Let's just get this out of the way: The holidays are likely to look a lot different this year. From lining up outside a supermarket to buy a turkey and smaller in-home gatherings to near-empty planes and perhaps fewer gifts under the tree, Thanksgiving and Christmas during a global pandemic may seem more like "The Twilight Zone" than "It's a Wonderful Life." But that doesn't mean you still can't create a memorable – nay, magical – time for your family this time of year. In fact, tech can help with the holidays, in several ways, to make the most out of the situation. The following are five suggestions to make this year's Thanksgiving and Christmas more festive than forgettable.

Whether we realise, or accept it, artificial intelligence (AI) has already become an integral part of our everyday lives. It is everywhere, our workplace, homes, cars, phones, and computers. AI can influence our choices of TV shows, movies, and music based on things we have watched or listened to in the past and making suggestions through our Smart TVs, social media platforms, and other devices. Ads are targeted towards our interests based on our search history and we are more connected now than we have ever been through the use of artificial intelligence. Dating apps can pair you with your'perfect mate' with the use of algorithms based on a set of questions you are asked when signing up.

Not wanting to be outdone on top savings on big names, Amazon is hosting a whole Black Friday Week. It kicks off today and runs up until November 30, with thousands of deals available across the site. As always, some of the best discounts can be found on Amazon own devices. The mega-site is kicking off the shopping extravaganza with a host of incredible deals, including top savings on the new Echo Dot 4th Gen, Echo Show 5 and Fire 7 Tablet. You can even save £40 on the Kindle Kids Edition.

Sign up for internet service with Comcast's Xfinity, and the company will get you in for $19.95 for a relatively slow 25 megabits per second, or $49.99 for "faster speeds" like 200 Mbps. But if you're having trouble with your video calls dropping out, buffering when watching Netflix or waiting for websites to load on your computer, getting faster internet speed may not be the answer. That's the admittedly biased opinion of Nick Weaver, founder of Eero, a device that connects to your home internet and spreads Wi-Fi signals more evenly throughout the various rooms. "You're welcome to pay Comcast pay more money monthly if you like, but it won't solve the problem," Weaver says. You will get faster internet if using a wired connection, "but not in the places of the home where you need it," as in devices that depend upon Wi-Fi like laptops, smart TVs, connected speakers like Amazon Echo and more.

Jacob is a dreamer, visionary, strategist and the president and CEO of Flatworld Solutions Inc., an outsourcing services provider. Artificial intelligence (AI) today is more commonplace than ever. While still a subject of many sci-fi dystopian movies, it is hard to find an industry where AI hasn't made its mark yet. Thanks to the likes of Alexa, AI today is a hip household name. But the applications of AI go far beyond consumer-focused tech gadgets.

USask post-doctoral fellow Hao Zhang has developed a new artificial intelligence computer model that holds promise for making "smart" apps such as Siri safer, faster and more energy efficient. A new University of Saskatchewan (USask) artificial intelligence computer model holds promise for making "smart" apps such as Amazon, Apple, and Google's virtual assistants safer, faster and more energy efficient. "Smart" services such as facial recognition, weather forecasting, virtual assistants, and language translators rely on an artificial intelligence (AI) technology called "deep learning" to predict user patterns. But these AI processes often require too much storage to be run locally on mobiles, so the data is sent to external servers over the Internet, which requires lots of power, drains the phone battery, and may increase a user's privacy risk. "My method breaks down the AI computational processes in smaller'chunks' and this helps run the'smart' apps locally on the phone, rather than relying on external servers, while reducing power consumption," said Hao Zhang, a USask electrical and computer engineering post-doctoral fellow.

A new design of an AI assistant that has become increasingly popular is that of an "aggregated assistant" - realized as an orchestrated composition of several individual skills or agents that can each perform atomic tasks. In this paper, we will talk about the role of planning in the automated composition of such assistants and explore how concepts in automated planning can help to establish transparency of the inner workings of the assistant to the end-user. Conversational assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant, Figure 1: Simplified architecture diagram of Verdi (Rizk et and Alexa have found increased user adoption over the last al.

Last year, Amazon announced Echo Frames, which are almost exactly what they sound like -- a prescription-ready eyeglasses frame that looks pretty standard but has built-in microphones for you to summon Alexa. They were announced as a "Day One" product, made in limited quantities and only available via a special invitation. But now, a little over a year later, Echo Frames are available to anyone who wants them. As the first Day 1 item graduating to a full-fledged product, Amazon has made a bunch of improvements to these new Echo Frames. The first model had open-ear speakers where you would hear replies, and the new model can automatically adjust volume based on how loud your surroundings are. Amazon also says battery life is up to 40 percent longer (during continuous playback at 60 percent volume).

Have you heard the good news? Disney is available to stream on Google smart displays, just like many other popular streaming services including Netflix and Hulu. Technically you've always been able to watch Disney on a Google smart display (like the Nest Hub Max) by casting from another device, but that's not quite as smooth as calling out, "Hey Google, play Hamilton on Disney ." With the new update, it's easier than ever to catch up on all of your favorite movies and more when your Disney account is connected to a Google smart display--all you have to do is ask. Here's how to watch Disney using your Google-enabled smart display.

Fitbit is releasing Fitbit OS 5.1 for the Sense and Versa 3, with a focus on improving health-tracking and improving voice assistance. The most important innovation is the ability to now take pulse oximetry readings when you're sleeping without the use of a dedicated clock face. That said, the company will also launch seven new SpO2 clock faces to the platform between now and the end of the year. In addition, users can now switch between Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa by choosing which option you'd prefer inside the companion app. And while Google wants to welcome Fitbit under its umbrella, the company isn't neglecting Alexa integrations on the platform, with OS 5.1 offering spoken responses to commands.