Pebble's Core Watches will feature Amazon Alexa integration
Just last week the Kickstarter smartwatch company Pebble announced a revamp to its entire product line. The Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2 welcomed the Pebble Core: a portable Spotify player with smartphone internals and no screen.
The device was meant for music-lovers, of course, but also for tinkerers: Because it runs Android, developing apps for the Core could extend its functionality to allow for some interesting uses. Now, Pebble itself is adding in a feature that makes the Core even more useful: A
As we mentioned in our initial post about Alexa coming to the Pebble Core, the company has shown great interest in adding a virtual assistant to its products. In a blog post today, the company announced that Pebble would indeed add the Alexa voice assistant to the Core. According to Pebble, "With Amazon Alexa, Pebble Core can:
- Play songs, artists, and playlists from Amazon Prime Music, iHeartRadio, and more
- Brief you with news headlines from USA Today, The Washington Post, or The Huffington Post.
- Review your Pebble Health summary for the day, like heart rate, step count, and calories burned.
- Order pizzas for the gang on game day.
- Shop for gifts and necessities on Amazon.
- Get weather and traffic updates.
- Set a timer for a set of side planks.
- Control smart home devices like lights, thermostats, locks, and more.
- Tell you a joke.
- Answer almost any question you can think of—from the nutritional information of certain foods to movie facts on IMDB."
Third-party companies not affiliated with Amazon are able to implement Alexa using the company's Amazon Voice Service API (AVS). This means that Pebble can imbue its Core player with the features of Amazon's Echo. In addition to the features above, as Alexa learns new abilities, those features will also come to the Pebble Core. According to the blog post, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky says we can expect much from the first portable implementation of Amazon's Alexa:
By: popsciExperiencing Amazon Alexa on-the-go right from Pebble Core is game-changing for wearable technology. We’re longtime fans of the powerful voice services Alexa delivers, and it only gets smarter and more useful over time. It’s an approach we embrace with our own products.
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