After more than a year out of sight, Alexa+–the new Alexa with its AI-powered revamp–took center stage at a crowded coming-out party in New York City on Wednesday, and I got a first-hand look at what this turbocharged voice assistant can do.  Following the big unveiling, we were all led to a demonstration hall with about a half-dozen break-out rooms, where we were able to see and hear—but not participate in—Alexa’s new conversational tricks, from controlling smart home devices and researching sports tickets to suggesting recipes and dialing up tunes on Amazon Prime Video.  If all that sounds like old hat, consider this: While the old Alexa requires falling back into what Amazon devices head Panos Panay rightfully described as “Alexa-speak,” the new Alexa is a far more flexible and understanding companion, capable of sussing out your intentions from the vaguest of queries, and—at least, from what I saw on Wednesday—getting it right more than it failed.   While the demonstrations we saw appeared carefully choreographed, we were frequently assured that what we were seeing and hearing was the “live” Alexa+, rather than a canned demo—and from someone who’s spent a fair amount of time with ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode, the exchanges sounded genuine.  Here are my biggest takeaways after sitting through Amazon’s Alexa+ show-and-tell, starting with… Alexa+ didn’t make many mistakes  Naturally, everyone’s waiting for the new AI-powered Alexa to bungle a command or start hallucinating, but the demos I saw on Wednesday went surprisingly smoothly.  Granted, the Amazon presenters on hand were likely sticking to a pre-arranged script, asking the same questions and issuing the same commands over and over.   Still, the questions and queries were open-ended enough to invite mistakes. Yet I witnessed only one genuine screw-up on Alexa+’s part: When asked to move a music selection to a speaker in “the office,” it instead began playing an episode of The Office on Peacock. Oops!  On a few other occasions, Alexa+ appeared to freeze when asked a question, but those pauses could be chalked up to the din of the demonstration hall (I myself had a difficult time hearing) and/or an overloaded Wi-Fi network.  Alexa+ could make controlling the smart home much easier  One of the biggest pain points when using voice assistants to control smart home devices is the dreaded, “Sorry, I don’t know which light bulb you mean,” or “I can’t help with that.” It’s gotten so bad lately that I almost never use my smart speakers for smart home control anymore, relying instead on apps, routines, or old-fashioned buttons and switches.  Alexa+ promises to get us using our smart speakers again, thanks mainly to its ability to ponder what we’re saying and then deducing what our intentions are.  For example, in one demo, Alexa+ was asked to turn on the light in the “sitting room,” an area (we were told) that hadn’t been previously defined within the smart home setup. The new Alexa turned on a lamp positioned near a sofa, correctly guessing that the light was located in a sitting area. Of course, a home might have several different potential “sitting areas” with multiple lamps next to sofas, but the demonstration does show how Alexa+ can get creative (hopefully not too creative) when it comes to understanding smart home commands.  We also saw how Alexa+ can pull up videos from your Ring history, plucking out selections based on queries like, “Show me when the kids were playing in the snow,” as well as (in a separate demo) how Alexa+ could make it way easier to move music from one smart speaker to another, cutting down on those irksome “Sorry, I don’t see a dining room speaker” flubs.   Just ask, and Alexa+ can call up clips from your Ring video history. Ben Patterson/Foundry Finally, there’s the promise of Alexa+ creating routines based on natural-language voice prompts. For example, this query: “The family is having a hard time getting ready for bed at night, can you help create a routine to solve that,” yielded this automation: “Every night at 9 p.m., Alexa will announce ‘it’s time to get ready for bed’ on all devices, then all the lights will dim to 50 percent brightness before turning off completely.” Not bad, and you can always follow up with tweaks to perfect the routine.  Alexa+ can create routines based on natural-launguage queries. Ben Patterson/Foundry It could be a game-changer in the kitchen  I’ve recently been fascinated by how generative AI can make an excellent cook’s companion, crafting recipes on the fly and making suggestions on ingredient substitutions, but Alexa+ could take those abilities to the next level.  Besides the fact that the new Alexa can operate from a kitchen smart display–a far easier setup than juggling a phone with slimy food hands—Alexa+ can remember what ingredients you have (you will need to tell it or show it what’s in your cupboard or fridge), and it can also take note of who in the family likes what, then order the proper ingredients on Amazon Fresh or another supported online grocery store (“supported” is the key word; more on that in a moment).  I also like the fact that Alexa+ sources thousands of recipes from partner publications—meaning it’s not just scraping recipes off the web and then concocting its own versions (with sometimes questionable results).  It can be a little too chatty  Similar to the classic Alexa, the new AI Alexa can be something of a motor mouth, nattering on excitedly about how it “loves” that song you picked, praising you for “hitting the nail on the head,” opining that a certain TV show is the “perfect antidote to the Sunday blues,” and so on.  Such verbal flourishes will be familiar to anyone who’s chatted with ChatGPT in Advanced Voice Mode, and the sycophantic buttering-up gets tiresome after awhile. I can certainly imagine times when I’d want Alexa+ to simply tee up a playlist without the asides.  Luckily, I was told that it will be possible to tone down Alexa+’s responses with a prompt like, “Simpler please.”  Alexa+ works the best with Amazon partners The amount of tasks that Alexa+ can actually do, from teeing up music tracks to booking dinner reservations, scheduling events and service appointments is impressive, and stands in contrast to how ChatGPT and Google Gemini are still fairly isolated within their respective chatboxes. (Gemini is taking its first steps in the smart home via extensions in the Gemini app.)  But many of Alexa+’s abilities are tied to service providers that have already partnered with Amazon. So, you can book a carpet cleaning appointment thanks to Alexa’s integration with Thumbtack, you can’t book an annual checkup through ZocDoc, which hasn’t teamed up with Amazon–at least not yet.  And while Alexa+ will be able to order groceries from Amazon services like Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods, it probably won’t be much help for a FreshDirect customer like me (or at least not until FreshDirect forges an alliance with Amazon).  Many of Alexa+’s coolest abilities are tied to those services that have partnered with Amazon.Ben Patterson/Foundry You’ll need to trust Alexa+ with an awful lot of personal info  Some of the most impressive demos during Wednesday’s unveiling involved Alexa+’s abilities to absorb lengthy documents—including personal ones—which it can then summarize and answer questions about. In one example, the new Alexa poured over a complex homeowners association agreement, explaining the various rules and plucking out key details.  Alexa+ can also remember personal preferences, such as favorite restaurants, who your best friends are, what music genres you favor, and so on. The more Alexa+ knows about you, the more powerful it gets as a personal assistant.  But as with the “classic” Alexa, privacy will surely be a thorny issue with Alexa+, and one should probably think twice before allowing the AI to scour sensitive documents like health or financial records.  For its part, Amazon says the new Alexa is designed to “protect [the] privacy and security” of its customers, while providing “transparency and control.” Amazon also notes that it will “centralize” privacy controls, while promising “world-class privacy and security protection” through the “secure infrastructure” of Amazon Web Services.  Echo display owners will get first dibs on Alexa+  The new Alexa will work on “almost all” existing Echo devices, including the diminutive Echo Dot, I’m told. (Some of the “earliest” Amazon smart speakers won’t work with Alexa+, including the first-generations of the Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Plus.)  That said, you’ll need to be the owner of an Echo Show display to get first dibs on the new Alexa. Amazon is rolling out Alexa+ in phases (starting in the “coming weeks”), and owners of Echo devices with displays—including the Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21—will get access first. If you do become an early Alexa+ user, the new assistant will work across all your compatible Echo devices, including speaker-only products like the Echo Dot.  [Further reading: These are the best smart speakers and displays] Alexa+ will be a great Prime perk  Once the free early access period is up, Amazon will charge $19.99 a month for Alexa+. “Ouch,” I initially thought, but that wasn’t the full story.  As it turns out, Alexa+ will be free for Prime members, making the new Alexa the latest Prime benefit. That’s terrific news for those (many) of us already shelling out for Prime, and thus making it far more likely that a lapsed Alexa user like me will give the new AI-enhanced version a go. Read...

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If you’ve had it up to here with dumb responses from Alexa, get ready for a big change.  At a glitzy event in New York City on Wednesday, Amazon unveiled–again–its AI-enhanced and “completely re-architectured” Alexa, and we’ll all soon have a chance to kick the tires ourselves. Starting next month, Amazon will kick off a public preview for the new Alexa, which it’s calling Alexa+. The public preview will begin gradually, with more users gradually being added to the group. This news is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers. The revamped Alexa will indeed cost extra: think $19.99 a month, in line with paid “plus” memberships for ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude. That said, Alexa+ will be free for Amazon Prime members. Amazon has previously promised that “classic” Alexa would remain available for free, but there was no mention of that during today’s presentation. Ben Patterson/Foundry The new AI-enhanced Alexa (which will offer new phone and web apps) will have a variety of tricks up its sleeve, including “agentic” abilities (autonomous AI is the new hotness in artificial intelligence). For example, Amazon says Alexa+ will be able to go shopping, book travel tickets, text contacts, suggest recipes, and fine-tune your smart home routines, weaving all those tasks within a single interaction. Most importantly, the revamped Alexa will be able to “reason and take action,” such as following up on conversations to set reminders. During a demo, Amazon devices head Panos Panay chatted with Alexa+, carrying on an animated conversation reminiscent of ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode. The new Alexa also showed off its multimodal capabilities by “looking” at a live video feed of the assembled audience at the presentation, and then describing the scene, the size of the crowd, and the “wowed” reaction. Panay said Alexa+ will be able to create routines based on natural language prompts. He also showed how the new Alexa could pluck the music track “Shallow,” from the A Star is Born soundtrack, off Amazon Music in response to a vaguely worded query, and then asked Alexa to “jump to that scene” in the movie streamed on Amazon Prime Video. (It worked.) Showing off a new Alexa Ring integration, Panay asked Alexa+ “what’s happening at my house,” and Alexa promptly put up a live feed of a Ring security camera on the screen, accurately describing it what was happening. Other notable smart home and home entertainment integrations include Wyze, iRobot, Govee, Shark, Sonos, and Vizio. With Alexa+, “there’s no more Alexa speak,” Panay promised. We also got a peek at the Alexa+ user interface, including a new “expressive” blue animation that will replace the classic Alexa blue line) that changes shape as you talk. Other features including the ability to share lengthy documents with Alexa+, which the AI can remember, analyze, and summarize. (Experienced LLM users will be familiar with such “RAG” functionality.) The new Alexa can also do things like add calendar events based on information in the files shared with it. Amazon also promised new Alexa+ features for children, showing a video of the new assistant telling on-the-fly stories and otherwise engaging with the tykes. We also saw Alexa+ answering questions about sports and other current events. Ben Patterson/Foundry Daniel Rausch, vice president of Amazon’s Alexa and Echo divisions, explained how Alexa+ is powered using a mixture of models from Amazon and Anthropic. Alexa+ can also switch models in the background depending on the task at hand, Rausch said. We’ll still getting the scoop on Alexa’s new AI-infused abilities, so stand by for more details on that score; plus, my hands-on impressions.  Amazon first showed off the new Alexa during its September 2023 hardware event, and at the time it promised a public preview “early” in 2024.  Instead, the year came and went without a public beta for the revamped Alexa. What we did get were insider accounts of a hallucination-prone Alexa that gave lengthy and frequently inaccurate answers, while also having trouble with basic smart home capabilities.  Of course, those AI-related troubles aren’t unique to Amazon. Google has taken a careful approach when it comes to allowing Gemini to interact with smart devices, while Apple has yet to open its Home app to Apple Intelligence. Read...

One of my tech dilemmas is that I’ve somehow accumulated a disparate group of laptops with integrated GPUs. That means they’re great to write on but when it comes to graphics processing power — without using expletives — let’s just say they can’t play any big-name PC games. My work laptop, for example, can handle just about any work app or program I need to run and is as compact and portable as heck, but will it let me potter for even a minute in Bethesda’s Starfield? Nope — not a chance. That just means swapping hats on articles from tech pieces to gaming pieces for PCWorld is a little more cumbersome than it needs be. I need to also swap devices, or else I’m relegated to testing only pixilated indie games (not that I don’t love playing pixilated indie games — I’m really looking forward to the release of Cattle Country on Steam, by the way). But it would be nice to have a laptop that can do it all. Alas, Asus has thrown me a lifeline with the 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13, which will, when I get my mitts on one, conveniently make that problem go away. Its specs, when they were revealed at CES 2025, really surprised me for one reason: It didn’t have a dedicated GPU listed. That makes it very different. To be honest, previous year’s ROG Flow Z13 iterations haven’t blown me away. Not because they weren’t well-built, but because they have occupied a dubious gray area of performance, being less powerful than most fully fledged gaming laptops. That’s despite the configurations having their own dGPUs and being fairly expensive. But the 2025 ROG Flow Z13 is inexorably more powerful than any model that has come before it, and that’s with no dGPU. What makes it so special is its AMD Ryzen AI Max processor, the top model of which integrates a Radeon 8060S GPU consisting of 40 — yes, 40! — RDNA 3.5 GPU cores. This APU comes under the banner of AMD’s Strix Halo laptop hardware, which includes the AMD Ryzen AI Max platform announced earlier this year and shown off by AMD at CES 2025. In case you missed it, AMD Ryzen AI Max is designed to be a unified computing solution for both CPU power and integrated graphics performance. In the top-tier 2025 ROG Flow Z13 model, that power is obvious — along with a huge iGPU, its Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chiplet boasts 16 AMD Zen 5 cores and 32 threads with a maximum boost clock of 5.1GHz. So there’s serious compute power there for the taking. The chip feeds an impressive 128GB of LPDDR5X RAM running at 8,000Hz too. The fact that there’s no dGPU means it has killer portability. Yes, it’s a compact 13-inch size, which isn’t anything to rave about in itself, but Asus has also managed to keep the weight down to just 2.65 pounds (1.2kg) and achieved a maximum thickness of just 0.47 inches (12mm). It makes any alternative gaming laptop look like a chunky, heavy, overwrought beast. Sounds great, but what’s the catch? So, what’s the catch? Surely it must compromise on GPU power, considering it has no dGPU, right? No, in fact it doesn’t. Graphically it’s more than a match for most rivals, poised to shred in triple-A games. Graphics folks are already comparing its chip’s graphics performance to mid-range Nvidia RTX 4070 GPUs and claiming it has a 2.5- to 3x boost in performance over Nivida dGPUs paired with AMD Strix Point processors, which is very solid performance for a processor/laptop with only an iGPU, if you ask me. Furthermore, AMD claims it has demonstrated 1.4x faster gaming performance than Intel’s flagship Lunar Lake Core Ultra 9 288V processor, and 84 percent quicker rendering than the Apple MacBook M4 Pro. On the power side the ROG Flow Z13 can draw to a maximum 120W TDP, so there’s more than enough grunt available too. Asus Indeed, at the Asus booth at CES 2025, the ROG Flow Z13 had no issues playing Black Myth: Wukong, on its 2.5K, 180Hz display, which is a very promising sign. Okay, so granted it can shred in games and is portable, there must be something else we can catch this laptop out on, right? Admittedly, I do have a few lingering questions… Being a unified CPU / graphics solution, Strix Halo represents a kind of U-turn from previous AMD mobile processor platforms not just because the AMD Ryzen AI Max has an integrated GPU. Looking at the stats charts it has a noticeable CPU processing advantage over AMD Strix Point, but it’s likely less power efficient (since it lacks scaled-down AMD Zen5c cores). That did get me thinking about the Z13’s battery life and also performance when power levels are lowered; Strix Point holds its own very well at lower power levels. Still, initial reviews say the ROG Flow Z13’s battery life, in the very least, is quite good, lasting more than 10 hours (for lighter tasks. Battery life for gaming will be less than that.). Asus I’ve had slight concerns about its cooling too, considering the 120W maximum TDP (that’s a lot of power in a thin and lightweight laptop). But those too, for now at least, have mostly been abated, based on the list of the Z13’s cooling apparatus. Asus has incorporated a specially designed vapor chamber and air vents that direct air behind the touchscreen. It also sports second-generation Arc Flow fans with 0.1mm fins to circulate air. So, trusting that those things work as they should, this laptop sounds like quite the package. Not only is it extremely lightweight and thin and therefore portable, but it’s stacked with CPU power and, more importantly, GPU power (sans a dGPU), and without the chunkiness of a gaming laptop. Of course, I’m looking forward to reading more reviews when they become available to get a better handle on the points I made about cooling and efficiency. Right now, though, my intention to get one of these laptops is unshakable. Further reading: The best gaming laptops Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Super-tiny, convenient design SSD is IP65 rated Fast 10Gbps performance with everyday tasks Cons Pricey Drains your phone battery quickly Our Verdict Though it’s not cheap, the Lexar Go w/Hub is certainly an uber-convenient way to add a ton of 10Gbps storage and extra USB ports to your phone. It’s also moisture- and dust-proof to the tune of an IP65 rating. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lexar Go portable SSD/Hub Retailer Price $169.99 View Deal B & H Photo $189.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket When I first opened the attractive case housing the Lexar Go with Hub my overriding thought was, “Where the heck is it?” Both the Go storage module and hub are so tiny, that tucked away in the side pocket they almost disappear. Once discovered, I marveled at both the diminutive dimensions and the clever design. Up to 2TB of 10Gbps portable storage with extra Type-C ports that marries nicely to your phone. What’s not to like? What are the Lexar Go’s features? The Go SSD is tiny indeed, measuring around 1.75-inches long, an inch wide, and 0.35-inches thick. It’s also extraordinarily light at less than half an ounce. Throw in an IP65 rating and you have a nice ruggedized storage add-on that doesn’t make your phone an ungainly monster. The SSD with Hub ships with small male/female (SSD only) and male/male (hub and SSD) Type-C hook connectors that lets you attach the SSD and/or hub so that they rest flat against that back of the phone. How flat depends on the thickness of your phone, but it was certainly close enough on my Motorola 5 Edge. Alas, my older iPhone 11 (don’t write me about this) sports a Lightning connector, but it seems as if it would fit nicely to Type-C models. You can also plug the SSD by its lonesome into the phone’s Type-C port if you don’t mind the extra length. The three port hub (the larger unit above), which marries nicely to the SSD (below) isn’t much larger at 1.75-inches square and the same 0.35-inches thick. It adds a mere 0.8 ounces to the mix, making the combined weight 1.2 ounces. The final piece in the kit is a screw-on tripod adapter (arching over everything in the image above) with its own Type-C connector for the phone and a captive Type-C cable that you can run to the hub (or male/female adapter and SSD). Note that I found the male Type-C connector on the Go SSD a tighter fit than normal. Indeed, it was a bit of a pain marrying it solo to the back of PCWorld’s test rig. The advantage to the tight fit is that the Go SSD won’t fall off your phone at an inopportune moment. A more than fair trade-off. The Lexar Go travel case. You’ll want to keep it in here most of the time to avoid battery drain. The whole deal (all the components) ships wrapped in a soft 6-inch by 4.5-inch case (shown above), which as I mentioned, is large enough that you’ll look inside and wonder where the heck everything is. Again, all the components are in side pockets, wrapped in protective coverings. You might be tempted to buy the Lexar Go SSD on its own, simply for its tiny size. Feel free, however, the orientation of the Go SSD’s body means that the entire unit sits flush which may block other ports. It did on the back of PCWorld’s test bed. The Lexar Go performance easily exceeds what you’ll need for high-resolution video recording. How much is the Lexar Go? I said up top that this is a pricey unit. Sans the hub, the 2TB Go SSD with Hub that I tested was $320 on Amazon at the time I started writing, but was back up to its $349 retail price in short order. The drive itself is $300. In the grand scheme of 10Gbps USB SSDs, that’s nearly twice what you pay for something of the same capacity hanging off a USB cable. There’s also a 1TB version of the Go SSD with Hub available for $240 ($190 solo). Again, about twice what a generic 10Gbps USB SSD will set you back. So you’re ponying up a rather hefty premium for the uber-svelte form factor, and what I consider outstanding convenience. Whether you find those things worth the extra moola, only you will know. I suspect many mobile content creators will. How fast is the Lexar Go? The Lexar Go performed largely on par for a 10Gbs USB 3.2 SSD when you weigh both the synthetic benchmark and real-world results. That said, its CrystalDiskMark 8 sequential transfer numbers suffered distinctly compared to the SK Hynix Tube T31. Note that the Tube T31 is significantly larger than the Go. The Lexar Go’s CrystalDiskMark 8 sequential transfer numbers suffered distinctly compared to the SK Hynix Tube T31. Longer bars are better. The Lexar Go couldn’t keep up with the SK Hynix Tube T31 in CrystalDiskMark 8’s 4K tests either, though it’s still no slouch. Given the small amount of surface area, thermals might come into play — proactively or during long writes. The Lexar Go couldn’t keep up with the SK Hynix Tube T31 in CrystalDiskMark 8’s 4K tests either, though it’s still no slouch. Longer bars are better. On the other hand, the Lexar Go proved aces in our 48GB transfers, beating out the arch-rival SK Hynix Tube T31 by 40 seconds. The Lexar Go proved aces in our 48GB transfers, beating out the arch-rival SK Hynix Tube T31 by 40 seconds. Shorter bars are better. Despite it being a 2TB SSD, the Lexar Go slowed a bit during our 450GB write, though not tragically as did the Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth. Despite it being a 2TB SSD, the Lexar Go slowed a bit during our 450GB write, though not tragically as did the Corsair Survivor Stealth. Shorter bars are better. Normally, we don’t worry too much about power consumption, but the Go had a noticeable effect on battery life. In fact, it killed the Motorola (pictured) overnight — a run-down that normally takes several days. That’s not a huge knock, as 2TB of NAND requires some juice and other SSDs will also drain the battery. We’re just saying that you should only attach the Go as needed. Overall, the Lexar Go performance easily exceeds what you’ll need for high-resolution video recording — the most taxing storage operation your phone can perform. Should you buy the Lexar Go with Hub? The Go SSD is an extremely handy, low-profile way to expand your phone’s storage. It’s on the pricey side, but if you have the need, it will fill it. As the hub is a minor expense, grab it as well. How we test Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11, 64-bit running on an X790 (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 are integrated to the back panel and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. The 48GB transfer tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB of total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro which also runs the OS. Each test is performed on a newly NTFS-formatted and TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This can be less of a factor with the current crop of SSDs with far faster late-generation NAND. Caveat: The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacity tested. SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report, by all means, let us know. Read...

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