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Alexa will help you order gadgets and gear from Best Buy (updated)
In an odd turn for retail cooperation, Best Buy is now available on Alexa, Amazon's voice-powered digital assistant. Starting today, you can learn about and order Best Buy's Deal of the Day sales just by saying, "Alexa, talk to Best Buy." Sure, it seems odd to have a competing service on Amazon's own devices, but as the blog post from Best Buy points out, the big box store has been selling Amazon Alexa devices in a special section in about 700 of its stores earlier this year.
A stroll through the MVNO graveyard
Back in the early days of Engadget, everyone -- including us -- thought mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) were totally poised to be the next big thing. And why not? You get to be a wireless carrier without having to operate your own infrastructure (which is by far the most expensive, difficult part). Just what the doctor ordered for the big, stodgy wireless carriers, each struggling to balance differentiating themselves while trapping their customers in their walled content and services gardens.What we got instead was failed business model after spectacular failed business model, leading to a domino effect of collapses that left just a precious few companies standing. Let's take a look at the carnage over on Engadget Mobile, shall we?
Voce indeed dead, execs let go by phone disconnections
Alright, we'll definitely cop to having broken off a relationship or two via text message, but we don't think we've ever heard of a high-ranking executive discovering he'd been fired when his phone stopped working -- which is exactly what happened to Roy Kosuge, COO of Voce, that "luxury" MVNO. We'd heard rumors of Voce's demise, but it looks like ol' Roy wasn't so plugged in, only finding out that his company was dead when his phone stopped making calls. Of course, when a company's chief operating officer doesn't know that you're about to kill the lights, it's a safe bet that things are pretty screwed up, so if you were among the few who signed up for Voce's premium services, we'd recommend calling your credit card company immed -- oh, right. Sorry about that.
Did Voce die overnight, without warning?
We don't yet know for sure what's up, but we're hearing that customers of Voce, the luxury MVNO based on AT&T's network, woke up on February 1st to zero service, dead customer service lines, and even some crazier claims like being double-billed for the final month of service. We gave their sales lines -- usually the very last thing to go down -- a ring, and got no reply. It's possible this could be some kind of huge misunderstanding and outage on Voce's part, which we do hope it is, because if they did shut down they certainly did so in about the most abrupt, impudent way imaginable. Either way, looks like guys are going to be out for the count -- we wouldn't exactly expect a mobile phone provider to go completely dark, ignore its customers for days, and expect to retain any business. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Luxury MVNO Voce gets going in LA
Ah yes, Voce. That priciest of all MVNOs is starting to get rolling in LA with an invitation-only trial capped at 500 people, with plans to add New York and San Francisco this fall. Right now they only have service based on Cingular's GSM network, and since Cingular doesn't fork over data usage to MVNOs, the Voce service is voice only. Though at these prices, they obviously figure you're too stupid to use cellular data. The service has a $1000 joining fee, plus a $400 monthly fee, which includes unlimited minutes, a free leather-clad RAZR or black Nokia 8810, and certain VIP privileges like a 24 hour personal assistant and travel perks. There's also an annual device upgrade included, which will probably feel quite welcome by the time it arrives with as old as those phones are already. Voce does plan to offer data in the future by partnering with a CDMA carrier, but for now this MVNO's offerings aren't only ridiculously pricey, but nearly non-functional for all but the most casual of phone users.[Via Phone Scoop]
