Monday, February 29, 2016

Amazon Echo

Far-field voice recognition

Always be heard

Tucked under the light ring on Echo is an array of seven microphones. These sensors use beam forming technology to hear you from any direction. With enhanced noise cancellation, Echo can hear you ask a question even while it's playing music.

...just ask

Echo uses on-device keyword spotting to detect the wake word. When Echo detects the wake word, it lights up and streams audio to the cloud, where we leverage the Alexa Voice Service to recognize and respond to your request.
Hero Image

Always getting smarter

Ever-evolving

Alexa—the brain behind Echo—is built in the cloud, so it is always getting smarter. The more you use Echo, the more it adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences. And because Echo is always connected, updates are delivered automatically.

...and adding new skills

We are always adding new capabilities to Echo. Recently, we’ve added local search from Yelp, streaming music from Spotify and Pandora, Audible audiobooks, Kindle eBooks, Google Calendar access, live sports scores and schedules, traffic reports, Amazon.com re-ordering, control of smart home devices with WeMo, Philips Hue, SmartThings, Insteon, Wink, over 100 new skills from third-party developers like Uber and Domino's, and more.
Advanced audio desig

Advanced audio design

360° immersive sound

Echo has been fine-tuned to deliver crisp vocals with dynamic bass response. Its dual downward-firing speakers produce 360° omni-directional audio to fill the room with immersive sound.

...for all of your music

Echo provides hands-free voice control for Amazon Music, Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. Plus, Echo is Bluetooth-enabled so you can stream other popular music services like iTunes from your phone or tablet.
Connected Home

Smart Home

Don't lift a finger

Use Echo to switch on the lamp before getting out of bed, turn on the fan or space heater while reading in your favorite chair, or dim the lights from the couch to watch a movie—all without lifting a finger...or even raising your voice.

...to control your smart home

Echo works with devices such as lights and switches from Belkin WeMo, Philips Hue, SmartThings, and Wink. Starter kits are available for easy setup.
Connected Home

Alexa App

Echo doesn't stop working when you're away from home. With the free companion app on Fire OS, Android, iOS, and desktop browsers, you can easily manage your alarms, music, shopping lists, and more.
Key Features

Key Features

Easy setup

Connect to your home network with a simple setup, guided by the free companion app on Fire OS, Android, iOS, and desktop browsers.

Just ask

Echo is always ready, connected, and fast. Just say the wake word, "Alexa," for:
NEW—Audible: Play audiobooks from Audible with Echo. Plus, Echo supports Whispersync for Voice to continue right where you left off.

NEW—Calendars: Check your upcoming schedule by asking what's on your Google calendar.

NEW—Shopping: Restock on previously purchased items by re-ordering Prime-eligible products in your Amazon shopping history.

NEW—Smart home: Control compatible WeMo, Philips Hue, SmartThings, Insteon, and Wink devices with your voice.

NEW—Traffic: Hear commute time and the fastest route to your destination.

NEW—Sports: Ask for sports scores and schedules from the NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB, and more.

NEW—Spotify: Listen to and discover music from Spotify's library of over 30 million tracks.

Music: Listen to your Amazon Music Library, Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio.

News, weather, and information: Hear up-to-the-minute weather and news from a variety of sources, including local radio stations, NPR, and ESPN from TuneIn.

Questions and answers: Get information from Wikipedia, definitions, answers to common questions, and more.

Alarms, timers, and lists: Stay on time and organized with voice-controlled alarms, timers, shopping lists, and to-do lists.

More coming soon: Echo automatically updates through the cloud with new services and features.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

"On The Go" OTG USB external storage

Hey guys, I wanted to share the best ways to add storage to your smartphones.
Since some newer phones don't come with an expandable data SD card slot.
Like iPhone and new Samsung's Galaxy phones. I use a few solutions for this issue.

The first one is to use your favorite cloud.
I use multiple free cloud services like Drive, BOX, Dropbox and Onedrive.
Then I use the Play Store App "ES Files Explorer" to easily manage them all.

The last two a very similar but slightly different.

The first one is a "SanDisk Connect".
It connects by Wi-Fi Direct meaning it connects to the phone through a direct Wi-Fi link,
you don't need to be on a network, it will create one. It comes with an App to manage your data on the USB thumb drive.
The cool thing about this you can just throw it the glovebox, or put it on your Keychain and multiple people can wirelessly connect to it.

The second and most convenient for me is the "Samsung Drive Duo".
It's a USB 3.0 thumb drive that has both connections on it.
You can plug it into the charge port - USB Micro port or into a computer.
It uses the phones OTG "on the go" usb capability. These are much smaller so it fits anywhere.

They both have come down in price so much that your better off getting the largest size.
That way you can make a complete backup of your phone and still have room for movies and other data.

Alternatively you can get an "OTG Adapter" and use any thumb drive you already have.

Just click on the links in each paragraph for the items on Amazon.
I've already shopped around and these are currently the best prices out there.
So if you need extra data storage for your smartphone then these are great options.