An Australian man acquitted of murder last month after his Tinder date plummeted off a balcony to her death faced new criticism after he acknowledged in a TV interview that the woman had screamed "no" a reported 33 times before she fell. "Yeah, she was certainly trying to make a lot of noise," Gable Tostee commented in the interview, which aired on the Nine Network's "60 Minutes." Critics also lashed out after The Courier Mail claimed Tostee was paid a six-figure sum for the interview. A senior detective called it "disgusting". The detective continued, "There's a lot of anger among police about this. Of course we respect the court's decision to find him not guilty but for him to now do a paid interview after everything this poor girl's family has been through, is horrific."

Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Which Robot Do You Let Into Your Life?

SEOUL-- Samsung Electronics Co. is looking to give its Siri-like virtual assistant a big promotion. The South Korean smartphone giant is considering a hardware revamp for its next flagship smartphone that could add a dedicated button for an improved artificial-intelligence feature, people familiar with the matter said, as it seeks to woo smartphone users after a disastrous product recall last month. The latest internal prototypes of the premium Galaxy S8 handset include a button on the side edge of the smartphone that would be used to launch a beefed-up virtual assistant based on artificial intelligence, akin to Apple Inc.'s Siri, according to these people, who cautioned that the prototypes aren't final and could change. Samsung will have more time than usual to tinker with the Galaxy S8 after it was forced to discontinue its premium Galaxy Note 7 smartphone last month, following reports of phones catching fire. The embarrassing fiasco damaged the company's brand and engineers still don't know exactly what caused the devices to overheat.

The Google Home is a voice-activated smart speaker that interfaces to Google's new Assistant, also available on the new Pixel phones and on Google Allo messaging app. By default, it ships with a fabric covered base in gray material. And currently, the only color option for the upper (plastic) portion of the device is white. To be clear, Google has never said there would be a color for the Home itself other than white, although we really think it would look slick in black, too. But maybe that will happen next year.

Merriam-Webster's two part definition of Artificial Intelligence or AI is "an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence; the power of a machine to copy intelligent human behavior." Make no mistake about it, AI is very much the "in term" around the marketing water coolers. And as such there is no shortage of pieces being written espousing the benefits of AI on the world of marketing. Earlier this month Google unveiled Google Assistant, that was described as being most exciting new product announcement since the iPhone in 2007. According to Geek Time "It is an AI personal assistant that chats with you and can assist you with many tasks. You can chat or talk to the Assistant and it can bring you relevant information, send messages, book events, save reminders, change the lights, play content on your TV and many other actions. Google is working hard to bring more functionality to its Assistant, so you can expect its capabilities to improve over time."

Samsung needs something big next year. After all, it's precisely that line that put the company in its current position, up against the ropes during the time of year that ought be its most profitable. In a number of ways, the Note 7 fiasco couldn't have come at a less opportune time, heading into the holidays, just prior to the launch of a new iPhone, and as countless newcomers are vying for the public's attention/affection with low price/high-speced takes on Android. And then it went and recalled 2.8 million washing machines. But the company has clearly been thinking big for the next generation.

The early round of Black Friday tech deals from Amazon and Dell point to some big discounts on TVs and game consoles. With just over three weeks to go until the big shopping week, we now have an idea of what to expect when it comes to a variety of other tech products. Similar to Dell, Costco and Staples will be offering deep discounts on computers. Microsoft's popular Surface Pro 4 tablet for instance, will be priced at $799.99 at Staples, a $200 discount, although the $129.99 keyboard accessory is not included. Costco will have a bundle that includes the tablet as well as the keyboard add-on for $250 off its regular price, or roughly $749.99 assuming the discount is applied to the similar bundle Costco currently offers.

Samsung has announced that the upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone will include the company's own digital assistant. Executive Vice President Rhee Injong told Reuters that the acquisition of Viv Labs will power the new platform, which will also expand into the wearables and other smart home devices. Injon hinted that third-party services will also be able to connect to the platform, which is a key part of making AI more useful. "Developers can attach and upload services to our agent," she said. "Even if Samsung doesn't do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease."

Google has finally launched an own-brand smartphone, the Pixel, to challenge Apple head on and provide a premium Android experience with the hardware tailored to the software by the people who actually make it.. The new smartphone succeeds Google's Nexus line of devices and the company claims that the Pixel is now 100% Google, unlike the Nexus devices where Google provided the software and had some input into the devices but not total control. The Pixel phone joins the Pixel C Android tablet and Chromebook Pixel as Google's first in-house devices. But for Google, the Pixel isn't just a smartphone, it's a referendum on whether Google as a brand sells. With an all-metal body, all-glass display, rock-solid build, fingerprint scanner and headphones socket, the Pixel ticks most of the boxes expected of top-end smartphone, except for a lack of waterproofing. How attractive it is as a design divides opinion.

The Echo is 22 percent off for its 2nd birthday. We've scoured the web to find you the best deals on good products. And in order to celebrate, Amazon has dropped the Echo to its lowest price yet--$140. But, this is a birthday deal only. At the end of the day, the price will go back up. So, if you're in the market to improve your smart home, you better act fast.