Amazon provides a set of tools to build Alexa apps (aka "skills"), taking advantage of AWS Lambda’s serverless compute to only run apps when triggered by an Echo device.Īlexa skills can be used to connect to general-purpose web services, allowing users to access existing and new web content and services through voice commands, by linking service requests to user “utterances.” More specific APIs provide access to home automation (“Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights”) and IoT devices (“Alexa, what’s the temperature in the kid’s room?”), while still other APIs trigger the delivery of quick packets of narrated information. Providing a voice-driven interface to Amazon and partner services, the Echo is a powerful tool, but it’s also an intriguing example of a move to a ubiquitous computing model, using the Amazon Alexa voice recognition tools. See also: Technology of the Year 2017: The best hardware, software, and cloud servicesĪmazon’s Echo device family has proven to be a huge hit, with both the Echo and the Echo Dot selling out in a Christmas rush. Chosen by InfoWorld editors and product reviewers, these are the best tools for app dev, datacenter and cloud ops, data analytics, and information security that we encountered in the past year. You’ll find these and other innovations that were born in, designed for, or inspired by the cloud among our latest Technology of the Year Award winners. Is it a surprise that Facebook came up with a better way to build mobile apps? Or a better way for clients to fetch data from a server? Maybe not, but you might be surprised by the clever approach Facebook has taken to endpoint security. Similarly, other cloud juggernauts are solving common problems and sharing the solutions through open source projects. Now we’re fortunate to get the real goods, for datacenter orchestration or deep learning or what have you, straight from the source. Did you notice that Google is giving away its magic sauce? Google engineers used to merely write papers about their creations, then leave it to others to come up with the software.