Image used with permission by copyright holderThis year’s Consumer Electronic Show hasn’t yet started, but we already can tell — just from the slew of emails in our inboxes — that Alexa and other voice assistants will be big. One of the major trends from last year’s show was Alexa in everything, but for CES 2018, Samsung is bucking the trend by adding a different voice assistant into its smart Family Hub refrigerator: Bixby.
In the Samsung Family Hub fridge, Bixby will activate when you say something like, “Bixby, add grapes to my shopping list.”
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Samsung announced the plan to put its voice assistant into its TVs and Hub fridges last year. Initially, Bixby launched in the U.S. in Galaxy S8 phones (after some delays), then slowly made updates and improvements over the next few months. Samsung claims Bixby is an improvement over Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa because its AI can adapt to you, learning from your habits and speech patterns. Not everyone loves it on their phones, but it’s still young compared to Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
In the Samsung Family Hub fridge, Bixby will activate when you say something like, “Bixby, add grapes to my shopping list.” The Family Hub also integrates with grocery delivery apps like Instacart. If you want to listen to music through the fridge’s speakers, Bixby can connect to Pandora or Spotify. The voice assistant can also take a few tasks away from the Family Hub’s screen, by telling you the weather or what events are on your calendar. The fridge has profiles to let family members get more personalized results, and Bixby is also supposed to be able to distinguish between users’ voices.
In addition to Bixby, Samsung’s Smart Hub gateway is getting an app overall, ditching the appliances app for SmartThings integration — an open platform that works with hardware from Philips, Netgear, ecobee, and many more companies, putting all your connected gear under one app.
Owners will also be able to browse new apps on the fridge, like Pinterest and Buzzfeed’s Tasty. A new Meal Planner gives families recipes based on what’s in the fridge, favorite foods, and dietary restrictions. With four new models coming later in 2018, Samsung brings the total to 14 Family Hub refrigerators, though as of now they all cost over $3,000.
Early Black Friday chest freezer deals: up to 40% off today
Update 10/29/24: This starts our Black Friday coverage of chest freezers, and we like what we see so far. The following deals are from a variety of good brands, show a wide range of prices, and most importantly come in various sizes, so you can pick what is right for your home.
While Black Friday officially starts on November 29, retailers are getting started early this year. That means great early Black Friday deals, including on things like chest freezers. Here, we search high and low for the best deals on chest freezers to hit the market. That means we're looking at sources like Walmart's, Amazon's, and Best Buy's early Black Friday deals among others to get you the best deals possible. Whether you're wanting to store ice cream, meat, or a party's worth of frozen pizza, these are the best chest freezers for you.
Hisense 5 cu. ft. Garage Ready Chest Freezer — $165 $189 13% off
Best cordless drill early Black Friday deals: DeWalt and more
Update 10/28/24: This marks the beginning of our drill coverage for 2024's Black Friday shopping season, and all of the major brands have at least one great deal. While we're excited for what is to come, this is a fantastic start and there's really no reason to not go ahead and get prepped by buying something now.
If you're buying anything this Black Friday, there's a big chance you might want a drill/driver to go with it. A drill/driver is one part drill, one part (screw)driver and it can help out in many situations. For example, say you take part in one of these early Black Friday TV deals, you very well might want to wall mount it. Then, say you grab up an easy coffee maker from Keurig's early Black Friday deals. An extra side table in your study would sure go nice with that and a drill/driver could very well make the table's construction much easier.
Really, with so so many of your early Black Friday purchases, there might be a chance to pick up a cordless drill or driver and get to work. As such, we've compiled a list of the best cordless drill deals throughout Black Friday deals that are available now, so you can get a head start on prepping for the savings that are to come.
Best Roomba deals: Top robot vacuums from as little as $170
If you come home and don't really look forward to doing the day-to-day dusting and vacuuming that's required to keep everything clean, then robot vacuums are a great solution. Probably one of the best-known brands is Roomba, and if you're looking to pick up a new one, then Roomba has a lot of great options you can pick from.. Whether you're looking for a budget-friendly option or something a little bit more high-end that comes with a self-emptying station, we've gone out and collected some of our favorite Roomba deals below.
That said, if you don't necessarily want a Roomba, you can check out these general robot vacuum deals, and for the more substantial messes, there are always these vacuum deals and cordless vacuum deals too.
iRobot Roomba i1 -- $170 $220 22% off
