The voice-powered applications offered through Alexa now number more than 15,000 skills, reports TechCrunch, up from 10,000 in February. That latter number, in turn, stood three times greater than the tally seen in September – and all of this data points to a quickening of...
Alibaba, China’s eCommerce company, is reportedly gearing up to create a voice-controlled speaker similar to the virtual assistant Amazon Echo that understands the Chinese language. According to a news report in CNBC, citing The Information, Alibaba could launch the device as soon as next week. The virtual...
If you tell Siri, “You’re fired,” she’ll come back with a quavering protest: “But, but…” That feeble protest may be the best Apple can offer as Amazon’s Alexa gets smarter and smarter and Google rolls out its voice-controlled assistant to the iPhone, an advancement announced...
It’s official. Amazon put an end to speculation last week as it announced its next-gen smart speaker — screen and all — called the Echo Show. The online retail giant is set to release the Echo Show to the world on June 28 of this year. The...
Microsoft is getting into the voice-activated personal assistant market, teaming up with Harman International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, to roll out a voice-activated speaker. In a press release earlier Monday (May 8), Harman said it’s combining its expertise in audio with Microsoft’s...
Good news for those disappointed to see that Samsung’s Bixby didn’t debut last month alongside the Galaxy S8. The wait may soon be over. While Samsung’s announced time frame for Bixby’s arrival in the U.S. was a vague “later this spring,” a number of various...
Two voice-activated giants have made themselves clear: No ads until we say so. The first was a major media story. Google had to step and disable activation after Burger King leveraged Google Home’s wake words in a TV ad. Google very quickly put a stop...
We had a bit of fun last week writing that Alexa was taking time out to work on itself — but the reality of the matter is that Amazon isn’t resting easy. As of late, Alexa has grown to play a broader role in the...
Amazon’s Alexa sits comfortably in the top voice-enabled software spot, taking some time to pay attention to the small things. Elsewhere, challengers leverage their strengths to prepare to knock Amazon down a peg (or, at the very least, do a little bit of legwork to keep...
