The Mycroft Mark II voice assistant can be extended and customised but won’t share your data

An ongoing concern with voice assistants is what they share. With Mycroft Mark II ($99 DIY or $129 pre-built), sharing extends to capabilities, not data. This personal assistant won’t convert your ramblings into targeted ads, but is backed by a community keen to extend its capabilities – which you can check in on by asking: “What’s new today?” But even out of the box, Mycroft doesn’t skimp. You can set alarms and timers, check the weather, and play music. There’s a 10W speaker, an advanced six-mic array for hearing your barked orders from across the room, USB-A and SD card slots, and Bluetooth/Wi-Fi support. You can even change Mycroft’s name, personality and appearance – although one option resembles WALL·E’s EVE if you removed her arms; so watch out if ‘she’ takes umbrage at that and starts ‘accidentally’ waking you at 4 a.m.

Craig Grannell Contributor

About

I’m a regular contributor to Stuff magazine and Stuff.tv, covering apps, games, Apple kit, Android, Lego, retro gaming and other interesting oddities. I also pen opinion pieces when the editor lets me, getting all serious about accessibility and predicting when sentient AI smart cookware will take over the world, in a terrifying mix of Bake Off and Terminator.

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Mobile apps and games, Macs, iOS and tvOS devices, Android, retro games, crowdfunding, design, how to fight off an enraged smart saucepan with a massive stick.