Tech Knock

You'll see Amazon's Alexa infiltrate the New York Toy Fair as toymakers figure out how to use the digital assistant to add new sound experiences to games. Alexa, shall we play a game? Amazon's smart assistant is making her way into playtime, with Mattel and other toymakers adding Alexa voice commands to products to enhance game play. Several such toys are due this fall, and this weekend some will be on display at the ginormous New York Toy Fair. In many of these products, you can't actually play against Alexa. Instead she's a guide, keeping score, reading rules and setting the mood with sound effects and music. In an age when parents are accustomed to syncing toys with smartphone apps, it's not much of a leap for companies to want to leverage smart speakers. Industry watchers expect Amazon's Echo speakers to be in more than 66.3 million US households by 2022. Why make your own voice recognition system and battle privacy worries when you ca...

It's a Parrot vs DJI drone showdown Earlier this year, DJI announced it would be taking on the entry-level, selfie drone market with its  Spark . Along with challengers like the  Yuneec Breeze , the smallest DJI quadcopter is priced within touching distance of the bigger  Parrot Bebop 2 . How do they compare? Weight The Bebop is significantly heavier than the Spark, but that extra weight is an advantage in some ways. More on that in a minute. Battery Parrot has slotted a big battery into the Bebop 2 – the original Bebop had an 1100 mAh unit, compared to the 2700 mAh pack in the latest Bebop 2. That translates to a healthy flight time, too. Flight Time Parrot has a massive advantage over DJI when it comes to flight time. The bigger battery in the Bebop affords it a healthy 25 minute flight time, compared to 16 minutes for the Spark. The heavier Parrot drone is also likely to stand up better to buffeting in high winds. Range Both d...