Alexa

We all know that Sonos is finally working on an Alexa integration. As I sit here listening to Atom Heart Mother on my Alexa (via “Alexa, play Pink Floyd’s album Atom Heart Mother”), I so badly want it to play throughout my house on our Sonos, rather than just on my desk via Alexa. As more hardware companies start paying attention to revenue attach, following the lead of companies like Dropbox, Ring, and Peloton, there’s an obvious place for Sonos to do this. I hope they are thinking hard about it, rather than fearing being disintermediated by Alexa. ...

Recently, Amazon’s Alexa team and Techstars launched The Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars , Last week, a bunch of fun skills have been integrated into Alexa. I thought I’d give some a try. Cooper, my intrepid two year old super alpha golden retriever shows up around a minute into the video when I do my favorite Alexa skill, the Woof Woof. If you have an Alexa, give these a try. ...

I love Alexa. Of all the various tech things I’ve bought in 2016, Amazon’s Alexa has become the most consistently used new thing in my world. I’ve even had a breakthrough on the home front as Amy now regularly says “Alexa, play …” We’ve got them everywhere and the Echo Dot that showed up in October is centrally located on my office desk at Foundry Group. On Wednesday, Techstars and Amazon announced the Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars. Applications will open in January and the first program will start in July 2017. ...