Rest of the Day: Sonos Speakers Get Voice Control Via Amazon Echo
Sonos is opening up its speakers to work with Amazon Echo and Spotify. Starting next year, you will be able to control playback on your Sonos speakers with voice commands through Alexa-enabled devices.
- The Echo has a pretty decent speaker, but if you want the best quality, you can hook it up to your Sonos sound system . It’s a smart way to provide voice control to any Sonos speaker without building new hardware, with a public beta planned for 2017. You will also be able to control playback directly from Spotify on both desktops and mobile devices. (You can already play Spotify music on your Sonos speakers, but you need to use the Sonos Controller app for that.) [The Verge]
- In other news, Google is launching a car-sharing service in San Francisco as part of the Waze navigation app. A few months ago, they started working with several companies in the Bay Area to organize co- op rides with Waze Carpool , and they now plan to open the service to the general public this fall. While it will compete with Uber and Lyft, the fares will be low enough to keep drivers from becoming taxis. They just want us to be friends with cars. [Wall Street Magazine]
- Google+ is getting some new features. You can now add images and links to your comment replies and they will promote the recent redesign to users who previously agreed. But for now, you can switch to the classic design. [Google+]
- SwiftKey is finally back on track after their minor glitch where customized offers were sent to the wrong people. They re-enable prediction of the phone number and email address along with the sync service that originally caused the problem. [Android Police]
- Pebble is updating its watch OS with some new features , including an updated timeline interface that makes it easier to see all of your notifications and events. There is also a new health app that is less cumbersome to use. [TechCrunch]