Amazon continues to add new features to its Echo smart speaker with every single weekly update. The latest update being rolled out to the device brings quite a few new features to the wireless speaker that were not thus far present in the device. One of the newly-introduced features this week enables users to change the chapters of a book with voice commands. Another cool new feature added to the Echo will allow the device to play Jeopardy. Once the Alexa app is updated from either the Google Play Store or the Amazon Appstore, the feature has to be manually enabled from within the settings menu.
Thereafter, simply asking Alexa to play Jeopardy will make Amazon’s intelligent voice assistant ask a bunch of questions on a range of subjects including world history, travel and pop culture, among others. As part of the latest update, the Echo also gains the ability to skip chapters while listening to audiobooks in Audible. Users will now also be able to rate the features and skill set of Alexa, and share their experiences regarding the device and its ever-lengthening set of skills with other users through the app itself. Users wanting to do that will have to go to the ‘Skills’ section within the app and select the particular feature they’d like to review for the benefit of other users of the device.
For those not yet familiar with Amazon’s Echo, the device is a wireless speaker that’s designed, developed and marketed by Seattle, Washington-based online retail giant, Amazon. The Echo was launched in November 2014, and can accept voice commands. It responds to the name ‘Alexa’, which is the trigger word that engages the artificial intelligence built into the smart speaker, much like Google Now responds to ‘OK Google’, Apple’s Siri responds to ‘Hey Siri’ and Microsoft’s Cortana responds to ‘Hey Cortana’. Recent updates to the device has brought along a number of new skills to the gadget, including the ability to answer Star Wars queries, the capacity to pinpoint Santa’s exact location, and the aptitude to be able to answer questions regarding the stock market. With the election campaign on in full force, Alexa now can also offer factoids and share jokes regarding candidates across the political divide. It also comes up with surprising new messages when asked about its New Year’s resolution.