Amazon and Microsoft collaborate to make Alexa and Cortana work together

It seems like an unlikely partnership but it’s been in the works for a while. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos first broached the idea to Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella about having their digital assistants work together around a year ago. And it looks like we might see that happen soon. In the near future, later this year to be exact, we’d just have to utter the words, “Alexa, open Cortana” or “Cortana, open Alexa” to be able to work with both platforms. According to both companies, this integration will benefit both users of the respective digital assistants. Amazon users will get better access to Cortana’s deep integration with Office Suite just from talking to Amazon’s smart speakers. Microsoft’s AI will get access to Alexa’s 20,000 skills and make it easier to shop on Amazon.com.

As mentioned, the two digital assistants are expected to start talking to each other later in the year. Alexa on Cortana will be coming to Windows 10 PCs first and then later on to the Android and iOS apps. At first glance, it seems this could be seen as Microsoft and Amazon trying to gain an advantage in the digital assistant space. But both CEOs claim they are willing to work with Apple and Google to integrate Siri and Google Assistant—if both companies are open to that, that is. We can’t say that’ll be in the cards in our future, especially with Apple and Google being particularly protective of their properties. But we have seen stranger things happen.

Source: Engadget

‘The Walking Dead’ creator Robert Kirkman leaves AMC for Amazon

Amazon has scored a big win this week as it signed a first-look agreement with The Walking Dead’s creator Robert Kirkman and his production company Skybound Entertainment. This means, Amazon gets first dibs on upcoming Skybound productions. Fans of shows like The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, and Outcast will be enticed sign up for Amazon Prime Video to get access to whatever new projects Kirkman and his team produce in the future.

AMC has been a longtime partner of Skybound and The Walking Dead has been one of the most profitable shows for the network. But it makes sense for Kirkman and Skybound to turn their focus on building digital strategies with as big a company as Amazon as it’ll help expand its capabilities and ambitions of the studio. Skybound Entertainment will be extremely busy moving forward. They’re currently working on different film projects with properties for their two-year first look deal with Universal. They also just opened Skybound North, a Vancouver-based production division led by former LucasFilm Animation’s Catherine Winder. The news also shows the continuous shift in the streaming service space. Recently, we’ve heard about Netflix buying Mark Millar’s company and Disney’s plan to launch its own streaming service.

Source: Variety

Amazon tipped to be working on a messaging app

Whether we want another messaging app or not, it looks like we’re getting one. Amazon is reportedly working on its own service and they’re calling it “Anytime by Amazon.” The company is sending out surveys to its customers about the service to find out what features are important to them. The app will supposedly use your Amazon account as your login and it’ll be encrypted. Anytime will supposedly have mobile and desktop clients and might include things like being able to make reservations and listen to music from within the app.

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iMCO Watch is the newest Alexa-powered smartwatch

You may or may not have heard of CoWatch, an Amazon Alexa-powered smartwatch that launched last year. The device just got rebranded and is now called iMCO Watch. It just launched in India via Yerha.com, an Indian e-commerce startup. The iMCO Watch also brings Alexa’s voice assistant feature to the wearable and will let you do what most smartwatches do, such as asking for the weather or controlling your smart home. It can be activated via a crown button on the side of the device or tapping on the Alexa icon on the display. You don’t get voice activation here, though. It runs on Cronologics OS, which is an Android-based operating system. It works for both Android and iOS but with the computing happening on the watch or the cloud, you really don’t need a phone for it to work all the time.

The iMCO Watch is made with mostly stainless steel and it sports a ceramic ring. The smartwatch also comes with water and dust resistance. It has a 400 x 400 pixel AMOLED display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB onboard storage, and a slew of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and heart rate sensor. It comes in Mineral Silver and Carbon Black for ₹14,990 (around CA$300).

Source: Android Authority