Technology - Google News

Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance to develop connectivity standard - Apple Newsroom
Get AirPods Pro by Christmas: This is your best shot! - Cult of Mac
Luminary launches its subscription-based podcast network on Alexa devices - TechCrunch

Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance to develop connectivity standard - Apple Newsroom

Posted: 18 Dec 2019 05:06 AM PST

Seattle and Cupertino, Mountain View and Davis, California — Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance today announced a new working group that plans to develop and promote the adoption of a new, royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home products, with security as a fundamental design tenet. Zigbee Alliance board member companies such as IKEA, Legrand, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), Silicon Labs, Somfy, and Wulian are also onboard to join the working group and contribute to the project.

The goal of the Connected Home over IP project is to simplify development for manufacturers and increase compatibility for consumers. The project is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use. By building upon Internet Protocol (IP), the project aims to enable communication across smart home devices, mobile apps, and cloud services and to define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification.

The industry working group will take an open-source approach for the development and implementation of a new, unified connectivity protocol. The project intends to use contributions from market-tested smart home technologies from Amazon, Apple, Google, Zigbee Alliance, and others. The decision to leverage these technologies is expected to accelerate the development of the protocol, and deliver benefits to manufacturers and consumers faster.

The project aims to make it easier for device manufacturers to build devices that are compatible with smart home and voice services such as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google's Assistant, and others. The planned protocol will complement existing technologies, and working group members encourage device manufacturers to continue innovating using technologies available today.

Project Connected Home over IP welcomes device manufacturers, silicon providers, and other developers from across the smart home industry to participate in and contribute to the standard.

If you'd like to get involved or receive updates visit connectedhomeip.com.

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Get AirPods Pro by Christmas: This is your best shot! - Cult of Mac

Posted: 17 Dec 2019 05:34 PM PST

This is your best shot at snagging AirPods Pro today

Even though AirPods Pro are basically sold out everywhere, there's still a chance you could snag a pair today. And with a simple Siri trick, Apple makes it easy for you to snag 2019's hottest gift.

If you absolutely want to get AirPods Pro by Christmas, and don't want to pay a reseller a premium, here's your best shot for finding a pair ASAP.

If you're reading this post, you want your AirPods Pro — and you want them now. Maybe you're going on a holiday vacation and want to take advantage of the wireless earphones' noise-cancellation feature. Or maybe you've got a special person on your gift list who really wants a pair. (Loads of people do, you know.)

We warned you not to wait. But if you're a procrastinator, and you don't want to pay an AirPods Pro scalper extra, it's time to make your move. Here's how to take your best shot at winning the holiday shopping season.

How to get AirPods Pro today

While Apple's website currently shows AirPods Pro as shipping on January 10, there's a decent chance you can pull off a Christmas miracle by picking up a pair at your local Apple Store. (Obviously this gambit makes more sense for people who live close to one or more Apple stores.) The key is to check AirPods Pro availability at stores near you at various times throughout the day. Surprisingly, the stock can change as, presumably, stores receive new shipments and make them available to the public.

There's no way to be certain, but anecdotally, this seems more likely to happen at big flagship Apple stores. In my completely random checks, I spotted AirPods Pro ready for pickup today at stores in Miami, Chicago and San Francisco.

Early this morning, I checked for AirPods Pro availability in San Francisco. At 7 a.m., all the stores in the area showed no stock would be available for pickup until December 20. (Shipping times stayed at that Grinch-y January 10 date.) However, by 1 p.m. or so, AirPods Pro showed up as available for pickup today at Apple Union Square. Our fearless leader, Leander Kahney, grabbed a pair this way this afternoon.

Check availability early and often

You can check AirPods Pro availability on Apple's website, but using the Apple Store app is easier. Just download the free Apple Store app, then search for AirPods Pro. Scroll down to the store locations and, if your nearest store shows a future pickup date, tap See more stores. If you're lucky, you will see "Available: Today" in exciting green text next to one or more locations.

If not, it's time for a Hail Mary. Scroll to the bottom of that page and click the Add to Siri button. On the next screen, click Add to Siri again to confirm.

Then, whenever you think of it, you can simply say, "Hey Siri check product availability." Apple's AI assistant will immediately deliver up-to-date info on whether a local Apple store has AirPods Pro in stock. Ideally, you will check several times as the day progresses.

If you strike gold, don't wait around. Pull the trigger and buy those in-demand earbuds before the day's supply sells out. (If you've got an Apple Card, be sure to use it and get double cash back. And get that free engraving if you're into it.) Then, after Apple tells you your shipment is ready, go in to the store and pick up your AirPods Pro.

Good hunting!

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Luminary launches its subscription-based podcast network on Alexa devices - TechCrunch

Posted: 17 Dec 2019 07:45 AM PST

Luminary, a startup building a "Netflix for podcasts," is now trying a new tack to gain subscribers for its premium service. The company is today launching an Alexa skill that will allow podcast listeners to stream content on Echo speakers and other Alexa-powered devices, using voice commands. In addition, Luminary is also becoming the first podcast service to offer premium subscriptions by way of Alexa voice requests.

Listeners will be able to ask Alexa to "start my free Luminary trial" to gain a month of free access to Luminary Premium, or they can say "Alexa, subscribe to Luminary," to kick off their $7.99 per month subscription in the U.S.

Despite its messy and controversial launch, which saw a number of podcasters pulling their shows from Luminary's service, the company has persisted. Today, Luminary has grown its library to include more than 40 premium podcasts exclusive to its network, including shows from big names like Trevor Noah, Lena Dunham, Martina McBride, Russell Brand, Team Coco, The Ringer, Roxane Gay + Tressie McMillan Cottom and others.

To date, Luminary's efforts have focused on being both a podcast network and an app that plays podcasts, including those outside its network. On Luminary's iOS, Android and web apps, subscribers can listen to the company's original programming alongside their other favorite shows. But the new Alexa experience focuses only on paying subscribers — to listen on your Alexa smart speaker, you need to either subscribe or start the free trial. (Sample episodes of the exclusive shows are also available before you commit to signing up.)

Once enabled, Luminary subscribers can use the Alexa skill to pick up premium shows where they left off on web or mobile and ask for recommendations, in addition to streaming their favorite shows. On Alexa devices with a screen, like Echo Show, the skill also features a visual experience featuring the show's artwork and descriptions.

The voice app was designed in partnership with New York-based digital agency RAIN, which specializes in voice and conversational AI, and is Luminary's first voice platform launch.

The company debuted in early 2019, backed by nearly $100 million in funding for its subscription-based business. But many podcasters were upset to find their free, ad-supported and publicly available shows were being gathered up to help attract users to Luminary's premium service. In addition, Luminary wasn't sending complete and accurate analytics back to podcast publishers, they found. (Luminary has since corrected this.) As a result, several larger brands requested their shows be pulled, including Spotify's Gimlet and Parcast, NYT's The Daily, The Joe Rogan Experience, Endeavour Audio, PodcastOne, Barstool Sports and others.

It's not surprising that companies Spotify invested in to grow its own exclusive library of shows would bristle at being distributed ad-free through a third-party app. What Luminary didn't count on, however, would be the range of podcasters who wouldn't view its app as just another distribution mechanism for their content — like Overcast, Pocket Casts or Apple or Google's podcasts apps, for example.

With the Alexa launch, Luminary is focusing more heavily on its premium service, where it pays creators for their work instead of having podcasters rely on ads. The company said it chose to launch on Alexa because smart speakers are the third most-used devices for listening to podcasts, behind mobile devices and PCs.

The launch arrives at a time when Amazon is also investing more in the podcast listening experience on Alexa devices. Last week, Amazon added support for Apple and Spotify podcasts on Echo devices, and now allows users to set either as their default podcast service.

Luminary users won't have that same built-in advantage, though. To get started, users will instead need to say "Alexa, open Luminary."

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