For students at Boston's Northeastern University, Amazon's virtual assistant is much more than a helper around the house -- she's also lending a hand in college. While she likely won't help anyone ace an organic chemistry test, she can help busy students keep track of other important information.

Voice-enabled bathroom appliances and fixtures join the growing list of smart home devices controlled by voice assistants. Amazon Alexa has the most skills today, but apps for Apple Siri and Google Home Assistant are catching up. Vendors build apps and devices that follow consumer preferences, even to the bathroom.

Headgear gets smarter as Jarvish adds augmented reality and Amazon Alexa support to its new X-AR motorcycle helmet. Alexa, Siri, and OK Google all can manage the helmet's navigation, entertainment, connectivity, and communications features. Front and rear cameras provide 360 degree views via the helmet's head-up display.

Google product lead Mark Spates works on the company’s smart speakers, including Google Home. In an interview with Digital Trends, he talked about the role of voice in the smart home and where the future might lead, including gesture control, proximity sensors, and new smart speaker hardware.

If a California chip maker is successful in its new partnership with Amazon, its digital assistant Alexa could soon be free to roam in third-party products like smart home fixtures, thermostats and cameras, making the voice platform less reliant on external power sources.

London-based game developer Sensible Object is paying off on a multi-million investment by releasing its first Alexa-powered board game When in Rome, a multimedia experience that uses the digital assistant to guide players through 20 cities around the globe.

Amazon is continuing to beef up its smart home offerings with the addition of the Echo Show-like Show Mode and the wireless charging Show Mode Charging Dock for the Fire HD 8 and HD 10. It's also introducing a kids edition for the huge Fire HD 10, making child-friendly entertainment even easier.

The technology that powers smart speakers like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home may be wildly sophisticated and continually evolving but users in the U.K. report using the smart speakers for remarkably basic functions, according to a new survey.

Baby boomers and Gen X might remember how they had to learn to #adult -- by asking someone or simply figuring it out as you went along. However, millennials have a new option for #adulting - using an Amazon Alexa device.

Family game night is about to get a lot louder, and a lot more prehistoric. While you may have grown up playing cards and charades, the 21st century is bringing a bit more excitement to your friendly competition now that Universal Brand Development and Earplay have released Jurassic World Revealed.

With season 2 of Westworld coming to a close, HBO launched its first full-scale Alexa voice skill called Westworld: The Maze. In this interactive game, you will be transported to Westworld, where you must answer questions and riddles to stay alive and get to the center of the maze.

We'll take Amazon Alexa's creepy laugh any day over her latest bizarre antic. On Monday, an Amazon Echo device apparently made an unprompted and terrifying statement. The owner claims that the smart assistant suddenly activated herself and said, "Every time I close my eyes, all I see is people dying."

While there's no promise that Bamboo will turn your child into the next Chopin, there's still plenty of reason to teach your tot music from an early age, as research has shown that a music education also boosts learning and memory capabilities. And with the new Bamboo Music, learning music can be fun.

Smart speakers are taking over the world one country at a time. The Amazon Echo will soon be made available in both Spain and Italy, and around the same time, Sonos and Bose will both offer up their own Alexa-enabled devices in those two markets as well. There's no word yet on exactly when it'll happen.

Travelers may soon be able to skip the call down to the front desk and just ask Alexa to send up amenities, order room service, or book a spa appointment. Alexa for Hospitality is an Amazon Echo designed specifically for hotels and other travel destinations, with custom travel-based skills.

Who says you need to be a developer to develop skills for Amazon Alexa? Certainly not Amazon. On April 19, it launched Alexa Skill Blueprints, heralded as a new and easy way for anyone and everyone to create customized Alexa functions and responses. In June, Amazon made it easier to share Blueprints.

There are many different ways you can celebrate your dad on Father's Day this year. Alexa and Google Assitant are getting in on the festivities, too! Use your Echo or Google Home smart speaker to tell dad jokes, play games, and more. Keep reading to find out more.

When designer Patrick Stefanski's affection for the animated droid L3-37 from Solo: A Star Wars Story joined his inspiration for an Alexa-powered robotic companion, a fascinating, animatronic re-creation of the robot was born.

For the time being, it may seem that the battle of the smart assistants rages only between two contenders -- Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. But lest you forget that there are, in fact, other A.I.-based helpers in the running. A survey suggests that you certainly shouldn't count out Microsoft Cortana.

At E3 2018, most people thought the trailer for 'Skyrim: A Very Special Edition' on Alexa was a joke. Surprisingly, however, you can actually play the game. Here's how to play the barebones titles on an Alexa-enabled device, in case you want to venture into the world of Skyrim hands-free.

Dish began introducing Alexa integration in April 2017 and quickly rolled it out to a wide range of devices. Now that integration is making your Dish hardware even easier to use thanks to a handful of new commands that make navigation the interface and controlling your DVR entirely hands-free.

Just as she did for March Madness, Amazon's Alexa made a correct prediction about who will come out on top in the NBA Finals. A few months after calling that Villanova University would come out on top a few months ago, Alexa correctly bet on the Golden State Warriors. We'll see what tourney she calls next.

If you want to free Alexa from your Amazon Echo and instead find her a home on your wrist, there's a new app that can help with that. Meet Voice in a Can, a new third-party app that allows you to use Alexa on your Apple Watch. No longer will you be tied to Siri when using your Apple Watch.

Formerly available by invitation only, Amazon's new fashion-friendly Echo Look is hitting the broader market in a big way with new features that allow users to capture, pair, rate, and take suggestions on their wardrobe and outfits. The Echo Look made its grand debut in February.

Amazon's smart assistant is so integrated into our lives that she's now become the first word of a new generation. That's right, friends. When you say Alexa's name more than you say your own, you're likely teaching the newest members of your family who's really boss. One baby's first word was "Alexa."

A leaked Xbox One screenshot from an upcoming build suggests that Cortana may soon have some company, with voice commands utilizing Alexa and Google Assistant devices added to the console's expanding repertoire. No official announcement has been made, but such a move has been rumored for many months.

I have multiple devices that I can talk to, and outside of telling Siri to turn off the lights when I go to bed (because I’m a lazy, terribly person), I don’t talk to a single one of them. In fact, I’ve disabled the voice-activation function of all the ones that I can. I don’t like talking to my devices. I find it silly, and I don’t find it makes my life any easier.

Your food may not be smart (yet), but that doesn't mean that your containers can't be. In the continuing quest to ensure that every aspect of our home is somehow connected, we've now been introduced to Smarterware, a new food storage line from Ovie that claims to be the world's first smart food container.

Google Home has been coming for Amazon Echo's crown ever since it launched the competitive smart speaker in 2016, and now, it looks like we have a new champ. As per a new report from Canalys, Google beat Amazon for the first time in terms of smart speaker shipments, sending 3.2 million units in Q1 2018.

Who needs a calendar when you have Alexa? The personal assistant is not only the smartest member of your household, but she's also now the most organized, too. Beginning this week, if you say, "Alexa, rearrange my meeting," she'll ask which event you need edited, and what new time slot you'd like to occupy. 

Alexa, how many planets are there? Alexa, tell me a story. The Echo Dot Kids Edition promises to be great tool for helping children learn, while also giving parents the tools to control and monitor their daily media intake. We kid- and parent-tested the device to see if it lives up to its promise.

Acer has announced the impending release of the first laptops to have official Alexa support at the point of sale. Its Swift, Spin, Aspire, and other laptop ranges will have full support in the coming weeks, with current owners able to download patches from the Acer Care Center to expand their laptop's capabilities.

Back in October, Amazon Alexa announced that it could recognize individual voices and provide tailored responses. Developers can use this functionality too. And now, when customers in the U.S. address Alexa, the smart assistant will recognize their voices automatically. Really, she just keeps getting smarter.