Today’s Big Story

Should Smart Speakers Be Smarter?

Alexa, Sonos, Siri and Google are all trying … but do they live up to the promise?

There are a lot of smart speakers on the market today. The chatty, voice-activated assistants from Amazon, Google and Apple are extremely popular. Sonos and Bose have recently gotten into the game, too. And each seems to have its list of pros and cons. It all depends on what you’re looking for.

Wired has tested them all. If you’re new to the category, right now their editors say they prefer Google- and Amazon-powered models, as they are the most user-friendly. They also say you need to figure out which speaker has the features you want. “Is music quality your top concern? Do you want a touchscreen, or is voice assistance alone enough? Does your speaker need to connect to other smart home gadgets? That’s where finding the best option gets trickier.”

Wirecutter has a whole guide devoted to building a multiroom wireless speaker system. After all, they can bring excellent sound quality and their connected capabilities into your space, allowing you to get information and set reminders without ever having to utter, “where’s my phone?” But, as anyone who’s used them will agree, many are wondering … shouldn’t they be a little smarter by now?

The Verge writer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy says that when Amazon launched its Alexa voice assistant, it envisioned a computer platform that could do anything for you. A decade later, the company is still trying to build it. Back in 2014, it was something of a passion project for founder Jeff Bezos. The digital assistant was inspired by and aspired to be Star Trek’s “Computer”—an omniscient, omnipresent, and proactive artificial intelligence controlled by your voice. At the time, that future felt within reach.

Fast-forward to today, and there are over 40 million Echo smart speakers in U.S. households, with Alexa processing billions of commands a week globally. But despite this proliferation of products and popularity, the “superhuman assistant who is there when you need it, disappears when you don’t, and is always working in the background on your behalf” that Amazon promised just isn’t here.

Alexa, and the range of other smart speakers, still mainly do what they’ve always done: play music, report the weather, and set timers. Capabilities have expanded—Alexa can now do useful things like control your lights, call your mom, and remind you to take out the trash. But despite a significant investment of time, money, and resources over the last decade, the voice assistant hasn’t become noticeably more intelligent. Have these speakers hit a proverbial wall?

It’s Halloween

What’s the story behind the holiday?

I’m currently in Tokyo, and there’s a severe lack of Halloween candy here. Perhaps that’s for the best. This is when I tend to buy a large bag of mini Reese’s peanut butter cups “for trick-or-treaters” and then when they don’t show at my apartment, I eat them all in about 48 hours. But speaking of Halloween, what do you know about the holiday’s origin?

Carving pumpkins, walking home with bags weighted down with sugary treats, and wearing silly costumes are cherished traditions, but according to the History Channel, Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth so people darkened their faces with ashes to ward off unwanted ghostly guests and remain safe from unfriendly attention.

Fast forward to the 8th century and the introduction of All Saints’ Day (November 1). This was to be a celebration of Christian martyrs and saints and November 2 became All Souls Day, a day to remember the souls of the dead. As the Church sought to replace the pagan festival with a church-sanctioned holiday, the day before All Saints’ Day—now renamed All Hallows’ Day—became All Hallows’ Eve. Eventually that celebration became known as Halloween. The tradition of going door-to-door for “soul cakes” to pray for the departed started to emerge, which was a precursor to our modern trick-or-treating.

Dodgers Win the World Series

The team clinched its eighth title in franchise history after rallying to beat the New York Yankees in Game 5

Honestly, I love this for them. I’m a Shohei Ohtani fan, sure, but the Dodgers’ World Series win back in 2020 always felt a little hollow. Because of the pandemic, the regular season four years ago lasted just 60 games. Health restrictions limited the attendance at the World Series, held at a neutral site, to barely 11,000 fans a night. They never even held a parade!

Ever since, they have faced questions about the legitimacy of that victory—their only title amid more than a decade’s worth of October disappointment. But as they poured out of the third-base dugout to celebrate Wednesday, after one of the wildest Fall Classic contests in recent memory, the Dodgers put that debate to rest for good. They had won the World Series for the eighth time in franchise history with a 7-6 win, breezing past the mighty New York Yankees in just five games.

After falling behind 5-0 early, ESPN says the Dodgers took advantage of a miscue-filled fifth inning by the New York Yankees to even the score before finally pulling ahead in the eighth inning. “The two-error frame, compounded by one mental blunder, will go down as one of the worst half-innings in Yankees history, turning a 5-0 lead into a 5-5 score. It also speaks to a series won on the margins.” The Dodgers scored 25 runs to the Yankees' 24. New York outhomered, outhit and outwalked Los Angeles. And yet the Dodgers won the World Series in convincing fashion, over five games, because they were better in close contests.

Celebrities Make Good Money, Even After Death

Matthew Perry joins a chorus of pop stars as the greatest earners in the great beyond

“Dying,” the pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman once wrote, “is the only thing that guarantees a rock star will have a legacy that stretches beyond temporary relevance.”

And, apparently, it also still pays well. In 2024, several music greats—including Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury, Bob Marley and Whitney Houston—are once again topping the charts of the highest-paid dead celebrities. Music catalog income and estate deals remain the top income generators for deceased recording artists. According to Forbes, Jackson’s estate scored a huge win in August, after a judge ruled that the $600 million catalog sale of his publishing and recorded masters’ rights to Sony could proceed, despite protestations from the late artist’s mother. The publication estimates that his estate has raked in more than $3.3 billion since his death in 2009.

But it’s not all musicians who are earning the big bucks in the great beyond. The late Friends star Matthew Perry became the rare television actor to ever make the list. (The comedy duo Abbott & Costello—primarily considered film stars—were the first back in 1988, when Forbes launched the Highest-Paid Dead Celebrities list.) Perry, alongside his costars, are estimated to pull in some $18 million annually in royalties from the beloved sitcom.

Get a Jumpstart on Your Gifting

Beat the rush with these perfect presents from Huckberry

Here's a worthy goal: Make this the year that you actually start buying your gifts early. Spare yourself the stress of shipping deadlines or discovering the ideal present, only to see that it's now sold out. Buying early is the only way to ensure you get what you want—and get it on time. And whether you're shopping for a gift or maybe treating yourself, Huckberry has everything you might need. Their team takes the holidays very seriously, which is why they always put together an impressive gifting section, stocked with a wide range of items that live up to the Huckberry ethos—stylish, hard-wearing and built with integrity. Which, come to think of it, are also the tenets of a good gift. Here are a few items that the team is excited about. Get 'em now and then sit back and enjoy the season.

It’s time for a reset.