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Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they’re turning ‘welcomer cities’ into the next big tech towns

2

Social Security's 2032 deadline puts a 22% cut on the table — but Washington has way less room to negotiate than 1983

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Boomers actually do hold most of the wealth and power. So why do they call it 'whiny' to point that out?

1

Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they’re turning ‘welcomer cities’ into the next big tech towns

2

Social Security's 2032 deadline puts a 22% cut on the table — but Washington has way less room to negotiate than 1983

3

Boomers actually do hold most of the wealth and power. So why do they call it 'whiny' to point that out?
TechPointCloud

Amazon Is Opening Up This Echo Feature to Other Manufacturers

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Leena Rao
Leena Rao
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By
Leena Rao
Leena Rao
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April 13, 2017, 9:00 AM ET

Amazon Echo has been a massive hardware hit, and now the e-commerce giant is letting other manufacturers use its technology in their own voice-controlled devices.

The Amazon Echo, which the company debuted in 2015, is a tall cylinder that includes a speaker and supports Alexa, a voice-controlled helper that answers questions, plays music on-command, and orders groceries, among other tasks.

Amazon is now letting other manufacturers access select blueprints for Echo so they can make their own devices using voice recognition. Called Amazon Alexa 7-Mic Far-Field Development, the new offering includes the hardware designs for Echo microphones; the software for word recognition, noise reduction, and echo cancellation; and the ability to integrate Alexa.

The company said that it would be working with manufacturers on a case-by-case basis, but would not be charging companies to use the new offering.

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Amazon has also started letting manufacturers integrate Alexa elsewhere. In December, GE Lighting said it would use Alexa in a new lamp that can understand voice commands. By enlisting manufacturers like GE, Amazon hopes to encourage greater adoption of its assistant as it competes with Apple and Google.

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By Leena Rao
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