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Amazon Unveils Alexa+: A Smarter, More Personalized AI Assistant

Also: Slack Outage Disrupts Workplaces Nationwide and more updates.

February 27, 2025

Good Morning, TECH Enthusiasts!

Amazon's AI-powered Alexa+ brings natural conversations and personalized assistance to your home.
Slack experienced a major outage, impacting thousands and disrupting workflows.
Apple addresses dictation bug that briefly suggested 'Trump' for words starting with 'R'.

Today’s TECH Highlights:

  • Alexa+ Debuts Soon, Slack Goes Down, iPhone Glitch Fixed

  • AI: ElevenLabs’ Scribe Debuts, Microsoft’s Phi-2

  • Gadget of the Day: Tecno Camon 40 Series

  • Tech TIP: Stop Unwanted Calls

  • In a Nutshell: More Bits & Bytes Tech Updates

Read time: 4-5 minutes

TOP TECH SNAPSHOTS

Source: Amazon

  • Amazon Unveils Alexa+: A Smarter, More Personalized AI Assistant: Amazon's Alexa+ is set to revolutionize smart home interactions with its AI-driven capabilities. Launching in late March 2025, Alexa+ offers more natural conversations, personalized responses, and the ability to complete complex tasks across various services. It can understand context, process documents, and even navigate the web to book appointments. Available on select Echo Show devices, Alexa+ will be free for Prime members or $19.99/month for others. This upgrade aims to make Alexa more intuitive and helpful in daily life.

  • Slack Outage Disrupts Workplaces Nationwide: A nationwide Slack outage left thousands of users unable to access their accounts, send messages, or utilize key functionalities. The disruption, which began around 10:30 AM ET, affected workflows, threads, messaging, and API-related features. While some users experienced sporadic functionality, others faced complete service inaccessibility. Slack, used by 77% of Fortune 100 companies and boasting nearly 40 million daily active users, is working to restore service, causing significant workflow disruption.

  • Apple Fixes iPhone Glitch Linking 'Racist' to 'Trump': Apple has resolved a dictation feature glitch on some iPhones that momentarily suggested 'Trump' when users spoke words beginning with 'R', including 'racist'. The issue gained attention after users shared videos demonstrating the malfunction on social media. Apple acknowledged the problem, explaining that their speech recognition systems may occasionally suggest phonetically similar words before quickly correcting them. The company has implemented a fix, highlighting the ongoing challenges in perfecting AI-driven speech recognition technology.

AI SNAPSHOTS

  • ElevenLabs Unveils Scribe: Advanced Speech-to-Text AI Model: ElevenLabs has introduced Scribe, its latest speech-to-text AI model. Launched on February 26, 2025, Scribe boasts support for over 99 languages, with more than 25 languages achieving excellent accuracy. This advancement showcases ElevenLabs' commitment to expanding its AI capabilities beyond text-to-speech, potentially revolutionizing transcription and voice recognition technologies across various industries.

  • Microsoft Unveils Phi-2: Powerful Small Language Model: Microsoft has introduced Phi-2, a small language model with 2.7 billion parameters, designed for research applications. Despite its compact size, Phi-2 demonstrates exceptional performance in reasoning, language comprehension, mathematics, and coding tasks. Trained on high-quality data, including synthetic datasets, Phi-2 can outperform models up to 25 times its size. It's available through Azure AI Studio, offering researchers an efficient tool for exploring AI capabilities without extensive computational resources.

GADGET OF THE DAY

  1. MWC 2025 Launch: The Tecno Camon 40 series is set to debut at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025.

  2. Upgraded Universal Tone: The series will feature an upgraded Universal Tone for enhanced photography.

  3. Series Models: Details are emerging, suggesting multiple models within the Camon 40 series.

  4. Certification Listings: Tecno Camon 40 series phones have been spotted on FCC and NBTC certification sites, indicating an imminent launch.

  5. Tecno AI Glasses & Megabook S14: The event might also reveal Tecno AI Glasses and Megabook S14.

TECH TIP

  1. Silence Unknown Callers: Activate built-in settings on your smartphone to send calls from numbers not in your contacts directly to voicemail (iPhone) or block calls from private/unidentified numbers (Android).

  2. Do Not Call Registry: Register your number on the national Do Not Call registry to opt out of most telemarketing calls.

  3. Carrier Filters: Utilize call-blocking services offered by your wireless carrier (e.g., Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T) to filter robocalls and report spam.

  4. Blocking Apps: Use a host of smartphone apps that promise to block spam calls, like Nomorobo, YouMail, Hiya, RoboKiller, TrueCaller and others

  5. Just Hang Up and Say No: Avoid engaging with suspected robocalls. Just hang up immediately and tell companies you've done business with to revoke consent for calls.

TECH INSPIRATION OF THE DAY

"Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them."

Steve Jobs

In a Nutshell

More Bits & Bytes Tech Updates

  1. Nvidia's Blackwell Ultra Coming: Nvidia plans to unveil its next-generation AI chip, Blackwell Ultra, next month. This signals a continued push for even more powerful AI hardware. Expect significant performance improvements and new capabilities aimed at advanced AI applications.

  2. Instagram Reels, Standalone App?: Instagram is considering spinning off Reels into a separate app. This potential move suggests Meta is doubling down on short-form video content. A dedicated Reels app could better compete with TikTok and offer more specialized features.

  3. MrBeast Valuation Soars: YouTube star MrBeast is raising money at a $5 billion valuation. This highlights the massive influence and earning potential of top-tier content creators. The valuation underscores the growing power and value of the creator economy.

  4. Musk's Support Praised: Elon Musk and his "humble tech support" received praise at Trump's cabinet meeting. This highlights Musk's involvement in governmental tech initiatives. It reinforces the intersection of private tech companies and public policy.

  5. Shop Circle Raises Millions: Shop Circle raises $60M to create an app suite for e-commerce. This investment underscores the importance of integrated e-commerce tools. Expect Shop Circle to expand its offerings and streamline online business operations.

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