is up from last September when it was around 10,000. Today, Amazon is currently the leader in voice-powered devices and it is expected to control 70 percent of the market this year -- well ahead of Google Home, Lenovo, LG and others. Due to the increased interest in voice-powered devices, Apple has joined the party with the with its own Siri-powered device, the HomePod which will be released this December.

Each person who comes to Amazon.com It's as if you walked into a store and the shelves started rearranging themselves, with what you might want moving to the front, and what you're unlikely to be interested in shuffling further away. The algorithms aren't magic; they simply share with you what other people have already discovered. The algorithm does all the work. It's computers helping people help other people, implicitly and anonymously. Since we wrote about the algorithm in IEEE Internet Computing in 2003,2 it has seen widespread use across the Web, including YouTube, Netflix, and many others.