Amazon Prime Music brings Alexa hands-free functionality to mobile devices

Starting today, Prime Music is bringing Alexa wake word capability to the Amazon Music mobile app, providing customers with a full integration of voice capabilities. Now, when customers open the Amazon Music app, they can ask Alexa to play music wherever they go without touching to talk – a completely hands-free listening experience!

When the Amazon Music app is open and in the foreground on any iOS and Android smartphones, customers can safely utilize all of the innovative voice features they use on Echo devices to play music by mood, genre, artist or song title and much more, no searching or browsing required. Customers can now simply say “Alexa”, to play, pause, move back and forth between songs, and much more.

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IBM's CEO Ginni Rometty says AI needs to, "augment human intelligence, not replace it."

Echoing the sentiments of Microsoft's Satya Nadella, IBM's CEO Ginny Rometty recently stressed the need for ethical quidance for Artificial Intelligence (AI). Technoplogy leaders know the importance of keeping a technology as world changing as machine learning and AI (Artificial Intelligence), which are set to impact every industry as well as replace millions of jobs.

“At IBM, we fundamentally believe in the power of technology to make our world a better place to live, and to benefit the lives of the many, not just the few,” Rometty said in a prepared statement before her keynote at the high proficle Viva Technology conference in Paris yesterday. “We all have a responsibility to use innovation to make a difference, and through Call for Code our collective goal is to help people in need and build a better future.”

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Acer unloads new notebooks, Chromebooks, and gaming PCs for 2018

Acer has dropped a whole bunch of hardware including the largest Chromebook laptop at 15.6-inches in the Chromebook Spin 15, which is a convertible 2-in-1 device.  The Acer Swift (pictured above) is a striking notebook that features a 15-inch display but weighs only 2.2 pounds and is ultra-thin.

“There’s  been  great feedback  on  Acer’s  amazingly  light  14-inch  Swift  5 and  we  are  now  pushing the  limits  with  the  15.6-inch  model,”  said  Jerry  Hou,  General  Manager,  Consumer  Notebooks,  IT  Products  Business,  Acer  Inc.

Also announced were a slew of gaming PCs including the Predator Helios and Orion lines.

Review: Fitbit Versa

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Fitbit has been on a path to refine its fitness tracking devices and software and develop a more multifunctional general-purpose smartwatch that will suit a wider number of users.

The Fitbit Versa, which be the evolution of the Fitbit Ionic and the Fitbit Blaze before it, offers a friendly and more familiar look that's neither too masculine or to feminine.

This is a refreshingly lightweight watch and its easy to forget you're wearing it. The range of bands is nowhere as wide or as funky as Apple’s, but it is decent and runs the gamut from sporty rubber to fancy leather and even metal bracelets. I use the grey rubber band during the week and dress up the Versa with navy blue Horween leather case on weekends.

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