Amazon claims its working on the laughing Echo devices

It’s like one of our worst nightmares coming true. Some Amazon Echo users are reporting that Alexa has started laughing at random without any prompting. One user on Twitter claims it started to laugh as he was about to fall asleep, another one on Reddit describes the laugh as sounding almost like a real person (after Alexa refused to turn off his lights after three tries). Amazon says they are aware of the issue and are working on the matter.

Here’s Amazon’s official statement about the issue: “In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase ‘Alexa, laugh.’ We are changing that phrase to be ‘Alexa, can you laugh?’ which is less likely to have false positives, and we are disabling the short utterance ‘Alexa, laugh.’ We are also changing Alexa’s response from simply laughter to ‘Sure, I can laugh’ followed by laughter.” 

Source: Gizmodo

Apple details progress and new initiatives in latest Supplier Responsibility Report

Apple has realeased their latest Supplier Responsibility Report in an ongoing effort to ensure improved education and health awareness for suppliers and their workers. Of note in this latest report is the effort to bring preventivr health programs focused on educating women workers aimed at 1 million Apple suppliers around the world.

Education is also a focus for Apple who is bringing a wide range of classes to workers in the supply chain. Offering them the opportunity to learn within their work environment.

"Apple launched a first of its kind new program to provide vocational training to give students the skills they need to be factory line leaders, graduates are guaranteed an internship with an Apple supplier. To date, 2.5m people have taken classes, which range from language skills up to university degrees, and since 2007, 12,000 people have graduated with a university degree," Apple said in a statement.

Click to read more ...

ecobee closes $80 million funding round

Smart home innovator ecobee Inc. announced that it has closed on an $80 million CAD Series C funding round led by Energy Impact Partners, followed by eight institutional investors including Thomvest, Relay Ventures, and the Amazon Alexa Fund. This funding will allow ecobee to build upon its suite of smart home technologies connected by whole-home-voice control, sensor technology and artificial intelligence. It brings ecobee’s total funding to approximately $190 million to-date.

Click to read more ...

Twitter Canada to live stream the Paralympic Winter Games starting Friday March 9

Twitter Canada announced a live streaming partnership for the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. This one is unique as it’s exclusive to Canada so will only be viewable on Twitter in Canada. 

The live Paralympic action will be available to Canadians on Twitter starting Friday, March 9 and running through Sunday, March 18th. 

This will include a daily Canadian recap show from CBC and event action (both live streaming via the @CDNParalympics and @CDNParalympique Twitter accounts) This is the link where the English language content will be streaming.

Click to read more ...