Google is set to win conditional European Union approval for its $2.1 billion takeover of health tracker Fitbit Inc. this month, people familiar with the discussions said. The deal could be approved as soon as next week after national competition authorities give their opinion, said the people who asked not to be named because the procedure isn’t public. The EU usually consults the so-called advisory committee on mergers days before it issues approval. Google announced its plans to buy Fitbit in November 2019, noting that it would use the smartwatch maker to improve its lagging hardware business. Clearing regulatory obstacles for the deal come in a tough climate when the company is facing mounting global scrutiny of big technology companies and potentially restrictive regulation in the EU and other regions.
Amazon now lets you interact with Alexa via text on iOS
Alexa can now respond to commands via text on iOS. Amazon appears to have quietly added the capability in the last few days, though the company officially confirmed the feature to The Verge.
With the change, users can opt to text commands to Alexa rather than speaking them.