Recent Smart Home Stories

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Alphabet’s most recent annual report dropped Microsoft from a list of competitors in the digital assistant market.

OK, you’ve scanned in your old paper-based photos. Now what?

Amazon announced today that it is now possible for anyone to create new Alexa skills with no programming required using Alexa Skills Blueprints.

Google is discovering what Microsoft did about 15 years ago: Just making a platform isn’t enough to guarantee success.

I knew I’d provide an update about my experience using a high-speed photo scanner. I just didn’t think it was going to be this successful.

Google announced this week that its Nest Secure smart alarm system now offers Google Assistant capabilities via its Nest Guard base station.

Apple’s products and services tend to sell better in the home market than elsewhere in the world. But the HomePod is an exception.

Thanks to a reader suggestion, digitizing my mountain of paper-based photos suddenly seems a lot less daunting.

Like some of you, I have many paper-based photos that need to be digitized. It’s a daunting, thankless task.

It’s time for a quick smart home check in to see where we’re at and look ahead at what we’d like to accomplish in 2019.

In a stunning bit of transparency, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed that Cortana will never be competitive with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

Amazon said this week that there are now well over 30 million active users of its Fire TV family of living room video streaming boxes.

There are over 100 million Amazon Alexa-powered devices out in the world. But there are ten times as many Google Assistant-powered devices.

When it comes to paid and free online services, I’m usually looking for cross-device and -platform availability, with as little lock-in as possible.

Google announced today that it is using AI to enhance the audio news capabilities of Google Assistant and Google Home.

Apple Music is coming to the Amazon Echo and other Alexa-powered smart devices, starting December 17.

Black Friday may get all the press, but Cyber Monday continues to be the biggest day for online shopping, Amazon confirmed today.

Google has figured out a way to subvert Siri so that you can use it to summon Google Assistant on the iPhone instead.

Google has finally added multi-room audio functionality to its video-based Chromecast, Google Home, and Smart Display devices

Microsoft has brought Skype audio and video calling to the Alexa platform. And it works with all modern Alexa devices.

Rarely has a technology product inserted itself so seamlessly into my family's daily lives.

It's yet another not-so-subtle indication that Microsoft is pushing Cortana aside for Amazon's digital personal assistant

Intel's Neural Compute Stick 2 will help makers bring computer vision and AI to IoT and edge device prototypes.

Samsung didn't just announce a foldable display yesterday. Here are some of the firm's other interesting initiatives.

Sonos will not be able to deliver Google Assistant support to its home speaker systems in 2018 as planned.

Roku announced that the Google Assistant is now available on its newer living room set-top boxes and smart TVs in the U.S.

I really like Google's Smart Display platform, but a recent functional addition really puts it over the top.