Thursday
Feb112021

Alexa lets you share songs with friends via Echo devices

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It's possible to use your Echo smart speaker to send song recommendations to friends. Amazon announced a music sharing feature that lets you share tracks with your Alexa contacts using Echo devices or the Alexa app. Tell Alexa to "share this song with" and state the contact. The recipient can listen to the song on whatever streaming service they have and send a reaction to it your way. 

The voice assistant will try and look for the song on services available to you and your recipient. If it doesn't find it, it'll get a station based on the artist's name and song title. The feature requires you and your contact to have Alexa Communications enabled. Amazon said this is "just the beginning" for the sharing feature, so other sharing capabilities might soon be heading our way.

Source: Engadget

Thursday
Feb112021

HBO will make a 'The Last of Us' show, starring Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey

'The Last of Us' game will become an HBO show (Source: Naughty Dog)

If the names are familiar to you, you might know both of them from Game of Thrones. Pedro Pascal played Oberyn Martell and Bella Ramsey as Lyanna Mormont. But you might know Pascal more from his lead role in The Mandalorian or on Netflix' Narcos. The two actors will be playing a father and surrogate daughter tandem, Joel and Ellie, in The Last of Us's TV adaptation.

The casting news was confirmed by the game's creative director Neil Druckmann, who also serves as an executive producer and writer on the show. The first game in The Last of US series focused on Joel and Ellie's relationship, and it looks like the show will focus on that first. Chernobyl's Craig Mazin will be a writer and executive producer on the series, and Kantemir Balagov, who directed the independent WWII drama Beanpole, will direct the pilot episode.

Source: The Verge

Thursday
Feb112021

PSA: Update your Slack password if you use it on Android

This email from Slack is real, change your password if you receive it (Source: Android Police)

If you use Slack on your Android phone, you need to change your password now. The company sent out an email to some users requiring them to reset their passwords. According to the company, from December 21 to January 21, the Android version of the Slack app would store user credentials in plain text. The Verge points out that, in theory, this means any other app on your phone could access them.

Before changing your password, make sure to update to the latest version of Slack first. And if you received the email from Slack, click on the link to change your password. Otherwise, you'll need to be on your desktop or laptop to reset your password. Slack has instructions up on how to do that. If you use your password on other sites (which you really shouldn't do), make sure to change those, too.

Wednesday
Feb102021

You can now listen to Audible on Waze

Waze is making it easier for you to catch up on your audiobooks as the navigation app welcomes Audible into its Audio Player Program. This means you get easy access to Audible's vast array of Audible Originals, audiobooks, podcasts, and other audio programs through Waze. Of course, you'll need to be an Audible member to use the feature.

To access the feature, open the Waze app and then tap on the music note icon. From there, select Audible as your audio player. If you're within the Audible app, you will also receive next turn directions from Waze. This integration has already begun rolling out.