Tech News - Home Automation

Researchers from the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo and the University of Michigan released a paper on Monday, that gives alarming cues about the security of voice-control devices. In the research paper the researchers presented ways in which they were able to manipulate Siri, Alexa, and other devices using “Light Commands”, a vulnerability in in MEMS (microelectro-mechanical systems) microphones. Light Commands was discovered this year in May. It allows attackers to remotely inject inaudible and invisible commands into voice assistants, such as Google assistant, Amazon Alexa, Facebook Portal, and Apple Siri using light. This vulnerability can become more dangerous as voice-control devices gain more popularity. How Light Commands work Consumers use voice-control devices for many applications, for example to unlock doors, make online purchases, and more with simple voice commands. The research team tested a handful of such devices, and found that Light Commands can work on any smart speaker or phone that uses MEMS. These systems contain tiny components that convert audio signals into electrical signals. By shining a laser through the window at microphones inside smart speakers, tablets, or phones, a far away attacker can remotely send inaudible and potentially invisible commands which are then acted upon by Alexa, Portal, Google assistant or Siri. Many users do not enable voice authentication or passwords to protect devices from unauthorized use. Hence, an attacker can use light-injected voice commands to unlock the victim's smart-lock protected home doors, or even locate, unlock and start various vehicles. Further researchers also mentioned that Light Commands can be executed at long distances as well. To prove this they demonstrated the attack in a 110 meter hallway, the longest hallway available in the research phase. Below is the reference image where team demonstrates the attack, additionally they have captured few videos of the demonstration as well. Source: Light Commands research paper. Experimental setup for exploring attack range at the 110 m long corridor The Light Commands attack can be executed using a simple laser pointer, a laser driver, and a sound amplifier. A telephoto lens can be used to focus the laser for long range attacks. Detecting the Light Commands attacks Researchers also wrote how one can detect if the devices are attacked by Light Commands. They believe that command injection via light makes no sound, an attentive user can notice the attacker's light beam reflected on the target device. Alternatively, one can attempt to monitor the device's verbal response and light pattern changes, both of which serve as command confirmation. Additionally they also mention that so far they have not seen any such cases where the Light Command attack has been maliciously exploited. Limitations in executing the attack Light Commands do have some limitations in execution: Lasers must point directly at a specific component within the microphone to transmit audio information. Attackers need a direct line of sight and a clear pathway for lasers to travel. Most light signals are visible to the naked eye and would expose attackers. Also, voice-control devices respond out loud when activated, which could alert nearby people of foul play. Controlling advanced lasers with precision requires a certain degree of experience and equipment. There is a high barrier to entry when it comes to long-range attacks. How to mitigate such attacks Researchers in the paper suggested to add an additional layer of authentication in voice assistants to mitigate the attack. They also suggest that manufacturers can attempt to use sensor fusion techniques, such as acquiring audio from multiple microphones. When the attacker uses a single laser, only a single microphone receives a signal while the others receive nothing. Thus, manufacturers can attempt to detect such anomalies, ignoring the injected commands. Another approach proposed is reducing the amount of light reaching the microphone's diaphragm. This can be possible by using a barrier that physically blocks straight light beams to eliminate the line of sight to the diaphragm, or by implementing a non-transparent cover on top of the microphone hole to reduce the amount of light hitting the microphone. However, researchers also agreed that such physical barriers are only effective to a certain point, as an attacker can always increase the laser power in an attempt to pass through the barriers and create a new light path. Users discuss photoacoustic effect at play On Hacker News, this research has gained much attention as users find this interesting and applaud researchers for the demonstration. Some discuss the laser pointers and laser drivers price and features available to hack the voice assistants. Others discuss how such techniques come to play, one of them says, “I think the photoacoustic effect is at play here. Discovered by Alexander Graham Bell has a variety of applications. It can be used to detect trace gases in gas mixtures at the parts-per-trillion level among other things. An optical beam chopped at an audio frequency goes through a gas cell. If it is absorbed, there's a pressure wave at the chopping frequency proportional to the absorption. If not, there isn't. Synchronous detection (e.g. lock in amplifiers) knock out any signal not at the chopping frequency. You can see even tiny signals when there is no background. Hearing aid microphones make excellent and inexpensive detectors so I think that the mics in modern phones would be comparable. Contrast this with standard methods where one passes a light beam through a cell into a detector, looking for a small change in a large signal. https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoret... Hats off to the Michigan team for this very clever (and unnerving) demonstration.” Smart Spies attack: Alexa and Google Assistant can eavesdrop or vish (voice phish) unsuspecting users, disclose researchers from SRLabs How Chaos Engineering can help predict and prevent cyber-attacks preemptively An unpatched security issue in the Kubernetes API is vulnerable to a “billion laughs” attack Intel’s DDIO and RDMA enabled microprocessors vulnerable to new NetCAT attack Wikipedia hit by massive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack; goes offline in many countries

At its annual hardware event 2019, Amazon unveiled an avalanche of Alexa-powered products. It introduced a high-end Echo Studio, the new Echo Show 8, an Echo Dot with a clock, and a four-in-one Amazon Smart Oven. The company is also trying to enter the smart wearables market with its Echo Frames eyewear and Echo Loops. It also debuted Echo Buds earbuds, a competition to Apple’s Airpods. Echo Frames and Echo Loops are part of Amazon’s Day 1 Editions program. It is a program for experimental products that are offered with limited availability to see customers’ response and then mass-produced if the response is positive. Alexa becomes more "emotive and expressive" Amazon announced that Alexa now has a multilingual mode. This new mode will be initially available in three countries: the US, Canada, and India. Other than English, Alexa will speak Spanish in the US, French in Canada, and Hindi in India. Customers will be able to interact with Alexa-powered devices in both languages simultaneously. In addition to becoming a polyglot, Alexa will also be more “emotive and expressive” with the help of a new Neural Text to Speech model. Additionally, customers will be able to switch Alexa’s voice to a celebrity voice. It will use the new text-to-speech technology to mimic celebrity voices, with Samuel L. Jackson’ being the first. Amazon will roll out additional celebrity voices next year priced at $0.99 each. Amazon’s steps towards better privacy Amazon’s Alexa has raised several privacy concerns among users. In July, Amazon admitted that a few voice recordings made by Alexa are never deleted from the company’s server, even when the user manually deletes them. Another news in April this year revealed that when you speak to an Echo smart speaker, not only does Alexa but potentially Amazon employees also listen to your requests. In May, two lawsuits were filed in Seattle stating that Amazon is recording voiceprints of children using its Alexa devices without their consent. The company says it is taking a few steps to address these privacy concerns. Amazon’s hardware and services chief Dave Limp announced, “We’re investing in privacy across the board. Privacy cannot be an afterthought when it comes to the devices and services we offer our customers. It has to be foundational and built-in from the beginning for every piece of hardware, software, and service that we create.” Amazon has introduced a new set of features that will give users more control over their stored voice recordings on their Alexa device. Users will be able to hear everything Alexa recorded with the help of voice command and delete them on a rolling three-month or eight-month basis. Amazon’s Ring doorbells have faced criticism from privacy and civil rights advocates because of its ties with police departments. “While more surveillance footage in neighborhoods could help police investigate crimes, the sheer number of cameras run by Amazon's Ring business raises questions about privacy involving both law enforcement and tech giants,” a story by CNET revealed. To somewhat address this concern Ring video doorbells now have a new feature called Home Mode that stops audio and video recording when the owner is home. Coming to the privacy of kids, Amazon announced that parents can use a new setting called Alexa Communications for Kids. This will help them determine the contacts their kids are allowed to interact with when using Echo Dot Kids Edition. The Echo family Echo with improved audio quality Amazon has revived its baseline Echo speaker with improved audio quality. The new audio hardware includes neodymium drivers, more volume, and a stronger mid-range. Users now also have new colorful fabric covers (Twilight Blue, Charcoal, Heather Grey, and Sandstone) to choose from. It is priced at $99, the same as its predecessor. Echo Studio, Amazon's first high-end smart speaker with immersive 3D audio support Source: Amazon Amazon’s big reveal of its first high-end smart speaker, Echo Studio was probably one of the key highlights of the event. It is also the first smart speaker to feature 3D audio with both Dolby Atmos and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio codecs on board. It was built with Amazon’s new Music HD streaming service to provide Echo customers with a way to listen to lossless music. Echo Studio achieves its immersive 3D soundscape with the help of five drivers. These include three 2-inch midrange speakers, a 1-inch tweeter, and a 5.25-inch woofer. Out of the three mid-range speakers, two emit the sound from the sides, while the third emits from the front of the cylinder. These are strategically placed so that Echo Studio is able to “position” sound in a 3D space. Echo Dot with Clock Source: Amazon Amazon’s popular entry-level smart speaker, Echo Dot now has a digital alarm built into the front, next to the speaker grille. Its LED display also allows the Dot to show the weather or a countdown timer. This new version will not replace the current Dot, but will instead exist alongside it in the company’s current Echo lineup. Echo Show 8, a smaller 8-inch version of Echo Show 10 Source: Amazon Back in June, Amazon introduced Echo Show 5, which packs a lot of features into a compact smart display and serves as an alarm clock alternative. There is already a 10-inch flagship model of the Echo device. And, at Wednesday’s event, it announced yet another version of the smart screen: Echo Show 8. Echo Show 8 provides audio quality similar to the 10-inch version and has a built-in privacy shutter. It also includes the new Drop-in On All feature that lets users create a large group chat with family and friends. Echo Loop and Frames This time Amazon has also ventured into smart wearables with Alexa-powered Echo Loops and Frames. The main purpose of these two smart wearables is to enable customers to use Alexa wherever they go, whenever they want. Source: Amazon Echo Loop is a smart ring made out of titanium that activates when you press a tiny discreet button. It features built-in microphones and speakers to facilitate interaction with Alexa. It allows you to shut off the microphones by double-tapping an action button. Echo Loop comes in three sizes: small, medium, large and extra-large. You can also get ring sizing kit to help you figure out which size is best for you. Coming to its battery life, Amazon is promising that it will last about a day. It has a vibrating haptic engine for notifications and connects to your phone's Alexa app via Bluetooth. Source: Amazon Echo Frames look like your typical black-framed spectacles. They are lightweight and compatible with most prescription lenses. It has built-in directional microphones for interacting with Alexa that can be turned off with the double-press of a button when not needed. It relies on Amazon’s open-ear technology to send a response from the assistant to your ears. Echo Buds with Bose noise cancellation technology Source: Amazon Amazon is challenging Apple’s AirPods and Samsung Galaxy Buds with its new Echo Buds. It provides hands-free access to Alexa and includes Bose’s Active Noise Reduction Technology. Each earbud has a pair of balanced armature driver to deliver good bass. Though its five hours of battery life isn't great, charging case brings the total runtime up to 20 hours before you need to plug in again. Echo Glow, a multicolor lamp for kids Source: Amazon Echo Glow is a multicolor lamp for kids that do not have Alexa onboard. However, to make it work you need to connect it to any of your Alexa-enabled devices and ask Alexa to change the color, adjust brightness, and create helpful routines. It can also be controlled with a tap. A couple of its interesting use cases include “rainbow timer”, wake up light alarm, and campfire mode. Echo Flex is a small Echo that plugs directly into the wall Source: Amazon Echo Flex is the affordable and versatile version of Echo Dot smart speaker. You can plug the device directly into a wall outlet to get Alexa’s smart assistant at places where the smart assistant otherwise couldn’t reach. With Echo Flex, you can manage all your compatible smart devices using voice commands. For instance, you can switch on the lamp before getting out of bed or dim the lights from the couch to watch a movie. Amazon Sidewalk, a low-power, low-bandwidth network Most wireless standards including Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and Z-Wave have low-range and are typically confined to your home. Other major wireless standards like LTE have a much larger range, but are expensive, hard to maintain, and eat up a vast amount of power. Amazon says that its Sidewalk network can solve this problem. It is a new wireless standard that casts a signal as far as a mile keeping low-power and low-bandwidth. To achieve this the company has repurposed unlicensed 900 MHz spectrum. This is the same spectrum that is used by cordless phones and walkie talkies to communicate. But unlike walkie-talkies or cordless phones, devices using Amazon Sidewalk will form a mesh network. Among the use cases of this network includes water sensors to keep the plants in your garden quenched or a mailbox device to let you know when you've got mail. The company will also be introducing a smart dog tag next year called Ring Fetch to help you track your dogs. This announcement started a discussion on Hacker News. Though some users were impressed by the Ring Fetch use case, others felt that the company has re-invented the wheel and is trying to introduce another proprietary protocol. “Maaaan, why in gods name do companies have to keep reinventing the wheel. There's so many protocols and specifications out there already that they just have to pick one and improve upon it with the goal of making it backward compatible with "older" versions of the protocol,” a user added. People discussed LoRaWan, a low power, a wide-area networking protocol for connecting battery-operated devices to the internet. A user commented, “LoRaWAN fits exactly this use-case and depending on the region, can operate on any of the ISM bands. This article is very bare on technical details, but I'm so confused. LoRa's made so much effort in this space by literally mapping out every single ISM band they can (sub-GHz) and reaching out to regulators where they couldn't find a compatible match. Amazon can't possibly think the 900 MHz device is "free" globally.” Liz O'Sullivan, an AI activist also shared her perspective on Twitter. https://twitter.com/lizjosullivan/status/1177243350283542528 Amazon also made some announcements for people who love cooking. It unveiled an Alexa-compatible kitchen countertop appliance, the Amazon Smart Oven. It is a 4-in-1 microwave that functions as a convection oven, microwave, air fryer, and food warmer. Users will also be able to leverage a new feature in Alexa called “scan-to-cook”. This will allow them to scan pre-packaged food products including the ones sold by Amazon-owned Whole Foods and Amazon Smart Oven will cook them automatically. Amazon’s partnership with NHS to make Alexa offer medical advice raises privacy concerns and public backlash CES 2019: Top announcements made so far What if buildings of the future could compute? European researchers make a proposal.  

In April, the Mozilla IoT team relaunched Project Things as “WebThings” with its two components: WebThings Gateway and WebThings Framework. WebThings is an open-source implementation of W3C’s Web of Things standard for monitoring and controlling connected devices on the web. On Friday, the team announced the release of WebThings Gateway 0.9 and the availability of its first experimental builds for Turris Omnia. This release is also the first version of WebThings Gateway to support the new Raspberry Pi 4. Along with that, they have also released WebThings framework 0.12. W3C’s Web of Things standard The Internet of Things (IoT) has a lot of potential, but it suffers from a lack of interoperability across platforms. The Web of Things aims to solve this by building a decentralized IoT using the web as its application layer. It provides mechanisms to formally describe IoT interfaces to enable IoT devices and services interact with each other, independent of their underlying implementation. To connect real-world things to the web, each thing is assigned a URI to make them linkable and discoverable. It is currently under the process of standardization at the W3C. Updates in WebThings Gateway 0.9 and WebThings Framework 0.12 WebThings Gateway is a software distribution for smart home gateways that allows users to monitor and control their smart home devices over the web, without a middleman. Among the protocols it supports are HomeKit, ZigBee, Thread, MQTT, Weave, AMQP. Among the languages it supports are JS (Node.js), Python, Rust, Java, and C++. The experimental builds of WebThings Gateway 0.9 are based on OpenWrt, a Linux operating system for embedded devices. They come with a new first-time setup for configuring the gateway as a router and Wi-Fi access point itself instead of connecting to an existing Wi-Fi network. Source: Mozilla However, Mozilla noted that the router configurations are still pretty basic and are not yet ready to replace your existing wireless router. “This is just our first step along the path to creating a full software distribution for wireless routers,” reads the announcement. We can expect support for other wireless routers and router developer brands in the near future. This version ships with a new type of add-on called notifier add-ons. In previous gateway versions, push notifications were the only way for notifying users of any event. But, this mechanism is not supported by all browsers and is also not considered to be the most convenient way of notifying users. As a solution, Mozilla came up with notifier add-ons using which you can create a set of outlets. These outlets will act as an output for a defined rule. For instance, you can set up a rule to get an SMS or an email whenever any motion is detected in your home. You can also configure a notifier with a title, a message, and a priority level. Source: Mozilla The WebThings Gateway 0.9 and WebThings Framework 0.12 bring a few changes to Thing Descriptions as well to make it more aligned with the latest W3C drafts. A Thing Description provides a vocabulary to describe physical devices connected to the web in a machine-readable format with a default JSON encoding. The “name” is now changed to “title” and there are experimental new properties of the Thing Descriptions exposed by the gateway. To know more check out Mozilla’s official announcement. To get started, head over to its GitHub repository. Mozilla introduces Pyodide, a Python data science stack compiled to WebAssembly Mozilla developers have built BugBug which uses machine learning to triage Firefox bugs Mozilla re-launches Project Things as WebThings, an open platform for monitoring and controlling devices

Update: Included Google’s recent plan of action after facing backlash by Nest users.   At this year’s Google I/O developer conference, Google announced that it is bringing all the Nest and Google Home products under one brand “Google Nest”. As a part of this effort, Nest announced on Tuesday that it will be discontinuing the Works with Nest API by August 30, 2019, in favor of Works with Google Assistant. “We want to unify our efforts around third-party connected home devices under a single developer platform – a one-stop shop for both our developers and our customers to build a more helpful home. To accomplish this, we’ll be winding down Works with Nest on August 31, 2019, and delivering a single unified experience through the Works with Google Assistant program,” wrote Nest in a post. Google with this change aims to make the whole smart home experience for users more secure and unified. Over the next few months, users with Nest accounts will need to migrate to Google Accounts, which will serve as a single front-end for using products across Nest and Google. Along with providing a unified experience, Google also promises to be transparent about the data it collects, which it mentioned in an extensive document published on Tuesday. The document titled “Google Nest commitment to privacy in the home” describes how its connected smart home devices work and also lays out Google’s approach for managing user data. Though Google is promising improved security and privacy with this change, this will also end up breaking some existing third-party integrations. And, one of them is IFTTT (If This, Then That), a software platform with which you can write “applets” that allow devices from different manufacturers to talk to each other. We can use IFTTT for things like automatically adjusting the thermostat when the user comes closer to their house based on their phone location, turning Philips Hue smart lights on when a Nest Cam security camera detects motion, and more. Developers who work with Works with Nest API are recommended to visit the Actions on Google Smart Home developer site to learn how to integrate smart home devices or services with the Google Assistant. What Nest users think about this decision? Though Google is known for its search engine and other online services, it is also known for abandoning and killing its products in a trice. This decision of phasing out Works with Nest has left many users infuriated who have brought Nest products. https://twitter.com/IFTTT/status/1125930219305615360 “The big problem here is that there are a lot of people that have spent a lot of money on buying quality hardware that isn't just for leisure, it's for protection. I'll cite my 4 Nest Protects and an outdoor camera as an example. If somehow they get "sunsetted" due to some Google whim, fad or Because They Can, then I'm going to be pretty p*ssed, to say the least. Based on past experience I don't trust Google to act in the users' interest,” said one Hacker News user. Some other users think that this change could be for better, but the timeline that Google has decided is pretty stringent. A Hacker News user commented on a discussion triggered by this news, “Reading thru it, it is not as brutal as it sounds, more than they merged it into the Google Assistant API, removing direct access permission to the NEST device (remember microphone-gate with NEST) and consolidating those permissions into Assistant. Whilst they are killing it off, they have a transition. However, as far as timelines go - August 2019 kill off date for the NEST API is brutal and not exactly the grace period users of connected devices/software will appreciate or in many cases with tech designed for non-technical people - know nothing until suddenly in August find what was working yesterday is now not working.” Google’s reaction to the feedback by Nest users As a response to the backlash by Nest users, Google published a blog post last week sharing its plan of action. According to this plan, users’ existing devices and integrations will continue to work with their Nest accounts. However, they will not have access to any new features that will be available through their Google account. Google further clarified that it will stop taking any new Works with Nest connection requests from August 31, 2019. “Once your WWN functionality is available on the WWGA platform you can migrate with minimal disruption from a Nest Account to a Google Account,” the blog post reads. Though Google did share its plans regarding the third-party integrations, it was pretty vague about the timelines. It wrote, “One of the most popular WWN features is to automatically trigger routines based on Home/Away status. Later this year, we'll bring that same functionality to the Google Assistant and provide more device options for you to choose from. For example, you’ll be able to have your smart light bulbs automatically turn off when you leave your home.” It further shared that it has teamed up with Amazon and other partners for bringing custom integrations to Google Nest. Read the official announcement on Nest’s website. Google employees join hands with Amnesty International urging Google to drop Project Dragonfly What if buildings of the future could compute? European researchers make a proposal. Google to allegedly launch a new Smart home device

Yesterday, the Mozilla IoT team announced that ‘Project Things’ is now out from its early experimental phase with a new name, ‘WebThings’. Mozilla WebThings is an open platform that allows you to monitor and control devices over the web. This project by Mozilla is an open source implementation of Web of Things, which defines software architectural styles and programming patterns that allow real-world objects to be a part of the World Wide Web. The idea here is to create a decentralized Internet of Things by providing “things”, URLs on the web to make them linkable and discoverable. Mozilla WebThings comprises of two components: WebThings Gateway WebThings Gateway is privacy and security-focused software distribution built for smart home gateways. It enables you to directly monitor and control your smart home gateways over the web, without relying on a middleman. Mozilla further announced that WebThings Gateway 0.8 is now available for download. This release comes with a feature that allows users to privately log data from their smart home devices. This logged data can also be visualized with interactive graphs. “This feature is still experimental, but viewing these logs will help you understand the kinds of data your smart home devices are collecting and think about how much of that data you are comfortable sharing with others via third-party services,” said Ben Francis, a Software Engineer at Mozilla. This release also brings in new alarms capabilities for devices like smoke, carbon monoxide, and motion detectors. With this new feature, users can configure rules to alert them when an alarm is triggered while they are away or check whether an alarm is currently active. The team has also started working on a new version of WebThings Gateway for OpenWrt, a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices. This version will be designed to act as a WiFi access point itself, instead of just connecting to an existing wireless network as a client. WebThings Framework WebThings Framework is a suite of reusable software components using which you can build your own web things, which directly expose the Web Thing API. This makes them easily discoverable by a Web of Things gateway or client. It can then automatically detect the device’s capabilities and monitor and control it over the web. These components are implemented in a range of languages including Node.js, Python, Java, Rust, and C++ (for Arduino). To know more in detail, check out the official announcement by Mozilla. Mozilla introduces Pyodide, a Python data science stack compiled to WebAssembly Mozilla developers have built BugBug which uses machine learning to triage Firefox bugs Mozilla adds protection against fingerprinting and Cryptomining scripts in Firefox Nightly and Beta  

Last month Amazon announced that it acquired the mesh Wi-Fi router company, Eero for $97 million. However, this deal, which sounded full of potential, struck Eero’s investors and employees with a financial catastrophe. Mashable, who first reported on Amazon’s acquisition, reported that Eero executives brought home multi-million dollar bonuses of around $30 million and eight-figure salary increases. However, the others did not fare well in this deal. According to Mashable, “Investors took major hits, and the Amazon acquisition rendered Eero stock worthless: $0.03 per share, down from a common stock high of $3.54 in July 2017. It typically would have cost around $3 for employees to exercise their stock, meaning they would actually lose money if they tried to cash out. Former and current Eero employees who chose not to exercise those options are now empty-handed. And those who did exercise options, investing their financial faith in the company, have lost money.” Eero devices, the first to mesh WiFi, hit the market first in the year 2016. However, companies such as Luma and NetGear launched similar products in the following year. According to an Eero former employee, another major challenge for Eero was when Google launched its own mesh network, Google Wifi, in late 2016, for just $299 whereas Eero’s was priced at $500. To remain ahead of the curve, Eero later launched a smart home security system named Hive. And Google again produced a similar product called Nest Secure. Post this, Eero abandoned Hive leading which aroused a period of confusion. “The day they killed [Hive] was the day the company changed,” a former employee told Mashable. “After Eero employees returned from the holidays, 20 percent of the staff was cut. Next came massive attrition. An ex-employee described it as a period of “desperate fear.” Morale was so low that HR disabled group emailing and prohibited employees from sending out goodbye emails to say they were leaving”, Mashable reports. After Eero announced its acquisition last month, specifics of the deal was neither disclosed by Eero nor Amazon, which led the employees to bundle up their anger against this deal. Per Mashable, “Employees tried to guess from news reports and social media what the deal meant for them. When the stock price leaked, some ex-employees breathed a sigh of relief that they didn’t exercise their options in the first place. Others were left with worthless stock and disappointment.” All employees received a letter dated February 15 which mentioned that they had four days to decide what to do with their Eero shares. Some even received the letter on or after the deadline. Source: Mashable The employees who chose to purchase or exercise their stock received a "phonebook-sized" packet of dense financial information including acquisition terms. Nick Weaver, Eero’s co-founder, wrote in the introduction, “Unfortunately, the transaction will not result in the financial return we all hoped for.” Rob Chandra, a partner at Avid Park Ventures, and lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Haas business school said, “One obvious way you can judge whether it was a great exit or not is if the exit valuation is lower than the amount of capital that was invested in the startup. So it's not a great exit.” “The documents state that after transaction costs and debt, the actual price will be closer to $54.6 million. That means that Amazon is covering around $40 million of the debt that Eero owes. Ex-employees believe the debt to be from hardware manufacturing costs, since they said that Eero took on corporate financing to actually manufacture the products”, Mashable reports. Jeff Scheinrock, a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management said, “What this says about it was that Eero was cash strapped. A lot of this money is going to pay off debts. They were having difficulty and probably couldn’t raise additional money, so they had to look for an exit.” To know more about this news in detail, head over to Mashable’s complete coverage. SUSE is now an independent company after being acquired by EQT for $2.5 billion JFrog acquires DevOps startup ‘Shippable’ for an end-to-end DevOps solution Amazon buys ‘Eero’ mesh router startup, adding fuel to its in-house Alexa smart home ecosystem ambitions

Apple announced last week that it has canceled its AirPower charging mat over concerns related to its inability to achieve “high standards” for the product. Apple had first announced details about the AirPower charging mat during the company’s iPhone X event in September 2017. During the event, Apple said that AirPower would be shipped in 2018, but failed to follow up for the next 18 months. The speculation over AirPower chargers getting canceled grew when Apple removed all info regarding AirPower from its website. However, the rumors of its cancellation went down as iOS 12.2 beta release included support for a wireless charger. “After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have canceled the project. We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch”, Dan Riccio, SVP of Hardware Engineering, Apple, told TechCrunch. Had the chargers shipped, a multitude of new and unique features would have welcomed the users. For instance, apart from being wireless, AirPower charger would have also been equipped with multi-device charging feature (ability to charge three devices at once), and a unique technology with multiple coils, among others. Many people have made speculations about the reason behind AirPower cancellation, with many blaming it on issues related to engineering and overheating. Craig Lloyd, a staff writer at iFixit, published a post where he discusses the possible reasons behind charger’s cancellation. Craig states that Wireless charging pads use electric current in your phone’s wire coil that helps charge the battery. However, this electricity being transmitted isn’t perfectly clean and generates noise that can interfere with other wireless devices. When different coils are charged together, a slightly different waveform is generated. Apple wanted to create a large charging platform with the help of overlapping coils which would allow AirCharger to power different devices on the charger mat. However, this introduced a different set of challenges. “Apple boxed themselves into an electromagnetic corner. What they wanted to do was physically possible—and they surely had it working in the lab—but they couldn’t consistently meet the rigorous transmission requirements that are designed to keep us safe from our gadgets”, states Craig. Now although Apple failed to deliver this product, it has not lost hope yet. “We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward”, said Riccio. Public reaction to the news is largely comical, as users took to Twitter to post memes regarding the news. https://twitter.com/wannatechnow/status/1112664509108375552 https://twitter.com/MKBHD/status/1111710778741190656 https://twitter.com/JonyIveParody/status/1111772531210534912 https://twitter.com/amelvand/status/1112031397831692289 Apple’s March Event: Apple changes gears to services, is now your bank, news source, gaming zone and TV Apple to merge the iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps by 2021 Apple acquires Pullstring to possibly help Apple improve Siri and other IoT-enabled gadgets

The Android Things platform was launched in 2018 to power third-party smart displays and other speakers. Last year, a number of major manufacturers, including, Lenovo, JBL, and LG Smart Displays, released Smart Displays and speakers powered by Android Things. With the success achieved because of the smart displays and speakers over the past year, Google is now refocusing Android Things as a platform for OEM partners to build devices in those categories with Assistant built-in. They announced an update to Android Things in a blog post by Dave Smith, Developer Advocate for IoT, yesterday. Android Things uses the Android Things SDK on top of hardware like the NXP i.MX7D and Raspberry Pi 3B. According to Google’s blog post, Android Things is a platform for experimenting with and building smart connected devices. System images will be available through the Android Things console where developers can easily create new builds and push app updates for up to 100 devices for non-commercial use. Though, support for production System on Modules (SoMs) based on NXP, Qualcomm, and MediaTek hardware won’t be available through the public developer platform currently. This refocus doesn’t seem to be on lines with Google’s original vision for Android Things which is Internet-of-Things. Even Google’s Internet-of-Things OS called Brillo got rebranded to Android Things in late 2016. The focus seems to be on smart displays and smart speakers now. https://twitter.com/stshank/status/1095434162977165312 Google’s official post states that the team will continue to provide the platform for IoT devices, including turnkey hardware solutions. It is also pushing developers interested in turnkey hardware solutions to Cloud IoT Core for secure device connectivity at scale and the upcoming Cloud IoT Edge runtime for managed edge computing services. Google hasn’t stated any reasons for the shift of Android Things from general purpose IoT devices to smart displays and speakers, but the rising competition could be one of the reasons. According to a few users, it is bad news as Google keeps killing its good projects. https://twitter.com/aliumujib/status/1095416461345124352 https://twitter.com/gregoriopalama/status/1095591673445433344 Google announces the general availability of a new API for Google Docs Apple and Google slammed by Human Rights groups for hosting Absher, a Saudi app that tracks women Youtube promises o reduce recommendations of ‘conspiracy theory’. Ex-googler explains why this is a ‘historic victory’

CES 2019, the annual consumer electronics show in Las Vegas will go from Tuesday, Jan. 8 through Friday, Jan. 11. However, the conference has unofficially kicked off on Sunday, January 6, followed by press conferences on Monday, Jan. 7. Over the span of these two days, a lot of companies showcased their latest projects and announced new products, software, and services. Let us look at the key announcements made by prominent tech companies so far. Nvidia Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled some "amazing new technology innovations." First, they announced that over 40 new laptop models in 100-plus configurations will be powered by NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs. Turing-based laptops will be available across the GeForce RTX family — from RTX 2080 through RTX 2060 GPUs, said Huang. Seventeen of the new models will feature Max-Q design. Laptops with the latest GeForce RTX GPUs will also be equipped with WhisperMode, NVIDIA Battery Boost, and NVIDIA G-SYNC. GeForce RTX-powered laptops will be available starting Jan. 29 from the world's top OEMs. Nvidia also announced the first 65-inch 4K HDR gaming display that will arrive in February for $4,999. LG LG Electronics, which have a major press release today, has already confirmed a variety of their new products. These include the release of LG's 2019 TVs with Alexa and Google Assistant support, 8K OLED, full HDMI 2.1 support and more. Also includes, LG CineBeam Laser 4K projector for voice control, new sound bars included with Dolby Atmos and Google Assistant and LG Gram 17 and new 14-inch 2-in-1. Samsung Samsung announced that their Smart TVs will be soon equipped with iTunes Movies & TV Shows and will support AirPlay 2 beginning Spring 2019. AirPlay 2 support will be available on Samsung Smart TVs in 190 countries worldwide. Samsung is also launching a new Notebook Odyssey to take PC gaming more seriously posing a threat to competitors Razer and Alienware. HP HP also announced HP Chromebook 14, at CES 2019. It is the world's first AMD-powered Chromebook running on either an AMD A4 or A6 processor with integrated Radeon R4 or R5 graphics. It has 4GB of memory and 32GB of storage and support for Android apps from the Google Play Store. These models will start shipping in January starting at $269. More announcements: Asus launches a new 17-inch, 10-pound Surface Pro gaming laptop, the Asus ROG Mothership. It has also announced Zephyrus S GX701, the smallest and lightest 17-inch gaming laptop yet. Corsair’s impressive compact gaming desktops come with Core i9 chips and GeForce RTX graphics L’Oréal’s newest prototype detects wearers’ skin pH levels Acer’s new Swift 7 will kill the bezel when it launches in May for $1,699. It is one of the thinnest and lightest laptops ever made Audeze’s motion-aware headphones will soon recreate your head gestures in-game Whirlpool is launching a Wear OS app for its connected appliances with simplified voice commands for both Google Assistant and Alexa devices. Vuzix starts selling its AR smart glasses for $1,000 Pico Interactive just revealed the Pico G2 4K, an all-in-one 4K VR headset based-on China’s best-selling VR unit, the Pico G2. It’s incredibly lightweight, powerful and highly customizable for enterprise purposes. Features include kiosk mode, hands-free controls, and hygienic design. You can have a look at all products that will be showcased at CES 2019. NVIDIA launches GeForce Now’s (GFN) ‘recommended router’ program to enhance the overall performance and experience of GFN NVIDIA open sources its game physics simulation engine, PhysX, and unveils PhysX SDK 4.0 Uses of Machine Learning in Gaming

IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) released its annual tech future predictions, earlier this week, unveiling the top ten most likely to be adopted technology trends in 2019. "The Computer Society's predictions are based on an in-depth analysis by a team of leading technology experts, identify top technologies that have substantial potential to disrupt the market in the year 2019," mentions Hironori Kasahara, IEEE Computer Society President. Let’s have a look at their top 10 technology trends predicted to reach wide adoption in 2019. Top ten trends for 2019 Deep learning accelerators According to IEEE computer society, 2019 will see widescale adoption of companies designing their own deep learning accelerators such as GPUs, FPGAs, and TPUs, which can be used in data centers. The development of these accelerators would further allow machine learning to be used in different IoT devices and appliances. Assisted transportation Another trend predicted for 2019 is the adoption of assisted transportation which is already paving the way for fully autonomous vehicles. Although the future of fully autonomous vehicles is not entirely here, the self-driving tech saw a booming year in 2018. For instance, AWS introduced DeepRacer, a self-driving race car, Tesla is building its own AI hardware for self-driving cars, Alphabet’s Waymo will be launching the world’s first commercial self-driving cars in upcoming months, and so on. Other than self-driving, assisted transportation is also highly dependent on deep learning accelerators for video recognition. The Internet of Bodies (IoB) As per the IEEE computer society, consumers have become very comfortable with self-monitoring using external devices like fitness trackers and smart glasses. With digital pills now entering the mainstream medicine, the body-attached, implantable, and embedded IoB devices provide richer data that enable development of unique applications. However, IEEE mentions that this tech also brings along with it the concerns related to security, privacy, physical harm, and abuse. Social credit algorithms Facial recognition tech was in the spotlight in 2018. For instance, Microsoft President- Brad Smith requested governments to regulate the evolution of facial recognition technology this month, Google patented a new facial recognition system that uses your social network to identify you, and so on.  According to the IEEE, social credit algorithms will now see a rise in adoption in 2019. Social credit algorithms make use of facial recognition and other advanced biometrics that help identify a person and retrieve data about them from digital platforms. This helps them check the approval or denial of access to consumer products and services. Advanced (smart) materials and devices IEEE computer society predicts that in 2019, advanced materials and devices for sensors, actuators, and wireless communications will see widespread adoption. These materials include tunable glass, smart paper, and ingestible transmitters, will lead to the development of applications in healthcare, packaging, and other appliances.   “These technologies will also advance pervasive, ubiquitous, and immersive computing, such as the recent announcement of a cellular phone with a foldable screen. The use of such technologies will have a large impact on the way we perceive IoT devices and will lead to new usage models”, mentions the IEEE computer society. Active security protection From data breaches ( Facebook, Google, Quora, Cathay Pacific, etc) to cyber attacks, 2018 saw many security-related incidents. 2019 will now see a new generation of security mechanisms that use an active approach to fight against these security-related accidents. These would involve hooks that can be activated when new types of attacks are exposed and machine-learning mechanisms that can help identify sophisticated attacks. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) Packt’s 2018 Skill Up report highlighted what game developers feel about the VR world. A whopping 86% of respondents replied with ‘Yes, VR is here to stay’. IEEE Computer Society echoes that thought as it believes that VR and AR technologies will see even greater widescale adoption and will prove to be very useful for education, engineering, and other fields in 2019. IEEE believes that now that there are advertisements for VR headsets that appear during prime-time television programs, VR/AR will see widescale adoption in 2019. Chatbots 2019 will also see an expansion in the development of chatbot applications. Chatbots are used quite frequently for basic customer service on social networking hubs. They’re also used in operating systems as intelligent virtual assistants. Chatbots will also find its applications in interaction with cognitively impaired children for therapeutic support. “We have recently witnessed the use of chatbots as personal assistants capable of machine-to-machine communications as well. In fact, chatbots mimic humans so well that some countries are considering requiring chatbots to disclose that they are not human”, mentions IEEE.   Automated voice spam (robocall) prevention IEEE predicts that the automated voice spam prevention technology will see widespread adoption in 2019. It will be able to block a spoofed caller ID and in turn enable “questionable calls” where the computer will ask questions to the caller for determining if the caller is legitimate. Technology for humanity (specifically machine learning) IEEE predicts an increase in the adoption rate of tech for humanity. Advances in IoT and edge computing are the leading factors driving the adoption of this technology. Other events such as fires and bridge collapses are further creating the urgency to adopt these monitoring technologies in forests and smart roads. "The technical community depends on the Computer Society as the source of technology IP, trends, and information. IEEE-CS predictions represent our commitment to keeping our community prepared for the technological landscape of the future,” says the IEEE Computer Society. For more information, check out the official IEEE Computer Society announcement. Key trends in software development in 2019: cloud native and the shrinking stack Key trends in software infrastructure in 2019: observability, chaos, and cloud complexity Quantum computing, edge analytics, and meta learning: key trends in data science and big data in 2019

European researchers have proposed an idea for buildings that could compute. In the paper On buildings that compute. A proposal published this week, they have made proposals to integrate computation in various parts of a building, from cement and bricks to paint. What is the idea about? Smart homes today are made up of several individual smart appliances. They may work individually or be interconnected via a central hub. “What if intelligent matter of our surrounding could understand us humans?” The idea is that the walls of a building in addition to supporting the roof, had more functionality like sensing, calculating, communicating, and even producing power. Each brick/block could be thought of as a decentralized computing entity. These blocks could contribute to a large-scale parallel computation. This would transform a smart building into an intelligent computing unit in which people can live in and interact with. Such smart buildings that compute, as the researchers say can potentially offer protection from crime, natural disasters, structural damage within the building, or simply send a greeting to the residing people. When nanotechnology meets embedded computing The proposal involves using nanotechnology to embed computation and sensing directly to the construction materials. This includes intelligent concrete blocks and using stimuli-responsive smart paint. The photo sensitive paint would sense the internal and external environment. A nano-material infused concrete composition would sense the building environment to implement parallel information processing on a large scale. This will result in distributed decision making. The result is a building which can be seen as a huge parallel computer consisting of computing concrete blocks. The key concepts used for the idea of smart buildings that compute are functional nanoparticles which are photo-, chemo- and electro-sensitive. A range of electrical properties will span all the electronic elements mixed in a concrete. The concrete is used to make the building blocks which are equipped with processors. These processors gather information from distributed sensory elements, helps in decision making, location communication and enables advanced computing. The blocks together form a wall which forms a huge parallel array processor. They envision a single building or a small colony to turn into a large-scale universal computing unit.  This is an interesting idea, bizarre even. But the practicality of it is blurry. Can its applications justify the cost involved to create such a building? There is also a question of sustainability. How long will the building last before it has to be redeveloped? I for one think that doing so will almost certainly undo the computational aspect from it. For more details, read the research paper. Home Assistant: an open source Python home automation hub to rule all things smart The iRobot Roomba i7+ is a cleaning robot that maps and stores your house and also empties the trash automatically. Cortana and Alexa become best friends: Microsoft and Amazon release a preview of this integration

Yesterday, Google announced a series of consumer hardware products. This included two new variants of their flagship Pixel smartphones—Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. Also launched was a high-performance tablet, the Pixel Slate and the Google Home Hub. Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL The new smartphones from Google, Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL come with artificial intelligence features. They can automatically answer calls, click powerful photos,  and provide an enhanced visual and audio experience while charging, powered by the Google Assistant. Source: Google Blog With an integration of Google Lens, Pixel 3, can scan and translate text, find similar styles of clothing, or identify popular plants and animals. It also supports Google’s Smart Compose which suggests phrases in emails to help them draft faster. Pixel 3’s on-device AI can also screen phone calls and avoid spam calls. This feature is first, starting out in English in the U.S. Pixel users in the U.S. will also get a taste of an experimental new Google Assistant feature, powered by Duplex technology. This feature will initially be available later this year in New York, Atlanta, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area and will roll out to other U.S. cities in the future. Pixel 3 also supports Digital Wellbeing, which is a suite of tools to help users limit the time they spent on their phones. Users can monitor the time spend time on phones and set time limits on specific apps. Digital Wellbeing also comes with a new Wind Down mode to transition display to a grayscale screen in the night. Google Pixel Slate The Google Pixel Slate is a new high-performance tablet in the likes of Google’s popular Pixelbook. Source: Google Blog This tablet is 7mm thin and weighs 1.6 lbs with rounded edges and curved 2.5D glass. It’s Molecular Display packs 293 pixels per inch for the sharpest picture. Pixel Slate includes 8MP cameras on both the rear and front and dual front-firing speakers. It comes with three months of YouTube TV subscription and up to 12 hours of battery life. It’s Pixel Imprint power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Pixel Slate is compatible with the Pixel Slate Keyboard, and the Pixelbook Pen. Pixel Slate starts at $599 with several configurations available. Pixel Slate Keyboard is $199, and Pixelbook Pen is $99. Google Home Hub Another addition to their Home series is the Google Home Hub. This home automation device has built-in Google Assistant to traverse Google’s products —Search, YouTube, Google Photos, Calendar, Maps and more. It’s 7” screen features a floating display to naturally fit on any surface. Purposely, Google didn’t put a camera for privacy. Other features include: An Ambient EQ light sensor which allows the screen to automatically adjust to match the lighting in the room. Connection with 10,000+ types of smart home devices from 1,000+ popular brands. With live albums, a new feature from Google Photos, users can view their recent photos even while Google Home Hub is not in use. Google Hub is available for $149 for pre-order from the Google Store. Google Home Hub will also be available by October 22 at Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and other retailers. In the light of their recent Google+ data breach, Google has also mentioned their guiding principle. Per their website, “We respect our users and put them first. We feel a deep responsibility to provide you with a helpful, personal Google experience, and that guides the work we do in three very specific ways: First, we want to provide you with an experience that is unique to you. Just like Google is organizing the world’s information, the combination of AI, software, and hardware can organize your information—and help out with the things you want to get done. The Google Assistant is the best expression of this, and it’s always available when, where, and however you need it. Second, we’re committed to the security of our users. We need to offer simple, powerful ways to safeguard your devices. We’ve integrated Titan™ Security, the system we built for Google, into our new mobile devices. Titan™ Security protects your most sensitive on-device data by securing your lock screen and strengthening disk encryption. Third, we want to make sure you’re in control of your digital wellbeing. From our research, 72 percent of our users are concerned about the amount of time people spend using tech. We take this very seriously and have developed new tools that make people’s lives easier and cut back on distractions.” Read more about the new products on Google Blog. Google announces new Artificial Intelligence features for Google Search on its 20th birthday. Google’s Stories to use artificial intelligence to create stories like Snapchat and Instagram. Google enhances Wear OS design, adds a Google Assistant feed and much more

Yesterday, Facebook launched two brand new video communication devices. Named Portal and Portal+, these devices let you video call anyone, with more richer, hands-free experiences. The Portal features a 10-inch 1280 x 800 display, while Portal+ features 15-inch 1920 x 1080.  Both devices are powered by Artificial Intelligence. This includes a Smart Camera and a Smart Sound technology. Smart Camera stays with the action and automatically pans and zooms to keep everyone in view. Smart Sound minimizes background noise and enhances the voice of whoever is talking, no matter where they move. Source: Facebook Portal can also be used to call Facebook friends and connections on Messenger even if they don’t have Portal. It also supports group calls of up to seven people at the same time. Portal also offers hands-free voice control with Amazon Alexa built-in which can be used to track sports scores, check the weather, control smart home devices, order groceries, and more.  Facebook has also enabled shared activities in its Portal devices by partnering with Spotify Premium, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Facebook Watch, Food Network, and Newsy. Keeping in mind, it’s security breach that affected 50 million users two weeks ago, Facebook says it has paid a lot of attention to privacy and security features. Per their website, “We designed Portal with tools that give you control: You can completely disable the camera and microphone with a single tap. Portal and Portal+ also come with a camera cover, so you can easily block your camera’s lens at any time and still receive incoming calls and notifications, plus use voice commands. To manage Portal access within your home, you can set a four- to 12-digit passcode to keep the screen locked. Changing the passcode requires your Facebook password. We also want to be upfront about what information Portal collects, help people understand how Facebook will use that information and explain the steps we take to keep it private and secure: Facebook doesn’t listen to, view, or keep the contents of your Portal video calls. In addition, video calls on Portal are encrypted. For added security, Smart Camera and Smart Sound use AI technology that runs locally on Portal, not on Facebook servers. Portal’s camera doesn’t use facial recognition and doesn’t identify who you are. Like other voice-enabled devices, Portal only sends voice commands to Facebook servers after you say, “Hey Portal.” You can delete your Portal’s voice history in your Facebook Activity Log at any time.” In all the above, Facebook seems quite cryptic about audio data. It also doesn’t really explain how it will use the information it collects from users. The voice data is stored on the Facebook server by default, probably to improve the Portal’s understanding on the user’s language quirks and to understand the user’s needs from the data. But it does make one wonder, should this be an opt-in and not an opt-out by default? Another jarring aspect is the need for one’s Facebook password to change the device’s passcode. This just feels like the new devices are yet another way for Facebook to add users to Facebook, not to mention the fact that Facebook just had a data breach on its site, the repercussions of which they are still investigating. In an interesting poll conducted by Dr. Jen Golbeck, Professor at UMD, on Twitter, over 63% of respondents said that they will not trust Facebook to responsibly operate a surveillance device in their home. https://twitter.com/jengolbeck/status/1049343277110054912 Read more about the devices on Facebook’s announcement. Facebook Dating app to release as a test version in Colombia. Facebook’s Glow, a machine learning compiler, to be supported by Intel, Qualcomm and others How Facebook is advancing artificial intelligence [Video]

Amazon has unveiled a range of Echo devices at the Amazon Devices Event hosted in their Seattle headquarters, yesterday. The products announced included a revamped selection of Amazon’s smart speakers ( Echo Sub, Echo Dot, and Echo Plus), smart displays (the Echo Show and Echo Spot), and other smart devices. Also released, was a smart microwave (AmazonBasics Microwave), Echo Wall Clock, Fire TV Recast, and Amazon Smart Plug This event marks the largest number of devices and features (over 30) that Amazon has ever launched in a day. Alexa Presentation Language For developers, Amazon introduced the Alexa Presentation Language, to easily create Alexa skills for Alexa devices with screens. The Alexa Presentation Language (APL) is in preview and allows developers to build voice experiences with graphics, images, slideshows and video. Developers will be able to control how graphics flow with voice, customize visuals and adapt them to Alexa devices and skills.  Supported devices will include Echo Show, Echo Spot, Fire TV, and select Fire Tablet devices. Now let’s take a broad look at the key device announcements. Amazon Smart Speakers Echo Dot: The new version of the Smart speaker now offers 70 percent louder sound as compared to its predecessor. It is a voice-controlled smart speaker with Alexa integration. It can sort music, news, information, and more. The driver is now much larger from 1.1” to 1.6” for better sound clarity and improved bass. It is Bluetooth enabled so you can connect to another speaker or use it all by itself. Echo Input:  If you already have speakers, this device can add Alexa voice control to them via a 3.5mm audio cable or Bluetooth. It has a four-microphone array. Echo Input is just 12.5mm tall and thin enough to disappear into the room. It will be available later this year for $34.99. Echo Plus: Echo Plus combines Amazon’s cloud-based Natural Language Understanding and Automatic Speech Recognition along with built-in Zigbee hub to make it one of the premier smart speakers. It also has a new fabric casing, and built-in temperature sensor. This model's pre-orders begin today for $149.99. Echo Link: The Echo Link device can connect to a receiver or amplifier, with multiple digital and analog inputs and outputs for compatibility with your existing stereo equipment. It can control music selection, volume, and multi-room playback on your stereo with your Echo or the Alexa app. Echo Link will be available to customers soon. Echo Sub: This 100-watt subwoofer can connect to other speakers and create a 2.1-sound solution. The $129.99 Echo Sub will launch later this month with pre-orders beginning today. Amazon Smart Displays Echo Show: The new Echo Show is completely redesigned with a larger screen, smart home hub, and improved sound quality. Amazon is also introducing Doorbell Chime Announcements, so users will hear a chime on all Echo devices when someone presses your smart doorbell. Echo Show includes a high resolution 10-inch HD display and an 8-mic array. The new Echo Show will be available to customers for $229.99. Shipping starts next month. Other Smart devices Echo Wall Clock: It is a $30 Echo companion device, an analog clock with Alexa-powered voice recognition. It is 10-inch, battery-powered and features a ring of 60 LEDs around the rim that show ongoing Alexa timers. It also has automatic time syncing and Daylight Savings Time adjustment. AmazonBasics Microwave: It’s a $59.99 voice-activated microwave. It features Dash Replenishment and an array of Alexa features including integration with connected ovens, door locks, and other smart fixtures, reminders, and access to more than 50,000 third-party skills. Fire TV Recast: This is a companion DVR that lets users watch, record, and replay free over-the-air programming to any Fire TV, Echo Show, and on compatible Fire tablet and mobile devices. Users can also record up to two or four shows at once, and stream on any two devices at a time. It can also be paired with Alexa. Amazon Smart Plug: The Amazon Smart Plug works with Alexa to add voice control to any outlet. You can schedule lights, fans, and appliances to turn on and off automatically, or control them remotely when you’re away. Follow along the live blog of the event for a minute to minute update. Google to allegedly launch a new Smart home device. Cortana and Alexa become best friends: Microsoft and Amazon release a preview of this integration. The iRobot Roomba i7+ is a cleaning robot that maps and stores your house and also empties the trash automatically.

In the midst of all the leaks related to Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL regarding whether Google will embrace iPhone like notch or will have wireless charging, reports have surfaced that Google has even more news to showcase in its big hardware event “Made By Google” on October 9. According to a report from MySmartPrice, Google might launch a new device called "Google Home Hub" Smart Speaker sporting a 7-inch display with large squarish speakers in two variants Chalk white and Charcoal. Image source mysmartprice Google has been pretty successful with its smart home devices like Google Home series but after Amazon teased its smart home device with screen called 'Amazon Echo Show' Tech giant was keen to work on a product to compete with its rival. If the leaked news from "MySmartPrice" is to be believed, with Google Home Hub powered by Google assistant we can watch YouTube, HBO, and videos from other content providers. Additionally, the device will also display time, weather, daily commute information and other regular Google assistant features.  However, it will not have full-fledged Android OS. While the device comes power packed with the Google software but based on leaks, what seems to be missing from the device is the camera. It would have been perfect if the device sported a camera as well which could have been used for video calling as Google is aggressively marketing its video calling app Google Duo. The device will, however, feature  WiFi and Bluetooth. Image source: mysmartprice With the new device, Google might also introduce new features for the Google assistant. Though there is no confirmation from Google regarding the product yet but the timing makes perfect sense as Google's upcoming event on October 9th would be the perfect place to announce a Google Home Hub along with its much awaited Pixel smartphone series. Read full article on Mysmartprice. Author Bio Full time Linux Admin part time reader, always up for latest technology and a cup of tea, interested in Cloud services, Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence. Amazon Echo vs Google Home: Next-gen IoT war. Home Assistant: an open source Python home automation hub to rule all things smart. Cortana and Alexa become best friends: Microsoft and Amazon release a preview of this integration.