Alexa and Google Home want to play telephone

Alexa and Google Home want to play telephone

Gear up on five IoT news bites for Thursday

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Alexa, Call The Office We make calls on smartphones and over our computers. Soon, we may be making calls from our smart hubs. Amazon and Google are looking into how to turn the Amazon Echo and Google Home into home telephones, with the ability to make and accept calls. Home telephones are on the wane as people have turned their handheld phones into their main line. Still, The Wall Street Journal says phone features could help to boost adoption of these smart home devices, and might be launching this option sometime this year. Because no one wants to return to this...

Uber Tip Riders seem to know the drill: Take a taxi? Leave a tip. Not so with Uber's ride-sharing service which automatically charges riders a specific fee, but doesn't allow for adding tips. Uber drivers want to change that and are petitioning that the Uber app include this ability. In the meantime people, tip your drivers.

Drone Parachutes Amazon has patented a new way for drones to dump their packages: parachutes. The company suggests goods could be dropped from drones still hovering in the sky rather than having the drone have to land each time it has a delivery. The parachute, as described by the patent, would actually help the package leave the drone.

IMAX VR Imax has pushed out a VR Center in Los Angeles with 14 viewer "pods," says Variety where people can try out virtual reality on their own through an HTC Vive. Each experience is different, including one that places users on Star Wars' Tatooine as Luke Skywalker.

VR Glossary Before you head into one of IMAX's VR pods, consider brushing up on your VR words and phrases. We have 30 of the most common definitions that will help you sound fluent about this new technology—even if you aren't.

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