Alexa’s on the backfoot
Amazon’s Alexa is due for a massive AI overhaul – set to be revealed as soon as this month – that’ll see customers paying an extra monthly fee to fully realise its newfound smarts. That was the plan, anyway. Despite setting a date of 26 February for a hardware showcase, reporters indicate that Amazon has hit another speed bump in the road.
Another speed bump could delay the AI rollout even further, which has thus far suffered several setbacks already. According to The Washington Post (via The Verge), the retail outfit will stick with the 26 February date, and instead delay the rollout of the revamped Alexa “until March 31 or later,” while it sorts out the trouble internally.
The idea is to turn Alexa into a proper AI assistant, able to adopt a ‘personality’, speak in more conversational language, and handle multiple, bigger tasks all at once – in some cases without first being told to do so. The upgrade was initially expected in late 2024 but was held back due to less-than-great reports from beta testers.
Despite the expected launch scheduled for 26 February, those issues are still prevalent today. Amazon is eager to get the AI upgrade right, as it believes that a subscription fee can help the failing Alexa business model turn a profit, something it hasn’t managed all these years later.
Paid-for subreddits aren’t just a bad joke
Would you be willing to pay for access to the, erm, high-quality posts from the fools at r/Silksong? Reddit thinks you just might. During an AMA (ask me anything) involving the social media company’s CEO, Steve Huffman suggested that paid subreddits have moved beyond the ‘bad ideas’ board at the company.
Paid-for subreddits have been bandied about for years at the company, but now they’re seemingly moving forward with the plan. When asked about their development, Huffman said “It’s a work in progress right now, so that one’s coming.” Later, when asked about updates arriving on the platform in 2025, he replied: “Paid subreddits? Yes,” confirming that the change would turn up later this year.
How they will work is still a mystery. The most likely method of delivery will be to paywall certain subreddits – or at least a part of them – and only permit access to those paying the ludicrous $6/m subscription fee for Reddit Premium. Or, it could offer a case-by-case implementation, charging a smaller once-off fee before entering. No matter how you look at it, the idea sounds absurd, but it’ll certainly net Reddit a few extra bucks per month.
This e-reader is a console, too
Rather than force yet another plain ol’ e-reader onto the market, Ink Console has designed, well, an ink console that’ll take those ‘choose your own adventure’ novels to a whole other level. The Ink Console is a “hybrid of an e-reader and a game console designed to redefine how you experience storytelling”, according to its listing on the crowdfunding site Crowdsupply.
As you venture forth into your story, the e-ink display keeps up with the narrative at work and adjusts itself to the story. Hell, it’s even equipped with a basic inventory to keep an eye on the items collected throughout the journey – depending on your choices throughout. Unfortunately, the Ink Console’s livelihood depends on third parties developing these stories and games, which anyone can do with the “easy-to-use development kit.”
“The idea for Ink Console came from a desire to bring the magic of text adventures, like the 1980s classic Zork I, to a new audience unfamiliar with these games” the company said, citing a love of those ‘choose your own adventure’ books. “Our hope is that this interactive format makes reading feel like an adventure and helps instil a love for books in young readers.”
The big thing still to be determined is the Ink Console’s price. It’s rocking some pretty ancient hardware (found here) and a 7.5in e-ink display with a poor 800 x 480 resolution, and a decent 5,000mAh battery. These specs could mean good things for interested customers when Ink Console finally reveal the price. The company’s profile on X points to a larger reveal taking place on 1 March 2025, so stay tuned for more details.
Instagram’s dislike feature
There’s a new button on Instagram. For some users, at least. Last week, those users noticed the addition of a dislike/downvote button appearing under posts and Reels – but only for comments. Instagram later confirmed that it was actively developing a system for users to let them know when they ‘disliked’ a comment.
The system mimics Reddit’s whole upvote/downvote schema but fails to replicate it the right way. Dislikes are private and only signal to Instagram that users are unhappy with a particular comment, according to a post on Threads from Instagram head Adam Mosseri. It begs the question: why? When a comment or post is downvoted on Reddit, the platform tells you about it and actively hides it from the top of a post.
Mosseri says that this weighted system “may” eventually make its way over to Instagram, with comments featuring a higher number of dislikes being pushed further down in favour of comments with more likes. But if this, or a dislike count is implemented currently, what’s the point? There doesn’t seem to be one. Yet.
The feature is reserved for a “small group of people to start,” said an Instagram spokesperson, who failed to offer more specifics of a wider rollout. We can guess that it’ll arrive sooner rather than later if it’s reached even a small knot of users, hopefully with more of a purpose than currently exists.
