Category: Smart Speaker

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Amazon Echo Dot (2018) review: Alexa’s gateway drug is more potent than ever

sudshr47 October 24, 2018

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Amazon Echo Dot (2018)
$49.99
The Good

Good sound • Can pair with another Echo Dot for stereo • Elegant design • Still affordable

The Bad

Sound lacks bass • Power cord is now proprietary

The Bottom Line

Amazon’s 2018 refresh of the Echo Dot turns its entry-level Alexa product from a merely passable audio experience into something much more pleasing to the ear.

Mashable Score4.25
Cool Factor3.0
Learning Curve5.0
Performance4.0
Bang for the Buck5.0

The Echo Dot may be the most important piece of hardware Amazon has ever made.

You heard me. Not the Kindle. Not the original Echo. Certainly not the Fire Phone. While the first Amazon Echo unlocked the possibilities that go hand-in-hand with voice, it was the Dot, with its simple design and more affordable price, that made that experience ubiquitous by putting it in every room. Read more…

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This robot uses lasers to ‘listen’ to its environment

sudshr47 October 15, 2018

A new technology from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University will add sound and vibration awareness to create truly context-aware computing. The system, called Ubicoustics, adds additional bits of context to smart device interaction, allowing a smart speaker to know it’s in a kitchen or a smart sensor to know you’re in a tunnel versus on […]

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Google’s smart home sell looks cluttered and incoherent

sudshr47 October 10, 2018

If any aliens or technology ingenues were trying to understand what on earth a ‘smart home’ is yesterday, via Google’s latest own-brand hardware launch event, they’d have come away with a pretty confused and incoherent picture. The company’s presenters attempted to sketch a vision of gadget-enabled domestic bliss but the effect was rather closer to […]

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The Google Home Hub might be the best digital picture frame ever made

sudshr47 October 9, 2018

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The Google Home Hub is aptly named.

It’s certainly not the first product to lay claim to the term “hub” but it might be the first product to embody the word so fully. It’s not centered around a single use case — like, say, the Facebook Portal is built around video chat — but instead brings together the functionalities of several different products: smart speaker, tablet, digital photo frame, and smart home controller.

The Home Hub is technically in the category of “smart display,” but that doesn’t capture what it does any better than “smart speaker” describes an Amazon Echo. The Hub is more of an “ambient computing enabler,” with some interesting extras that the display bestows. Read more…

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Nielsen: U.S. smart speaker adoption grew to 24% in Q2 2018, 4 in 10 own more than one

sudshr47 September 28, 2018

In the second quarter, the adoption of smart speakers – like Amazon Echo and Google Home devices – grew to 24% in the U.S., up from 22% the prior quarter, according to new data from Nielsen, released this week. The measurement firm took a look at how consumers were using their speakers, when, as well […]

View More Nielsen: U.S. smart speaker adoption grew to 24% in Q2 2018, 4 in 10 own more than one
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JBL’s smart display combines Google smarts with good sound

sudshr47 September 13, 2018

If you’re looking for a smart display that’s powered by the Google Assistant, you now have two choices: the Lenovo Smart Display and the JBL Link View. Lenovo was first out of the gate with its surprisingly stylish gadget, but it also left room for improvement. JBL, given its heritage as an audio company, is putting […]

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Investors are tuning out Sonos after a disappointing quarter

sudshr47 September 11, 2018

Sonos stock is still struggling to recover after a disappointing earnings report sent shares of the audio hardware manufacturing company plummeting. The stock is currently down over 18 percent in trading on the Nasdaq after yesterday’s news that the company lost 45 cents per share on revenues  of roughly $208 million for the quarter. The […]

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The Google Assistant is now bilingual 

sudshr47 August 30, 2018

The Google Assistant just got more useful for multilingual families. Starting today, you’ll be able to set up two languages in the Google Home app and the Assistant on your phone and Google Home will then happily react to your commands in both English and Spanish, for example. Today’s announcement doesn’t exactly come as a […]

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