Technology - Google News

How to Get Samuel L. Jackson's Voice on Your Amazon Echo - Lifehacker
The Morning After: Does the Mac Pro cost too much? - Engadget
Save 70 percent on these active noise cancellation wireless earbuds - NBC News

How to Get Samuel L. Jackson's Voice on Your Amazon Echo - Lifehacker

Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:00 AM PST

This morning Samuel L. Jackson helped me out with a little holiday baking. By "help," I mean that was the one that told me it was time to take some cookies out of the oven, a job normally reserved for my kitchen Alexa.

Amazon officially rolled out its Samuel L. Jackson voice for Alexa earlier this week, and yes, there's an explicit version.

The voice doesn't entirely replace Alexa's voice on your device. Instead, it offers another option. That means in order to have Samuel L. Jackson actually be the one to respond to you you'll need to specify that when you ask a question, using Alexa as the middleman.

For instance, if you want Samuel L. Jackson to wake you up in the morning, you'll need to say "Alexa, ask Sam to wake me up at 7am." Just asking for a wake-up call will get you Alexa's voice instead.

Mr. Jackson is available for weather updates and timer duty, he can also be your DJ for the afternoon, tell you jokes, and answer questions about himself and his career. For now, he can't help with shopping lists, reminders, or skills.

Unfortunately, that voice also comes at a price, albeit a small one. Amazon is selling the feature for $.99 right now as an "introductory price," with the expectation that the price will rise to $4.99 later on.

To get it, you can say "Alexa, introduce me to Samuel L. Jackson" to your Alexa-powered device. She'll give you a brief overview of Jackson's available features, and at the end, you can tell her you'd like to purchase the voice and you'll get it immediately, presuming you have a payment method enabled.

Alternatively, you can also find the voice on Amazon's website and enable it manually. That Alexa app is also your friend when it comes to toggling between the regular and explicit versions.

If you're a frequent Alexa user, then it can be a fun way to spice up your Alexa experience a bit.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

The Morning After: Does the Mac Pro cost too much? - Engadget

Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:08 AM PST

Sponsored Links

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to your weekend! On the Engadget Podcast we're discussing Apple's pricey new Mac Pro, while separately Porsche showed off its idea for a Star Wars ship. Story highlights from last week included Elon Musk's Cybertruck tour of LA, the Xbox Series X and NASA's most powerful rocket yet. Also, our holiday gift guide is ready and waiting whether you're the one who needs some ideas or if you're making sure someone else gets you the right present this year.

Is this a sign that Apple is listening to what users want?Engadget Podcast: The Mac Pro and Apple's return to great hardware

This week, Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar and UK Bureau Chief Mat Smith explore who may need a $52,000 Mac Pro (it's not as crazy as you think!).

The story doesn't end there.'The Outer Worlds' DLC is coming next year

In a forum post celebrating the three awards it was nominated for at The Game Awards, Obsidian revealed it will expand The Outer Worlds next year with DLC.

Just in time.Engadget's 2019 holiday gift guide is here!

After months of thinking, curating, photographing and more thinking, we've come up with a holiday gift guide that covers all the bases (and budgets), from laptops and mobile devices, to toys, to the smart home, to book and media recommendations (only on nerdy subjects, of course). All told, there are more than 150 items in our guide, spanning 13 categories, with advice from 25 of our writers and editors. You know, the people testing and reviewing this stuff all year long.

And it looks like a home theater PC.The next Xbox is called Series X

Previously known as Project Scarlett, the next-generation Xbox resembles a PC tower, and it arrives holidays 2020. Xbox chief Phil Spencer wrote in a blog post that the Series X design allows Microsoft to pack in four times the processing power of Xbox One X "in the most quiet and efficient way." It's said to be no louder than an Xbox One X, helped by a single fan that pushes air through the top.

Microsoft says the Xbox Series X can handle 4K visuals at 60 frames per second, and potentially up to 120 fps. The console will also offer hardware-accelerated ray tracing and variable refresh rate, along with 8K capability. It's compatible with software going back to the original Xbox and will work with Xbox One controllers. The controller it comes with is similar to the current Xbox pad, but it's very slightly smaller and adds a dedicated DualShock 4-like Share button. As far as games, Halo: Infinite is in development, and with the unveiling, we got a peek at Nina Theory's Senua's Saga: Hellblade II.

Cybertruck in the wild.Elon Musk took Tesla's Cybertruck for a weekend drive around LA

Los Angelenos spotted the Tesla boss driving his electric truck down the 405 and getting some dinner at Nobu.

Starts at $6k and goes up from there.The most expensive new Mac Pro configuration costs $52,599

Apple has started taking orders for the redesigned Mac Pro and its webcam-lacking Pro Display XDR. The workstation is available starting at $5,999 with an eight-core 3.5GHz Xeon processor, 32GB of RAM, Radeon Pro 580X graphics and a 256GB solid-state drive. All told, you're looking at close to $53,000 if you max out the system with 1.5TB of RAM and a set of $400 wheels -- which we did here.

This rocket is preparing for a mission to the moon in 2024.NASA unveils 'the most powerful rocket ever built'

This week at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine gave the public its first up-close look at the Space Launch System, or SLS. The SLS program is running rather behind schedule, with launch originally aimed for 2019 and a possible manned first mission being considered. Now, the first test of the SLS is aimed for 2021, to be ready for the Artemis mission to the moon in 2024.

But wait, there's more...

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't Subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.

In this article: art, av, entertainment, gadgetry, gadgets, gear, personal computing, personalcomputing, space, themorningafter, transportation

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Comments

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Save 70 percent on these active noise cancellation wireless earbuds - NBC News

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 11:47 AM PST

The new discount on HUB's Hi-Fi Wireless Noise Canceling Earbuds immediately caught our attention.

These true wireless earbuds come with a battery life of 100 hours via the included charging case, as well as eight hours of continuous playtime, advanced Bluetooth 5.0 technology, and a weatherproof exterior. Even better is that they also come with active noise cancelation that can block out ambient sounds. And right now, you can get them for $64. Use code MERRYSAVE15 at checkout for the additional savings on already discounted headphones.

Let's block ads! (Why?)