Sonos One speaker now has Amazon Alexa assistant enabled

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Owners of the Sonos One smart speaker are getting a delightful surprise today as the Amazon Alexa smart assistant is now enabled and offers a variety of welcome features. Users who are also subscribed to services like Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, TuneIn Radio and other streaming music services can simply ask their Sonos One to find and play music by song, artist, genre or playlist.

For users who have the Sonos One as part of a multi-room, multi-speaker setup, the $249 CAD smart speaker can now ask Alexa to play music on specific speakers or rooms which simplifies the process of managing a variety of sources and playback devices.

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Drone invasion at Dolce & Gabbana show

And by invasion, we mean drones took to the runway at the fashion house’s show in Milan on Sunday. Dolce & Gabbana used drones to show off their latest handbag collection. The Italian luxury fashion house had its audience members turn off Wi-Fi and personal hot spots during the show. There were around seven or so drones that carried leather and jewel-encrusted handbags that are part of the fashion house’s Fall/Winter 2018/19 collection. Is this the end of models? Well, the models did make a comeback to show off the clothes. So, that is a no for now.

Source: The Verge

Sony launches Xperia Ear Duo

Launching alongside the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact is the new “open-ear” stereo wireless headset from Sony: the Xperia Ear Duo. Sony equips this pair of headset with what it calls Dual Listening technology. This allows you to listen music and receive notifications while also being able to hear environmental sound or conversation happening around you. This is possible with the use of a Spatial Acoustic Conductor developed by Sony’s own in-house technology incubator Future Lab Program. It lets the sound generated behind the by the unit’s driver be directly transmitted into your ears.

The Xperia Ear Duo also has a Daily Assist feature that can recognize time, locations, and other activities and relay important information to you throughout the day. It makes use of the company’s ultra-low power consuming processor, the CXD5602, and a multi-sensor platform. As expected, it also supports Google Assistant and Siri. It comes with quad-microphone beam forming for clearer voice, four-hour battery life, its own charging case, and IPX2 splash proofing. It’s coming to the US in March and will be available in black and gold.

Source: YugaTech

HMD Global banks on nostalgia yet again with Nokia 8110

HMD Global, the manufacturer of Nokia phones, have released four new devices at Mobile World Congress 2018. But what’s caught our attention is a throwback to our past: the redesigned Nokia 8110. It’s a €79 (around CA$120) 4G feature phone that comes with a “familiar and easy to use interface” and that The Matrix banana phone form factor. It’s a slightly curved handset that comes with a slider to make it easier to answer and end calls.

As a feature phone, you won’t get access to traditional Android apps you can see in other Android-powered Nokia devices. But it does have its own app store and has access to Google Assistant, Google Search, Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, as well as Outlook and Gmail. It runs on what’s called Smart Feature OS. As mentioned, this supports 4G LTE and has dual SIM versions available as well. It runs on a Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform processor, 512MB RAM, and 4GB of storage. It has a 2.4-inch QVGA display, 2-megapixel rear camera, and for those who really want to relive their past, a revamped version of Snake. The Nokia 8110 boasts a 25-day battery standby time.

Source: The Verge