How the Amazon Echo learned to talk — and listen
How the Amazon Echo learned to talk — and listen A photo of a black speaker, the Amazon Echo, on a gray background. | Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Jeff Bezos badly wanted a voice computer. He had been saying so publicly since the very early days of Amazon, telling anyone who would […]
Amazon is making an Alexa phone
Amazon is making an Alexa phone Over ten years after shelving the Fire Phone, Amazon is reportedly planning to launch another smartphone, this time focused on Alexa. According to Reuters, the phone, which is code-named “Transformer,” will center around Amazon’s AI assistant, but Alexa won’t “necessarily be the primary operating system of the phone.” “Transformer” […]
OpenAI snags $110 billion in investments from Amazon, Nvidia, and Softbank
OpenAI snags $110 billion in investments from Amazon, Nvidia, and Softbank OpenAI has closed another round of funding, totalling $110 billion being newly committed to the maker of ChatGPT, which it says has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million consumer subscribers. Amazon is investing $50 billion and striking a deal […]
You can now make Alexa’s AI personality more friendly, blunt, or chilled out
You can now make Alexa's AI personality more friendly, blunt, or chilled out That Brief option sounds great for people like me who find cheerful chatbots to be creepy or unsettling. | Image: Amazon Amazon is giving you more control over how Alexa behaves during conversations and responses. Three “personality style” presets are launching today […]
Amazon’s Send to Alexa Plus makes the Kindle Scribe feel more like a productivity device
Amazon's Send to Alexa Plus makes the Kindle Scribe feel more like a productivity device Amazon’s rolling out a new “Send to Alexa Plus” feature to the latest Kindle Scribe and Kindle Scribe Colorsoft owners starting February 12. The feature lets you send your notes or documents to Amazon’s AI-powered Alexa Plus assistant, which can […]
The Alexa app is so bad I’m using Siri again
The Alexa app is so bad I'm using Siri again My shopping list in Apple’s Reminders app (left) and in Amazon’s Alexa app (right). A recent UI overhaul of the Alexa app has made the list a lot harder to add to and use. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images I’ve used […]
Amazon rolls out Alexa Plus nationwide and launches a new free tier
Amazon rolls out Alexa Plus nationwide and launches a new free tier Amazon has announced that its generative AI-powered digital assistant Alexa Plus is now available to all Prime members in the US via any Alexa-enabled device, Alexa.com, and the Alexa mobile app. If you don’t have Prime, you can access the assistant on a […]
Amazon’s desk-friendly Echo Show 8 is down to its lowest price ever
Amazon's desk-friendly Echo Show 8 is down to its lowest price ever If you’re looking for a versatile gift for Valentine’s Day that can be sentimental and practical, Amazon’s fourth-generation Echo Show 8 can serve as both a digital photo frame and a smart home controller. And right now, it’s on sale at Amazon for […]
Amazon has started automatically upgrading Prime members to Alexa Plus
Amazon has started automatically upgrading Prime members to Alexa Plus Over the past couple of weeks, users on the r/alexa subreddit have reported getting automatically upgraded to Alexa Plus as a perk for their Prime memberships. The update doesn’t appear to be opt-in, but there’s an option to roll it back. Screenshots of a message […]
How AI broke the smart home in 2025
How AI broke the smart home in 2025 This morning, I asked my Alexa-enabled Bosch coffee machine to make me a coffee. Instead of running my routine, it told me it couldn’t do that. Ever since I upgraded to Alexa Plus, Amazon’s generative-AI-powered voice assistant, it has failed to reliably run my coffee routine, coming […]