For extremely busy people who are always on the go but would love to be in the know of the latest news, the Amazon Echo now has a solution: Trove, a newly added option to the speaker. Trove allows the user to ask their personal robot assistant the top news headlines on any given subject.
Echo cannot read the user the whole news story, however; it can only read the news headlines, which should already be good enough to provide the user bite-sized pieces of news about current events.
"It's hands-free and always on. With seven microphones and beam-forming technology, Echo can hear you from across the room - even while music is playing," reads the Amazon Echo's product description.
To begin communicating with the device, the user simply needs to say the words "Alexa" or "Amazon."
Apart from the ability to read the top news headlines, the latest update also fine-tunes the user's control over alarms and timers. Now, the user can cancel specific alerts (for instance, weekend alarm) and they can ask Alexa, the smart digital assistant running on Echo, when multiple timers will run out.
Since the gadget was first debuted back in November, initially to Amazon Prime members, Amazon has always been adding more capabilities to Echo. Recent updates to the gadget include the following: Google Calendar Access, Audible, Pandora, Traffic, Scores, and more.
In August, Tech Times reported that Amazon has partnered with Samsung's connected home system called SmartThings in a bid to add more options to the Internet-connected smart speaker.
"We're excited to announce that SmartThings is now compatible with Amazon Echo," SmartThings announced on its blog.
The collaboration added more home automation options for users of the Echo speaker which allows for more convenience. For instance, Echo can now power home devices that are compatible with SmartThings.
Additionally, it is worth noting that Echo is always adapting to the voice patterns of anyone who uses it. The more people use the gadget, the easier Echo executes requests.
