Alexa’s big AI upgrade
Another day, another product that’s retroactively throwing AI into the mix. This time it’s Amazon’s Alexa getting the artificial intelligence makeover, not out of a desire to further advance the field as a whole — but out of a desire to add some cash into its back pocket. According to a new report from Business Insider (via Digital Trends), Bezos hasn’t had much success in actually monetizing its smart assistant, and a switch to an AI-focused model might be the only way to offset the costs. Emphasis on ‘might’.
We have no trouble believing Amazon is struggling in that department. It’s an already niche market that’s becoming overcrowded. So how does it fix that? Selling off a sixth-generation Amazon Echo or something similar riddled with AI is never going to work. Its only hope is to create a subscription-based fee that’ll add AI into the equation. Lo and behold, that’s exactly what it’s doing.
We think. Amazon hasn’t confirmed as much, but the report makes mention of “Alexa Plus”, a paid-for AI service that sounds typical of Amazon. Rumours are afoot that Amazon has already begun testing the new subscription service amongst a small group of users under the codename “Remarkable Alexa” that’ll turn the assistant into a much smarter one. There’s no word yet on how much it’ll cost and just how smart it’ll be, but there’s talk it could be launching at the end of July 2024.
Indy, but not indie
There’s no denying that last night’s Xbox Developer Direct was a concoction for an early night. But we won’t pretend our inner child didn’t get at least a little excited when we finally got our first look at the gameplay of MachineGames and Bethesda’s upcoming Indiana Jones game, now officially titled Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
We’ll throw the gameplay reveal up there somewhere so you can check it out for yourself. But if you’ve got the boss lurking over your shoulder, we’ll run with the CliffsNotes. The Great Circle is most broadly described as an action-adventure title that’ll toggle between putting you in the shoes of Indy himself and the shoes of a camera somewhere behind his right shoulder as he unravels… well, the Great Circle.
It’s got whipping, shooting and a young Harrison Ford, all while Troy Baker’s voice speaks seductively at you. There’s some stealth and puzzles, too, according to MachineGames, which are discussed at length during its Developer Direct segment.
It all appears to be rather story-centric, with Great Circle taking place chronologically somewhere in between Raiders and Last Crusade. Microsoft didn’t hand out any solid release information, only noting that it’ll be available for Xbox and PC sometime later this year. Sorry, PlayStation.
Bad news for Prime in Africa and the Middle East
Amazon, the company that has a net worth of $1.59-trillion as of 18 January, is downsizing its African and Middle Eastern operations where Prime Video is concerned. Don’t panic just yet — it isn’t pulling Prime Video or anything from those regions. Per a new Variety report, Baldy’s company is looking to cut funding in those regions — resulting in a loss of staff and original content in those areas.
Any shows that are currently being worked on, such as Trevor Noah’s Last One Laughing and Ebuka Turns Up Africa haven’t been cancelled and are moving forward as planned. They’ll just be the last original African content we see from the streamer.
Where it’ll be funnelling that money instead, is into Europe apparently. It’ll be splitting its European team in two, with one focusing on countries like the U.K., Germany, Italy, France, and Spain while the other is taking the reins of the Nords and the rest.
“We’ve been carefully looking at our business to ensure we continue to prioritize our resources on what matters most to customers. I have carefully evaluated our structure in the region and decided to make some adjustments to our operating model to rebalance and pivot our resources to focus on the areas that drive the highest impact and long-term success,” said Prime Video Europe VP Barry Furlong, according to an internal staff email seen by Variety.
Lenovo’s got a mouse and keyboard combo that’s powered by physical labour
If you’re old enough to remember when cars had cranks, you’re probably exactly who Lenovo had in mind when it dreamt up one of the oddest CES combos we’ve ever seen. It’s known as The Mechanical Energy Harvesting Combo — a proof-of-concept keyboard and mouse duo that doesn’t need any third-party batteries or a charger. Instead, they run off the fruits of your manual labour.
The keyboard is aimed at gamers with its compact 68-key layout, all RGB-enabled, and a dial that might look like it controls volume but is actually the mechanical energy input method. Lenovo reckons it’ll need five minutes of spinning for around 30 minutes of charge. If you do the maths, that’s 28 hours of spinning for a week of charge. Awesome. That’s without taking the mouse’s crank into account, located in a pull-out ring on its bottom. Lenovo says it will net 30 minutes of charge from only a minute of cranking.
There’s only a slim chance The Mechanical Energy Harvesting Combo will ever be more than a proof-of-concept just to prove that Lenovo can. We’d like to see it get at least a limited release just for the memes, but we doubt that’ll ever happen.