Amazon

Amazon will buy MGM for $8.45 billion. This is not a surprise, as MGM has been for sale for quite some time, and secrets about this purchase were not well-kept. Continue Reading →

There have been rumors about Amazon (and pretty much every other big tech firm) kicking the tires at MGM for quite a while, but Variety is reporting that "Amazon’s interest in acquiring MGM has taken on a new tenor beyond the usual rumor mill. The deal is said to be being orchestrated by Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Amazon Studios and Prime Video, directly with MGM board chairman Kevin Ulrich, whose Anchorage Capital is a major MGM shareholder." Continue Reading →

Whenever I'm asked about the fate of local TV, I always answer that as goes the next NFL deal, so goes TV. Well, as everyone with even the slightest interest in the subject already knows, the NFL/TV deal is done, and so is local TV. Continue Reading →

Amazon just launched Alexa Custom Assistant: a service that lets automakers and device manufacturers build their own digital assistants using Amazon’s Alexa technology. Continue Reading →

In the aftermath of the insurrection, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Snapchat suspended some high profile accounts (including President Trump's personal accounts) for violating their terms of service. Google and Apple removed Parler (a poorly monitored social media site) from their respective app stores. Continue Reading →

The official title of the Amazon Science blog is "Alexa gets better at predicting customers’ goals," but you should read this as, "The Turing test is not for machines to pass, but for humans to fail." Continue Reading →

In a statement published Tuesday, the European Commission said it took issue with Amazon using independent sellers’ data to benefit its own retail business. It also announced a second formal investigation into Amazon’s e-commerce processes. Should Amazon be able to analyze data it gathers from its vast number of third-party sellers to help it create Continue Reading →

The House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law of the Committee on The Judiciary published Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets. It’s not a page-turner, but you should read it today. Continue Reading →

Amazon, Google, Apple, and the Zigbee Alliance announced a new partnership called Project Connected Home over IP. It will create a new smart home standard so their products can work together. Sadly, we won’t see a draft specification until late next year. But the good news is that the partnership is announced and there will be a spec and open source materials, too. Continue Reading →

A few weeks ago, Amazon announced new developer tools to enable Alexa to speak with emotion, either excited or disappointed across a range of intensities. Amazon said, "Use new Alexa Emotions and speaking styles to create a more natural and intuitive voice experience." Continue Reading →