Amazon

NFL and Amazon reach one year deal, Thursday night games exclusive to Prime members

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Wall Street Journal:

The National Football League has reached a deal to stream 10 Thursday night games with Amazon.com Inc., the online retailer that is aggressively trying to position itself as a premier source of entertainment content.

The one-year agreement is valued at around $50 million, according to people familiar with the matter. That price tag represents a fivefold increase over the NFL’s agreement with Twitter Inc. for the same number of games last season.

To me, this deal makes much more sense than last year’s Twitter deal. The Twitter deal seemed like dipping a toe in the waters, an experiment with no real end goal. With Amazon, the deal seems more practical, a move to drive traffic, to increase Amazon Prime signups. Note that the games will still be available on TV via CBS and NBC.

Not sure this kind of move would ever make sense for Apple, unless buying an Apple TV was the only way you could watch Thursday Night Football.

Marriott testing Siri and Alexa to decide which will control devices in its hotel rooms

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Bloomberg:

Amazon.com Inc.’s battle with Apple Inc. over digital assistants is moving to a new venue: hotel rooms, where Alexa and Siri are both vying to be the voice-controlled platform of choice for travelers.

Marriott International Inc., the world’s biggest lodging company, is testing devices from the two tech giants at its Aloft hotel in Boston’s Seaport district to determine which is best to let guests turn on lights, close drapes, control room temperature and change television channels via voice command. In December, Wynn Resorts Ltd. became the first hotel company to install Alexa-powered Echo devices, starting with suites at its flagship Wynn Las Vegas property.

This is a fascinating business conflict. Let’s say Marriott chooses Alexa and Hilton chooses Siri. Will Apple folks shift their staying habits, choosing to stay at a Siri friendly hotel? Is this forced choice good business? Is there a way to support both? I see a business opportunity for an Echo-like device that supports multiple personalities, translating requests into the appropriate format with an exposed setting that lets you pick your favorite.

Kindle for iOS finally gets the “Send to Kindle” feature, challenging Pocket and Instapaper

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Sarah Perez, Tech Crunch:

Amazon has quietly rolled out the “Send to Kindle” feature to its Kindle for iOS application that allows you to save to the app articles and documents found on the web. That means your Kindle device or app can replace your preferred “read it later” application — like Pocket or Instapaper, for example — apps where regular web readers often store the longer news articles, features or profiles they want to dig into at a later date.

Not sure of the impact of this move. I use the Kindle app to read books. And that’s it. Not sure the ability to “Send to Kindle” will even get an experimental look. Where’s the value? I can share everything to an app designed from the ground up for article or PDF reading. Why shift that workflow to run through Kindle?

Here’s why Apple isn’t building an Amazon Echo rival

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Tim Bajarin, writing for Time:

Despite Amazon’s success, Apple has no apparent interest in copying the Echo. After talking with Apple executives, I’ve come away with the impression that they’re more interested in turning Siri into an omnipresent AI assistant across devices, rather than designing a single device specifically to serve as a Siri machine.

Interesting point. The Amazon Echo exists simply to listen for, and fulfill, Alexa requests. Every other Apple device serves many purposes and also serves the ecosystem. More bang for the buck.

Amazon Chime: Make video calls, hold meetings, screen share, more

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Amazon is entering the Go-to-Meeting and Skype space with Chime, now available on Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. From this Android Police post:

Conference calls and video meetings have almost been synonymous with Skype for the longest time, but Amazon is looking at changing that. Chime, a new Amazon Web Services platform, wants to simplify communications between teams and individuals and cater to their different aspects in one app: video call, voice call, chat, and screen sharing.

And:

There’s also a chatroom component to chime, with attachments to share important documents. Chime is free to try for 30 days, but after that, there are three plans to choose from. Basic Edition gives access to all of these options, minus screen sharing and with a 2 attendee limit, for free. Plus Edition is great for companies who want to manage users, but it costs $2.50/user/month and still keeps the 2 attendee limit. Pro Edition costs $15/user/month, but makes it possible to have meetings with up to 100 users and brings a host of add-ons.

Wondering if this will become a tool for podcast interviews.

Sign up here.

Samsung files for a ‘Samsung Hello’ trademark

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The way I read this, this is Samsung striking out on their own, moving to brand their own voice personality, apart from “OK Google”, and competing with Siri and Alexa (and to a lesser extent, Cortana). The main difference is, Apple and Amazon have complete control over the hardware on which their voice assistants run. Google is, at some level, dependent on third party hardware (thought Google Home and the Pixel phone are Google from the ground up). Samsung does control its hardware, but is dependent on Google for Android.

All very interesting.

Apple said to join Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Facebook in AI best practices group

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From the partnership page:

In support of the mission to benefit people and society, the Partnership on AI intends to conduct research, organize discussions, share insights, provide thought leadership, consult with relevant third parties, respond to questions from the public and media, and create educational material that advance the understanding of AI technologies including machine perception, learning, and automated reasoning.

As much as we’ve learned about artificial intelligence, we’re still on the steepest part of the learning curve. We’re still working out the mechanics, just barely touching on the important philosophical issues.

Glad to hear news that Apple looks to be joining this group. Keep an eye on the partner page. You’ll know this is a done deal when Apple’s name joins the list.

Apple’s sets its sights on Hollywood with plans for original content

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Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc. is planning to build a significant new business in original television shows and movies, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that could make it a bigger player in Hollywood and offset slowing sales of iPhones and iPads.

These people said the programming would be available to subscribers of Apple’s $10-a-month streaming-music service, which has struggled to catch up to the larger Spotify AB. Apple Music already includes a limited number of documentary-style segments on musicians, but nothing like the premium programming it is now seeking.

The technology giant has been in talks with veteran producers in recent months about buying rights to scripted television programs. It also has approached experienced marketing executives at studios and networks to discuss hiring them to promote its content, said people with knowledge of the discussions.

And:

In addition to TV, Apple indicated to these people that it is considering offering original movies, though those plans are more preliminary.

Executives at Apple have told people in Hollywood they hope to start offering original scripted content by the end of 2017.

Strikes me as an approach similar to Amazon’s. Amazon offers free video content with your Prime subscription. Pay for free shipping, we’ll sweeten the deal with a range of original, high quality content.

As far as I know, Amazon has not yet made any bundle deals for their content, corralling their offerings inside their ecosystem. Will Apple do the same? It certainly would swing customers away from Spotify towards Apple Music. And, if the video offerings were substantial enough, some customers would sign up for the video and look at the music as a nice side benefit.

Gartner: By 2019, 20 percent of smartphone interactions will be via VPAs (like Siri)

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Gartner:

Advances in various technologies will drive users to interact with their smartphones in more intuitive ways, said Gartner, Inc. Gartner predicts that, by 2019, 20 percent of all user interactions with the smartphone will take place via virtual personal assistants (VPAs).

And:

Apple’s Siri and Google Now are currently the most widely used VPAs on smartphones. Fifty-four percent of U.K. and U.S. respondents used Siri in the last three months. Google Now is used by 41 percent of U.K. respondents and 48 percent of U.S. respondents.

Interesting that Apple has not joined the Amazon Echo and Google Home party. The trend for voice is clearly rising. Though my Apple Watch is always listening, there is a core difference between Siri and Echo/Home. While both are always on, Echo and Home are more traditionally conversational. I ask about the weather and a voice responds, all without my having to tilt my watch to look at the screen or pull my iPhone out of my pocket.

Will Apple go this route?

Alexa is everywhere

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Amazon is following the Netflix strategy, embedding Alexa everywhere it can possibly make sense. There are TVs (of course – think Amazon Fire TV Stick), refrigerators, and all sorts of Amazon Echo-like docks, all using Alexa’s voice recognition technology without requiring the purchase of an Echo.

Add to that the devices that integrate with Alexa’s APIs, making themselves controllable by the user’s Amazon Echo.

To read more about Amazon’s direct challenge to Apple, jump to the main Loop post…

The difference between Google Assistant and Siri

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[VIDEO] Matt Birchler on putting Google Assistant and Siri through their paces:

The tech narrative is that Siri sucks and Google Assistant is the second coming. I have been using Siri for years, and have been going 100% in on Android over the last few weeks and have given Google Assistant a solid effort. My experience has been a little different than the popular narrative.

Watch the video for the details. Bottom line, I recognize this experience. Siri does a lot really well. To maximize your Siri satisfaction, learn the boundaries, get a sense of what Siri does reliably that fits in your day-to-day workflow.

In my experience, Siri does a lot that’s pretty bulletproof. One example is reminders. If I need to remember something, the first thing I do is figure out an ideal time to be reminded, then pull out my iPhone or “Hey, Siri” my Apple Watch and ask Siri to remind me. If there’s failure here, it is always up front and obvious. And that’s easily repaired.

Where Siri is less reliable, I find another path. If I ask Siri a question she can’t answer, I don’t get frustrated. These are early days still, for Google, Amazon, and Apple’s Siri.

Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: The ecosystem divisions are getting deeper

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Dan Moren, Six Colors:

At present, there’s certainly not much to recommend the Home to people who already own an Echo or Echo Dot. Most of what the Home can do, the Echo can do just as well, with the exception of translation and Chromecast support.

Those on the fence about which smart speaker to buy have a less enviable decision. Both are attractive, well-made devices in their own way, and both will scratch that itch of a ubiquitous assistant at your constant beck and call. To date, the Echo remains the heavyweight champion of the market, thanks to its deep bench of features and third-party skills, but it would be unwise to underestimate Google’s resources and expertise if the company decides this is a field where it wants to devote its energy.

It’s early days for the always-on, stay-at-home assistant. One thing that is clear: Google Home and Amazon Echo are extensions of their relative ecosystems. If and when Apple builds one, I expect their fixed assistant to favor Apple’s ecosystem, too.

A pity, that. If I were to hire an assistant, I would never hire someone who had to check the branding involved before they could help me with a particular task. The divisions are getting deeper.

Amazon’s iPhone app now gives you X-Ray vision for incoming holiday packages

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Dan DeSilva, 9to5mac:

Tucked in Amazon’s big Black Friday news this morning was the announcement of a handy Package X-Ray feature for its iPhone shopping app. The app can now leverage your iPhone’s camera to reveal the contents of an Amazon delivery without having to actually open up the package or hunt down tracking numbers.

And:

It will only work on packages tied to your Amazon account so you don’t have to worry about your kids or spouse ruining any surprises (as long as you don’t share an account, that is).

Great idea.

Amazon’s full on-demand streaming music service launches today

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Dan Seifert, writing for The Verge:

Amazon’s long-rumored on-demand music streaming service is now available. The company is launching its new service as Amazon Music Unlimited, a on-demand competitor to the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music. Amazon has done a number of things to differentiate Music Unlimited from its competitors, but the most notable one is its price: the service will be available to Amazon Prime members for $7.99 per month or $79 per year, which is cheaper than the premium options from Spotify or Apple Music. In addition, owners of one of Amazon’s voice-controlled Echo devices will be able to get the service for just $3.99 per month.

Key to me:

And while the Echo-only plan is limited to only one device (you cannot use it on your phone, PC, tablet, or even more than one Echo device), it still offers the same content library, recommendations, and other features that the full service provides.

This means, with the Echo-only plan, there’s no way to take this music on the road with me, either by car, plane, on my bike or for a run.

I find it interesting that folks who buy into the Echo-ecosystem can get a discount, but one with some significant omissions.

Recode: Amazon’s cheaper, Echo-only music service

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Recode:

Amazon wants to launch a music subscription service that would work the same way services from Apple, Spotify and many others work: $10 a month, for all the music you can stream, anywhere you want to stream it.

But Amazon is also working on a second service that would differ in two significant ways from industry rivals: It would cost half the price, and it would only work on Amazon’s Echo hardware.

Industry sources say Amazon would like to launch both services in September, but has yet to finalize deals with major music labels and publishers. One sticking point, sources say, is whether Amazon will sell the cheaper service for $4 or $5 a month.

I can’t imagine a music service that I could only use in one place. One of the things I love about Apple Music is that it is always with me: on my computer, on my iPhone, iPad, in my car, always available.

I like the idea of a cheaper service, that might move me, but only if I didn’t have to sacrifice portability.

Hey Siri, who’s better: you or Alexa?

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[VIDEO] Lauren Goode, writing (and filming) for The Verge, walks you through the differences between Siri and Alexa, Alexa being the voice of the Amazon ecosystem, most notably found on the Amazon Echo.

Watch the video embedded in the main post to get a sense of Alexa in action. Nice side-by-side effect there, Lauren.

In defense of The New York Times

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The New York Times wrote a blistering expose on the Amazon workplace a few month’s ago. Amazon responded, very publicly, a few days ago. And Ben Thompson dug in, with a brilliant analysis. Read on for the details.