Group items tagged

On Tuesday, Google is expected to finally unveil its answer to the Echo, alongside new smartphones and tablets. The Google Home device, which looks a little like an air freshener, is expected to go on sale later this month.

"The Echo - a cylindrical speaker with microphone - now accounts for just over 70% of all digital assistant use in the US, leaving its nearest competitor, Google Home, well behind."

Lenovo, the world's biggest PC maker, has held talks with Amazon on potentially using Alexa in its computers and other devices, according to a Lenovo executive with knowledge of the talks. The executive declined to provide more details.

Amazon is pursuing an open-systems approach that allows quick development of many features, while Apple is taking a slower route, asserting more control over the technology in order to assure security and ease-of-use.

Human-Computer Interaction takes big leaps every once in a while. The next generation of speech interfaces is one of those leaps. Humans are increasingly going to be interacting with devices that are able to listen to us and talk back.