If Alexa 2.0 doesn’t fix these 5 problems, I might be done with my Amazon Echo devices - Related to standing, devices, hands-on:, calendars, echo

Hands-on: This 3.5-inch smart display makes my digital calendars more digestible

My preferred methods of organizing my schedule could be considered dated, so when I got a chance to try out a gadget meant to streamline my various digital calendars, I took it.

While I do use digital calendars and to-do lists, my go-to method for organizing my day’s tasks, goals, and upcoming events is pen and paper. I use paper calendars in agendas for a visual layout of events, including those as far away as next month. They give me a sense of control, as I'm able to highlight, circle, draw arrows, underline, erase, and so on. I also write more to-do lists than might be considered efficient (as evidenced by “make to-do list” being a frequent line on my to-do lists).

But there are many benefits to using tech for staying organized, too. With digital options, I can easily check my availability on the go with my phone and get alerts to remind me of events.

But it’s hard to find a simple, stripped-down tech solution to put my work calendar, work goals, personal calendar, and personal to-do lists in one place while minimizing distraction. When checking what time I set aside to work out, for example, I typically don't want to think about whether the event is recurring, who else knows about it, what "type" of event it is, or how many minutes before, during, and after the event I'll get phone alerts about it. Those details are often valuable for creating a highly informative digital calendar, but they can also be distracting and result in information overload.

Enter a smart display called DeskBuddy. The [website] touchscreen device has essentially one capability: showing today's events from your synced digital calendars. Blueberry Consultants, a custom software development firm headquartered in Birmingham, England, crowdfunded the desktop accessory via Kickstarter in December 2023 and currently sells it online, including on Etsy.

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If Alexa 2.0 doesn’t fix these 5 problems, I might be done with my Amazon Echo devices

We’ve been hearing about Alexa [website] for quite some time now, and with a mysterious Amazon devices showcase looming on the immediate horizon, we could finally be about to see the AI revolution hit smart home technology in a big way.

While we expected Alexa [website] sometime in 2024, Amazon didn’t deliver, skipping its 2024 Devices and Services event in favor of an Alexa-themed event this week on Feb 26 in New York City.

It’s an exciting moment for smart home fans, likely signaling the first major wave of new large language model (LLM) AI technology hitting our homes. However, the simple fact is there’s a lot that needs fixing in Amazon’s smart home - and that goes for Google, Samsung, and Apple, too, mind you - and AI might not be the solution for all of those problems.

It's left me at a challenging juncture I'm sure many budding smart home fans have faced; can Alexa keep up with my demands? Here are five problems I'd need to see fixed to keep me on-side.

My biggest woe with Alexa is the dire state of automation. I use Alexa's Routine feature daily, and while the functionality works pretty well for the basics, as soon as you begin to work in any more complex instructions, custom commands, or conditional logic, you’re liable to either spend hours head-scratching while working through complex workarounds and third-party solutions and potentially just end up with something that scrapes by as semi-functional.

For example, there’s a lack of conditional logic. In an ideal world, I should be able to set up complex, conditional automations within the Alexa app; if my air quality monitor detects that it’s a bit cold in my home and its geofencing detects that I’m home and a sensor device detects the windows are closed, then my heater should turn on. In the past year, Alexa’s ability to incorporate multiple triggers has improved. Even so, it’s still limited and error-prone, meaning the best option stands as the more complex, added-cost IFTTT automation ecosystem .

It’d also be especially helpful if you could nest routines, allowing you to trigger complex chains of actions simultaneously instead of in one poorly optimized clump. Again, there are workarounds here using custom commands, but these work inconsistently, especially if Alexa has a surprise improvement that inexplicably wipes out its standard response to the exact same prompt you’ve been using for years.

Lastly, the ability to snooze routines or only run them when you’re home (currently impossible in the UK, where Amazon’s geolocation software isn’t available) would be helpful for those of us who live between homes or with a more flexible schedule.

We’ve got a full guide for how to use Alexa automations , why not check it out?

One of the more likely Alexa upgrades we’ll see is improved contextual responses, allowing for many improved experiences when interacting with your smart home assistant.

For instance, one of the most frequent debates I have with my non-sentient smart home sasspot is the definition of ‘resume’. Often, I’ll pause a TV show, a news briefing, or some other kind of Alexa Skill while I take a call or answer the door, and I’ll ask Alexa to resume within minutes. What happens? Instead of resuming the media, I was just listening to, Alexa will nine times out of ten play whatever was last playing on Spotify.

Contextual responses would mean that instead of jumping straight to whatever takes priority in Alexa’s programming, the assistant will recall the context of my most recent requests and make a logic-based decision. Alexa offers contextual actions for certain smart home devices; smart lights can be controlled more easily when grouped into rooms with an Echo device. However, far wider-reaching device support is necessary to really make the smart assistant… well, assistive.

It would also allow for more natural interactions between the user and the Echo device. I regularly move between my kitchen and living room and have Alexa-enabled displays in both rooms. In an ideal world, I could ask Alexa to move Netflix from my kitchen to my living room, but as of writing, I have to pause my show, close Netflix, and then ask for Alexa to resume playing in the other room. It’s a first-world problem, yes, but a problem that bugs me every day when it should just work.

Similarly, using Alexa would be a lot less painful if Follow-up Mode was a two-way street. When the feature was presented, many thought it might mean Alexa could ask follow-up questions to understand improved what the user might want and need.

Unfortunately, Follow-up Mode basically just means that you don’t have to repeat your wake word to string commands to Alexa, which is certainly handy. It’s not exactly ‘smart’ though; all that’s happening is that your Echo speaker or display continues listening for a few seconds after completing your first request to see if you have anything else to add.

An improved Follow-up Mode could see Alexa asking clarifying questions, making real-time suggestions, and allow for superior Routine configuration, wherein the user can ask Alexa to ask a clarifying question mid-way through a Routine that creates different pathways for executing the rest of the steps. Similarly, using Alexa would be a lot less painful if Follow-up mode was a two-way street. When the feature was presented, many thought it might mean Alexa could ask follow-up questions to understand superior what the user might want and need.

Unfortunately, Follow-up Mode basically just means that you don’t have to repeat your wake word to string commands to Alexa, which is certainly handy. It’s not exactly ‘smart’ though; all that’s happening is that your Echo speaker or display continues listening for a few seconds after completing your first request to see if you have anything else to add.

An improved Follow-up Mode could see Alexa asking clarifying questions, making real-time suggestions, and allow for enhanced Routine configuration, wherein the user can ask Alexa to ask a clarifying question mid-way through a Routine that creates different pathways for executing the rest of the steps.

I won’t be joining the reams of conspiracy theorists claiming Alexa has “become dumber,” but I will say its ability to search for media seems to have deteriorated slightly, which could just as likely be a result of the ever-growing, terrifyingly vast swathes of content now available online.

For example, I’m a fan of Cobblestone Jazz, and I’ll often ask Alexa to play their music on Spotify. What do I get? A custom mix by Cybotron on Amazon Music. Any niche artist, track, or album is invariably skipped over for a slightly more recognizable alternative, with hilariously mismatched results at times.

The aforementioned improved handling of context would help Alexa to at least remember my preferences and make more logical decisions on what it thinks I might play, and follow-up questions where the user can provide more information and direction would also benefit Alexa’s hit rate. Regardless, something’s gotta give, so I stop accidentally blaring heavy metal instead of smooth jazz in the evening.

I saved the obvious one for last because, of all the things that most need fixing, this is both the most essential and most likely, thanks to the inevitable incorporation of LLM smarts to Alexa [website].

Currently, Alexa can be almost hilariously inefficient when it comes to commands, requiring very specific verbiage to work as intended. superior yet, that verbiage seems to change as updates come and go; the same Echo Spot I’ve been using to control my Philips Hue Signe for the best part of a year used to respond to “Signe” and now only responds to “floor lamp”, and I haven’t changed the name of the device in the App.

Improving language processing would mean customers won’t have to adhere to a strict, seemingly undocumented list of specific commands and product names, which would allow customers to play and experiment more with the voice assistant. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me they had no idea that their smart speaker could help you find your phone or talk you through a seven-minute workout, I’d have at least enough to afford the rumored new monthly Alexa subscription .

While smart home enthusiasts have found some workarounds for a number of the improvements I think Alexa needs so desperately, many involve fiddly hacks or third-party services that your average user just might not want to tackle.

Echo devices have always been positioned more towards the ‘everyman’ than those of us who like to get down in the weeds with smart home setup, and to that end, it’s a surprise that Alexa is still as complex and riddled with awkward loopholes and quirks as it is.

With Alexa [website], however, that seems fit to change - hopefully, all will be revealed tomorrow at Amazon’s ‘Devices and Services’ event, so make sure to stay tuned!

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I spent a year testing Corsair’s swanky Platform:6 Elevate standing desk

A good desktop PC setup needs a good desk, which is surely why Corsair has been spreading out to desks in recent years (in addition to tons of other areas). The Platform series of standing desks is a premium and pricey option for gamers and anyone else who wants a nice base of operations, and PCWorld’s Adam got to give one a thorough year-long review in his home office. The full video review is on YouTube.

Be aware that this is a solid and complex piece of furniture, quite a bit heavier and more complex than your usual standing desk. You’ll probably want a friend to help get the thing assembled and moved around once you’re finished. Highlights include the massive cable management tray and other tools for routing cables all around the desk, integrated chargers and outlet strips at multiple spots, and the distinctive riser rail for mounting monitor arms and other tools.

Adam got to try the Platform:6 desk, which is 6 feet wide and starts at about $1,000 USD, which includes the riser bar, multi-outlet charger, and dual VESA monitor arms. With the Elevate-powered adjustable legs and the default black desktop, it comes to $1,400. Other optional upgrades include a pegboard header and side-mounted desktop extensions. (The non-motorized 4-foot version is more affordable at $700.).

Check out the video if you want a sneak peek at Adam’s office, including some Easter eggs for fans of old-school PC and tech coverage. Once he had it assembled and set up with some help from Luiz, he spent a year with it — and found some definite highs and a few lows.

The biggest plus is the unique riser that doubles as a monitor stand, in conjunction with those high-quality VESA arms. They’re extremely adjustable (both vertically and horizontally) and the gas springs make it easy to lower a monitor for taking videos with a DSLR-slash-webcam.

The ease of access for outlets, chargers, and cable management is also a big plus for the design in Adam’s book. As a long-time user of standing desks myself, I can testify that organizing your cables is extremely crucial for a piece of furniture that moves up and down. Speaking of which, Adam found that part of the design to be excellent, though he did max out both the lowest and highest settings for sitting and standing, respectively. (Adam is pretty tall at 6’2″, so most people shouldn’t have a problem, but you might if you’re any taller than that.).

On the downside, Adam found the recessed cubby in the desktop to be pretty useless, aside from the integrated cable routing. He never put anything back there. It’s also too bad that the mounting points for those optional side extensions are very thick and permanently in place, so clamping things to the side of the desk isn’t an option.

The black desktop itself isn’t great either. It’s a grippy, plastic-like texture that too easily exhibits fingerprints, dust, and stains. You might want an upgrade to the wooden top if you like a more conventional (and less gamer-y) look. The desktop also arrived with a bit of shipping damage, always a bit of a risk for anything heavy. Corsair says they’d supply a replacement desktop for free, no need to send the original back.

Overall, Adam found the Platform:6 Elevate standing desk to be a great upgrade over his previous office setup, though it’s a big investment. But if you work from home, or you’re just very serious about creating a dedicated space for working or playing on your PC, it might be worth it. For more hands-on looks at the best in tech, check out PCWorld on YouTube and watch The Full Nerd podcast every week.

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