Because who wouldn’t want a personal assistant living in their computers, right?
Although it was revealed that Amazon Alexa will only be featured in selected Aspire, Spin, Switch and Swift laptops, as well as Aspire all-in-one PCs starting the first few months of 2018, this upgrade will initially be available in the US. The devices will have to go through a system update at Acer Care Centres and will have wider support to be rolled out in the middle of the year.
“We’re delighted that Acer will bring Alexa to PC customers,” said Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon Alexa. “Hands-free access to Alexa on PCs can be helpful to customers in many ways, like making it simple to interact with your smart home, get news or weather, set timers, and more. This is a big step toward making Alexa available wherever customers might need her.”
Enabled by Intel Smart Sound Technology, an integrated audio DSP (Digital Signal Processor) built to handle audio, voice, and speech interactions, many of Acer’s latest notebooks and desktops will support Amazon Alexa and respond to voice commands quickly while offering high fidelity audio without impacting system performance.
Notebooks such as the Switch 7 Black Edition and Spin 5 with Acer Purified.Voice and four digital microphones support far-field voice recognition from up to nine feet (2.74m) away, while others with dual microphones will be able to activate Alexa within three feet (0.91m). All supported convertible and 2-in-1 notebooks come with front-facing speakers and provide an immersive audio experience.
Compatibility to Acer’s V6820M/i 4K UHD Projector
In addition to the Acer Air Monitor, which already works with Alexa, Acer’s new V6820M and V6820i 4K UHD projectors will be among the first of its kind to support Amazon Alexa. Now part of the smart home, consumers will be able to control the projector after enabling the Acer Projector Smart Home skill by asking Alexa on a device like the Echo or compatible Acer PC.
More CES 2018 stories can be found in the targeted tag that is now used to curate the coverage for this event.
