Goto

Collaborating Authors

 Personal Assistant Systems


Roomba robot vacuums gain Siri voice support as part of big update

Engadget

The Genius 4.0 Home Intelligence update adds Siri Shortcut Integration to the iRobot Home app, allowing iOS users to connect their devices to Apple's voice assistant. Similar to Google Assistant and Alexa users, they can set up their custom phrases or simply say "Hey Siri, ask Roomba to clean everywhere" to start the vacuum. Genius 4.0 also gives users the capability to create customizable smart maps for the Roomba i3 and i3 models, which they can access if they want their devices to clean specific rooms in the house. They can also create custom cleaning routines based on their schedules, automatons and the rooms they want to send the vacuum to. These particular features are now available in the Americas and will make their way to customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa by the end of the third quarter.


Amazon's latest Echo Show 5 is on sale for $45 right now

Engadget

Now might be a good moment to buy an Echo Show 5 as a smart alarm clock. Amazon is once more selling the second-gen Echo Show 5 for a record-low $45, or a large 47 percent below the official price. You can also buy the Kids edition for $55 (42 percent off) if the colorful shell and year-long Kids subscription prove appealing. The Echo Show 5 is practically tailor-made for your nightstand between its small size, a sunrise alarm and a tap-to-snooze feature. It sounds surprisingly good for its size and includes a camera (with privacy shutter) for morning video calls. If you just want to check the weather or control your Alexa-powered smart home from your bed, this is all you need.


Fossil's latest smartwatches now let you choose Alexa over Google Assistant

Engadget

You don't have to use Google Assistant if you're wearing a Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch. As promised in January, Gen 6 smartwatches now officially support the new Alexa watch app. Set it up and you can launch Amazon's assistant either from the screen (including through a tile) or by configuring one of the pushers. This will be helpful if your smart home revolves around Alexa, of course, but it also provides some choice if you don't want to be tied to one AI helper. This is the first Amazon-made Alexa app for a Wear OS device, Fossil said.


Apple launches iOS 15.4 update with pregnant man emoji and gender-neutral voice for Siri

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Apple has finally rolled out its much-anticipated iOS 15.4 update, allowing iPhone users to unlock their smartphone while wearing a mask. The update also includes 37 new emoji, including a pregnant man, a motorcycle tyre, a slide, a disco ball, a troll with a club, coral, kidney beans and a low battery. There's also a new'gender neutral' voice for its smart assistant Siri, called Quinn, recorded by a member of the LGBTQ community. 'iOS 15.4 offers the ability to use Face ID while wearing a mask, a new Siri voice option, expanded language support for Visual Lookup, new emoji, and much more,' Apple said. Here's a look at the key features in iOS 15.4, which is available now on the iPhone 16s or later.


macOS 12.3 arrives with Universal Control and spatial audio features

Engadget

Nine months after Apple first showed off the Universal Control feature, it's now available after the company rolled out macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4. The tool, which is in beta, allows you to control a Mac and iPad at the same time with a single keyboard and mouse (or trackpad). You can enter text on either device and drag files between them. Apple initially said Universal Control would be available last fall, but in December it delayed the release until this spring. Apple has enhanced spatial audio on M1-powered systems as well.


Ai Events

#artificialintelligence

A digital travel assistant who "knows" what you are looking for Imagine a scenario where a travel shopper is able to plan a trip, just the way one ends up following or liking content on Instagram or watching a series on Netflix. You come across travel-related offerings or bundles based on your interest, browsing sessions etc. But how to facilitate such an experience or a trip in a seamless way, for instance, via a platform that is like a #recommender system rather than a typical interface that makes you search for options from A to B. "Airlines without Enterprise AI and emerging data in their plans are planning to fail," said Ricardo Pilon, during Ai's event on retailing optimization. It is time carriers reassess how travellers shop, what are the shortcomings in #travel retailing and how to solve customer queries or come up with recommendations in real-time. Pilon spoke about a concept called "retail marketplace of experiences", toward which he is developing a solution.



Every iPhone and Android user should know these genius commands

FOX News

Man holds his mobile smart phone. Look up next time you're outside and guess where the airplane above you is headed. Ask Siri this phrase, "What flights are overhead?" You'll see the carrier, flight number, and altitude in seconds. I love sharing simple digital life tips that make things easier.


Recommendation System Tutorial with Python using Collaborative Filtering

#artificialintelligence

A recommendation system generates a compiled list of items in which a user might be interested, in the reciprocity of their current selection of item(s). It expands users' suggestions without any disturbance or monotony, and it does not recommend items that the user already knows. For instance, the Netflix recommendation system offers recommendations by matching and searching similar users' habits and suggesting movies that share characteristics with films that users have rated highly. In this tutorial, we will dive into building a recommendation system for Netflix. This tutorial's code is available on Github and its full implementation as well on Google Colab.


Tinder users help Ukrainian refugees find shelter and support

Engadget

Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, more than 2.5 million people have fled the country, making it Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II. In trying to find shelter in neighboring countries like Romania, some Ukrainian refugees have turned to an unexpected place for help: Tinder. The New York Times recounts the tale of one such individual, Anastasia Tischchenko. She and her friend Natalia Masechko posted their plight to the dating app when they fled their home of Ivano-Frankivsk, a city of approximately 230,000 located in western Ukraine, south of Lviv. "I'm thinking there are a lot of honest people in the world, and some of them are on Tinder," Tischchenko told The Times.