The Echo Pop is like a sliced-in-half Echo Dot smart speaker. The setup for the Echo Pop is in the Alexa app, available for iOS and Android devices, and takes about five minutes to complete. The Echo Pop has a small light bar on the top of the speaker that illuminates when the speaker is activated (blue), muted (red), or there are notifications to review (yellow). The top of the speaker has press buttons to turn the volume up/down, and mute the mic. The Echo Pop is built with Amazon's AZ2 Neural Edge processor, allowing for more local processing of voice commands.

Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission. Amazon's Echo smart speakers and displays can listen for more than just your wake word--devices like the Echo Dot and Echo Show 5 can also keep an ear out for everyday household noises like barking dogs, appliance beeps, and even your snoring spouse (to name a few). The idea is to help turn your home's everyday sounds into triggers for your smart devices to make your life a little easier. Get deals and shopping advice delivered straight to your phone. Sign up for text message alerts from the experts at Reviewed.

Alexa, Amazon's digital assistant, can now listen out for running water and beeping home appliances, the firm has revealed. The tech giant has added both'sound detectors' to Alexa Routines – sequences of tasks linked to Alexa that users can program as a shortcut. It means Alexa can recognise the individual sounds and send a notification to the user via their device so they can attend to them. If users want Alexa to detect the ping of a tumble dryer when it finishes a spin, for example, they can set up a routine for Alexa to send an alert. Alexa, Amazon's digital assistant, can now listen out for running water and beeping appliances, the firm has revealed.

It can be tiring calling on Amazon's virtual assistant for every command to turn on a variety of smart home devices in succession. But did you know you can set up Alexa routines and create a single voice command that triggers a series of different actions? To design routines, you need to use the Alexa app. Once you make one, you can use an Alexa speaker, smart display, or another smart home device with built-in Alexa to trigger a routine. You can also schedule routines, or trigger them via third-party smart home devices, by dismissing alarms, or with Echo buttons.

One of the most powerful features of Amazon's Echo smart speakers is called Routines. Instead of just letting you do one thing at a time, Routines can tie multiple actions to a single voice command. They can even automate tasks without needing you to speak at all. Still, setting up Alexa Routines--and getting the most out of them--takes a bit of work and creativity. Here's everything you need to know about making your own: To begin creating Routines, open the Alexa app for Android or iOS, tap the menu button in the top-left corner, and select Routines.

One of the most important things I have learned while reporting on AI is that systems built on machine learning may be able to beat humans, or approximate their results, but they can often fail in ways that humans never would, and with unintended consequences. Consider the tale of a Redditor who asked earlier this week whether the Google Home had an internal temperature sensor. He was feeling a bit chilly at home and asked the assistant "What's the temperature inside?" He figured that the system would figure out the temperature from his Nest thermostat and report that back to him. Instead, the Google Assistant went and fetched the weather report for Side, a resort town in Turkey.