BMW will in a few days start rolling out to many of its drivers support for Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. The fact that BWM is doing this doesn’t come as a surprise, given that it has long talked about its plans to bring Alexa — and potentially other personal assistants like Cortana and the Google […]
View More BMW’s Alexa integration gets it rightCategory: smart speakers
You can now stream to your Sonos devices via AirPlay 2
Newer Sonos devices and “rooms” now appear as AirPlay 2-compatible devices, allowing you to stream audio to them via Apple devices. The solution is a long time coming for Sonos which promised AirPlay 2 support in October. You can stream to Sonos One, Sonos Beam, Playbase, and Play:5 speakers and ask Siri to play music […]
View More You can now stream to your Sonos devices via AirPlay 2Digging deeper into smart speakers reveals two clear paths
In a truly fascinating exploration into two smart speakers – the Sonos One and the Amazon Echo – BoltVC’s Ben Einstein has found some interesting differences in the way a traditional speaker company and an infrastructure juggernaut look at their flagship devices. The post is well worth a full read but the gist is this: […]
View More Digging deeper into smart speakers reveals two clear pathsDurable speakers you can buy without overspending
Editor’s note: This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and TechCrunch earn affiliate commissions. There are few scenarios where enjoyable music pumping out of a good speaker is an annoyance. Outdoor gatherings, casual cleaning sessions at home, and parties (big and small) call for entertainment […]
View More Durable speakers you can buy without overspendingIoT devices could be next customer data frontier
At the Adobe Summit this week in Las Vegas, the company introduced what could be the ultimate customer experience construct, a customer experience system of record that pulls in information, not just from Adobe tools, but wherever it lives. In many ways it marked a new period in the notion of customer experience management, putting […]
View More IoT devices could be next customer data frontierSpotify tests native voice search, groundwork for smart speakers
Now Spotify listens to you instead of the other way around. Spotify has a new voice search interface that lets you say “Play my Discover Weekly”, “Show Calvin Harris”, or “Play some upbeat pop” to pull up music. A Spotify spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that this is “Just a test for now”, as only a […]
View More Spotify tests native voice search, groundwork for smart speakersSamsung turns to Harman to further SmartThings development
Harman and Samsung have entered into a strategic association that will have Harman taking up the SmartThings’ standard and carrying it forward against other Internet of Things products. Announced today, Samsung SmartThings R&D team and HARMAN Connected Services (HCS), a division of HARMAN International, will collaborate on the platform with HCS developing and supporting the… Read More
Samsung turns to Harman to further SmartThings development
Harman and Samsung have entered into a strategic association that will have Harman taking up the SmartThings’ standard and carrying it forward against other Internet of Things products. Announced today, Samsung SmartThings R&D team and HARMAN Connected Services (HCS), a division of HARMAN International, will collaborate on the platform with HCS developing and supporting the… Read More
Sonos One’s Alexa support comes to Canada
Sonos One users in Canada can now join their peers south of the border in yelling requests at their connected speakers – a free update issued today enables Amazon Alexa on the Sonos One. The One launched with Alexa support in the U.S., but while the speaker has been available to Canadian buyers since late last year, Alexa voice commands are new with the update. That means Canadians will… Read More
Spotify job listing hints the company’s ‘first physical products’ are coming
Spotify so far has been content to partner far and wide on hardware, via its Spotify Connect platform, which allows anyone building a connected speaker, mobile device or piece of AV equipment to turn their gadget into a Spotify speaker. But a new job listing suggests it will soon build hardware of its own, and it’s looking for people to help make that happen. The job listing, spotted by… Read More
Facebook will launch two new smart speakers in July, claims report
Facebook’s foray into hardware may actually be happening. Its new smart speakers will be available starting in July, according to a Digitimes report published Wednesday.
Portal, the Facebook-connected video chat device will reportedly have two models…
A four-sentence HomePod review (with appendices)
Apple’s HomePod delivers superior sound quality and solid Siri performance but still lags behind competition on breadth of voice commands. Read More