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
Google/ZDNETIf you find your personal information online, like your phone number, address, or email, Google is making it easier to make sure it doesn’t show up again.Also: Google Lens adds a cool search trick to iPhones – how to try itSeveral years ago, Google introduced a “Results about you” tool that lets you track your personal information online and remove it from search results. It wasn’t exactly easy to find this tool, though, because you had to dig deep into the settings menu to see it. Also: The best secure browsers for privacyNow, you can request removal straight from Google Search. Here’s how to do it.How to remove your information from Google SearchWhen you see a result with your personal information, click the three dots next to it, and you’ll see a menu with information about the link, including a “Remove result” button. Choose that, and you’ll see different options for why you want it removed. At the top is “It shows my personal information and I don’t want it here.” Choosing that option sends the page to Google for review. If Google decides it violates policy, it will be removed from search. The original site will still be there, but most online directory sites have options to request the removal of your information. That’s something you’ll want to take advantage of, as information like this is increasingly being used in scams.Also: 9 ways to delete yourself from the internet (and hide your identity online)The three-dot menu also has options to remove illegal content like phishing, violence, or explicit content and to refresh outdated search results (that’s for when you’ve requested information removal and Google is still indexing an old page). More
Kerry Wan/ZDNETDid you know that whenever you turn on your smart TV, you invite an unseen guest to watch it with you? These days, most popular TV models utilize automatic content recognition (ACR), a form of ad surveillance technology that gathers information about everything you watch and transmits it to a centralized database. Manufacturers then use your data to identify your viewing preferences, enabling them to deliver highly targeted ads.Also: The fastest VPNs of 2025: Great speeds and secure connections anywhereWhat’s the incentive behind this invasive technology? According to market research firm eMarketer, in 2022, advertisers spent an estimated $18.6 billion on smart TV ads, and those numbers are only going up.To understand how ACR works, imagine a constant, real-time Shazam-like service running in the background while your TV is on. It identifies content displayed on your screen, including programs from cable TV boxes, streaming services, or gaming consoles. ACR does this by capturing continuous screenshots and cross-referencing them with a vast database of media content and advertisements. More
Apple/ZDNETApple’s follow-up to the budget iPhone SE — the iPhone 16e — is here. As the more affordable option in the lineup, the tech giant cut a few features to keep costs down and make the pricier models more appealing. One of the notable omissions? MagSafe. Also: What does the ‘e’ in iPhone 16e stand for?While the iPhone 16e More
