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Home / Hot Stuff / Smart home / The Mycroft Mark II voice assistant can be extended and customised but won’t share your data

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

Smart Holmes

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.

Profile image of Craig Grannell 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.

Areas of expertise

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.

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