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Amazon’s Alexa Gets Smarter: AI-Powered Alexa+ Launches in Australia

Amazon has officially launched Alexa+ in Australia, bringing its generative AI-powered virtual assistant to local Echo devices. Moving beyond basic voice triggers, setting kitchen timers, and answering surface-level queries, Alexa+ represents a complete overhaul aimed at making smart home interaction far more natural, intuitive, and action-oriented. Powered by Amazon Bedrock and advanced large language models (LLMs), Alexa+ is designed to behave less like a command-line interface and more like a conversational assistant.  * Natural Conversation & Context Tracking: You no longer need to speak in rigid, robotic phrases. Alexa+ can process mid-sentence pauses, stumbles, and multi-step requests without requiring a repeated wake word for every follow-up question.  * Localised Australian Personality: Tailored specifically for Aussie households, the local engineering and linguistics teams trained Alexa+ to understand Aussie slang, idioms (from "arvo" to "snags...

Ubuntu in VMware workstation 17

Download the Ubuntu iso here for installation in

VMware workstation 17.0 for a cheap price

If using an earlier version than 22.04 LTS, you'll need to manually update the snap store

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

sudo snap refresh


It is easy to install Ubuntu on VMware workstation 17. I find that on VirtualBox the 'sudo' commands don't work and you may run into the error 'user is not found in the sudoers list'



Simply start VMware workstation machine wizard and use a typical configuration



Browse to the Ubuntu iso file and click next



Here you will create a username and password. You will need this to log in and use Sudo commands in the terminal



Enter a location for Ubuntu virtual machine




I have Ubuntu installed on one of my external drives and have the storage size at 500 gigabytes



If you have a lot of ram you can use 16gb of ram for the VM so you can get the most use of your systems GPU 



Tap on done and start the virtual machine 



It's pretty straightforward. Set it up like any typical os. Install 3rd party drivers if you want








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