Eliana Willis

Google Drive used to be just storage before Google took its online office suite, Google Docs, and pasted them together into Google One. If you’re a little confused because Google Workplace is also available, you’re in good company. To clarify, Google Workspace Individual is meant for small business owners, while Google One is a consumer subscription plan that gives you more storage across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. A Google account alone gives you 15GB of free storage and an excellent office suite. It’s good enough that many businesses and Chromebook owners now use it as their complete cloud-based office. If you buy a Chromebook and are a new Google One customer, you’ll get 100GB of free cloud storage for a year. With both kinds of free storage, it’s shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos.Google Drive comes with clients for most operating systems, except Linux. Google promised long ago that there would be a Linux client, but it’s yet to arrive. There is, however, an excellent third-party Linux commercial client, Insync. Need more storage? No problem. Under the name Google One, Google Drive storage offers 100GB for $2 per month or $20 per year, or 200GB for $3 per month or $30 per year. For 2TB, you pay $10 per month or $100 annually. You can share your storage with up to five other people using any of these plans. You can also use the Google One app on both Android and iOS devices to automatically back up your smartphones. This includes your device data, multimedia messages, as well as photos and videos in their original quality.One of Google Drive’s best features is its integration with Google Search. So, for example, if you’ve lost track of a file but remember a couple of words in it, it’s easy to find. I use this feature almost every day. Google Drive features: Free storage: Google Drive starts its offers with 15GB for free | Variety of storage plans including individual & business | Secure sharing | Multi-platform | AI tools More

Maria Diaz/ZDNETAmazon has announced a gen AI-powered Alexa+, a revamped version of its popular virtual assistant that leverages the power of generative artificial intelligence to enhance the user experience. Alexa+ is exactly what you may have envisioned when you first heard of voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google, but without the accompanying disappointment at their shortcomings. The improved voice assistant will be able to generate responses instead of repeating what it’s been programmed to say. With generative AI, Alexa+ will also hold more natural conversations with users rather than listening to a prompt and responding with an action. It will support memory to recall preferences and conversations and will maintain context throughout a conversation, so it will remember what you asked at the beginning of a chat and respond in that context.Also: Everything announced at Amazon’s Alexa event: Alexa+, new Echo Show UI, and moreBut Alexa+ will not be available for all Echo devices, at least not initially. Here’s a list of the Echo devices that will support Alexa+ when it begins rolling out over the next month:Echo devices compatible with Alexa+Echo Show 8Echo Show 10Echo Show 15Echo Show 21Amazon said it is prioritizing these Echo Show displays in the early access period of Alexa Plus, so the revamped virtual assistant could eventually be available on other Echo devices not listed above.Also: 7 exciting AI features coming with Alexa+ (and how to get the service for free) More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETAmazon has been focused on bringing generative AI to Alexa for the past few years, hitting multiple delays in launching new features that the company first announced in September 2023. The delayed Alexa 2.0 was poised for a 2025 release, and Amazon just wrapped up an event where it made big announcements for the artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant. Amid rumors of Alexa 2.0 shortcomings, Amazon skipped its 2024 Devices and Services event, where the company typically announces new Alexa features and hardware devices. Instead, it hosted an event today and unveiled Alexa+, the voice assistant’s generative AI features, and finally put an ETA on its launch. Also: 7 exciting AI features coming with Alexa+ (and what Amazon devices support it)”Up until a couple of years ago, it was pretty difficult to invent with AI, and that changed with the arrival of foundational models and generative AI. This made the technology much more accessible, so people can see the power and magic of what generative AI can do,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said. The event took place today, Feb. 26, in New York City and was Panos Panay’s first since joining the Devices and Services division after his Microsoft exit. But aside from new Alexa features, Amazon also made other announcements. Everything announced at Amazon’s February 2025 event More

This Dreo wall-mounted heater is far more powerful than its size would indicate. Jack Wallen/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysThe Dreo Smart Wall Heater More

Nina Raemont/ZDNETAlexa+ (Alexa Plus) is Amazon’s revamped version of its virtual assistant, now powered by generative AI. Though Amazon is rolling out Alexa+ to many existing Echo devices, it’s not available for free. Using Alexa+ will cost $20 monthly, which is the same cost as ChatGPT Plus. Thankfully, there are ways you can use it for free — at least for a limited time.Also: 7 useful AI features coming with Alexa+ (and which Echo devices will support it)Giving Alexa generative AI enables the virtual assistant to do much more than it has been able to do until now. Instead of spouting off canned, pre-determined responses to questions, the new Alexa+ will be able to generate answers of its own, powered by powerful Amazon Bedrock large language models (LLM). Alexa+ will also maintain context, speak more naturally, and process more information simultaneously, much like ChatGPT can do. How to get Alexa+ for free More

Maria Diaz/ZDNETAmazon’s early-year Devices and Services event took place today, and the company made it clear that AI will continue to be at the center of its hardware universe. Driving the buzzword of the century is Alexa, arguably the most popular virtual assistant in the world. SVP of Devices and Services Panos Panay suggested that millions of new customers use it every day during the event. Also: Everything Amazon announced at its Devices and Services event todayAnd that’s likely true: Alexa is at the core of Amazon’s most prominent hardware products, including Echo speakers and Fire TVs. Today, the company showcased what’s next for its virtual assistant, now named Alexa+, as it looks to compete with the likes of Google, OpenAI, and others. The new Alexa will be “something that understands you, that can actually take action,” Panay teased, and it will work with tens of thousands of services from Amazon partners. Here’s a rundown of the best new features coming with Alexa+ and how much it will cost. 1. Multimodal, agentic interactions Powered by LLMs, Alexa+ can now process visual information via your device’s cameras to understand and answer questions. In one instance, Alexa was asked to describe the crowd’s excitement and enthusiasm at the event by leveraging the Echo Show 15’s front-facing camera. While its responses were two to three sentences long, they were descriptive and dictated in a fairly approachable tone.The agentic capabilities of Alexa+ extend to browsing, with the ability to navigate the internet via Alexa.com and complete tasks for you on Amazon-partnered websites. For example, Alexa was asked to book a professional repairman for a damaged appliance. It then searched for a nearby repair service and booked an appointment via Thumbtack. Also: 16 incredibly useful things Alexa can do on Amazon EchoIn another demo, a presenter worked with Alexa to build out a shopping list, suggesting items to add or remove throughout the conversation. Surprisingly, the feature supported shopping partners beyond Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. As Alexa responds, a flowing blue animation appears on the bottom of the device screen. This new change reflects Amazon’s more expressive UI. 2. Conversational chain of commands Besides responding more naturally, with sprinkles of humor, another big unveiling showed how Alexa can now fulfill tasks throughout your daily apps and services, including your calendar and emails. It can book a dinner for you and send invitations for that to your closest contacts, too. We’ve seen similar agentic capabilities with Google’s Gemini. Also: Ring just made outdoor security more affordable with its new $100 2K cameraIn a demo, the virtual assistant was asked to recommend local pizzerias, to which it pulled top-rated storefronts via Yelp. Another example included asking Alexa to remember things, such as “Mary likes Greek and Indian food and is vegetarian but doesn’t like peanut butter.” It did just that without a question. 3. Refreshed home screen on Echo Show Amazon also unveiled a series of new widgets alongside its refreshed Echo Show home screen, including ones that surface recipes, recent apps, weather, shopping lists, and connected smart home devices. Also: 5 Amazon Alexa privacy settings you should change right awayThe adaptive display leverages the larger screen real estate to display relevant information depending on whether you’re far away from the device or closer to it. For example, the Echo Show will display photos and personalized content from afar and switch to a more detailed layout when you approach it. 4. Conducting music with voice For a music demo, Panay asked Alexa, “What’s the song Bradley Cooper sings… it’s like in a duet?” to which it answered, “Shallow with Lady Gaga from the movie *A Star Is Born*.” More impressively, you can now dictate where music is playing from if you have multiple Alexa-enabled speakers in your house. Also: The best Alexa devices of 2025: Expert tested and recommendedFor example, you can ask Alexa to play music on the left or right, with the assumption that speakers are mounted in designated areas. We’ll have to see exactly how reliable this is in real-world tests. And for Amazon’s last trick, Panay asked Alexa to skip to the scene in the movie when “Shallow” is sung, and it did — on the second try. More

Apple Watch Ultra 2 (left) with the Oura Ring 4 (center) and OnePlus Watch 3 (right) Matthew Miller/ZDNETI’m fortunate to have a strong immune system — and I often frustrate my wife by refusing to acknowledge any signs of illness. But the Oura Ring 4 More

SlackIf you use Slack for work, you’re (probably) not fired. But it might be a good time to take a long lunch break.The widely used workplace platform is facing serious issues today, with many users unable to log in at all. Affected users trying to access Slack (myself included) are greeted with a message saying, “We’re having trouble loading your workspace.” The message continues: “This is one of those times when we’re not sure what went wrong, but we do have some suggestions that might help.” Also: 6 Slack tips I swear by to turn a chaotic workspace into a well-oiled machineThose suggestions, including restarting Slack, do not fix the problem.Just before noon ET, reports of problems skyrocketed on DownDetector, a popular site for tracking outages. Reports are subsiding, but many people still say they can’t log in. As of 1 p.m., the official Slack system status page says many features are fine, but shows that messaging, login, connectivity, apps, and workflow are all affected by an unknown issue.Slack hasn’t explained what the problem is, but its latest update, posted at 1:03 p.m. ET today, says, “We’re still working to restore functionality to affected Slack features such as sending messages, workflows, threads, and other API-related features.  We’ll be back with more updates as soon as they’re available.”  More