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Samsung Reportedly Developing a Voice-Controlled Speaker To Compete With Amazon Echo (geekwire.com)

Posted by msmash on from the me-too dept.

Samsung may be working on a smart speaker of its own. The company is developing a smart speaker powered by its Bixby voice assistant, according to The Wall Street Journal. From a report: A new report from The Wall Street Journal claims Samsung is working on its own voice-controlled home speaker to compete with the likes of the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and other devices that will be launched over the next few months and years. Details about Samsung's speaker and when we might expect to see it on the market are scant, but The Wall Street Journal does say that the device will be powered by Bixby. Bixby -- Samsung's answer to Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri -- is available in South Korea, where the company is based, but the English-language version is still in the works. Meanwhile, other tech companies like Alibaba, Apple, and Microsoft are developing their own smart speakers to compete with Amazon and Alphabet.

30 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Who wanted this to begin with? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a solution in search of a problem. This is basically a music player that spies on you and your family.

    1. Re:Who wanted this to begin with? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't understand it either; but Amazon seems to sell a lot of Dots - including to some of my friends.

      So there is a market... people like us just aren't part of it.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re: Who wanted this to begin with? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      My dad. Not because he is a tech geek, but because his vision decreased faster than his hearing. He bought a sonos system and loves it, but struggles to control what us playing Alexa made controlling not only easier, but possible.

      However that crap stays out of my house.

    3. Re:Who wanted this to begin with? by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      So I can either:
      1) Talk to my phone
      2) Phone translates my speech to text
      3) Confirm speech is correct
      4) It's not, correct speech
      5) Send text
      6) Await response, rinse, repeat

      Or,
      1) Call them

      I take the latter.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    4. Re:Who wanted this to begin with? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      Slashdot is (or at least was) a small, tight-knit circle of like-minded geeks. We pride ourselves on understanding technology in a way the masses never could. What we miss is that the masses never really WANTED to understand it this way.

      The IT Crowd hit the nail on the head: https://youtu.be/YDNmyyrEZho?t...

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    5. Re:Who wanted this to begin with? by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      I'll also throw in a random, wayward bonus argument: Alexa will save hundreds of thousands of lives over the next few decades. How? By being part of a new generation of cloud-based voice recognition that will eventually replace texting and driving.

      Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa are very rapidly evolving machine understanding of human speech, and ubiquity among car infotainment systems could very well save drivers...

      That may end up happening. But the tech will have to get much better before it does. I'm not sure if you have used Siri over a car interface, but I have found it to be quite distracting. It often takes multiple tries to get a text right, during which time the cognitive load is palpable.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    6. Re:Who wanted this to begin with? by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      Speech based computing is Star Trek level amazing, and you're upset that it could theoretically be used for spying. Meanwhile, you are typing this on a computer that has a microphone, you have a cell phone with a microphone, you have a tablet with a microphone, your TV has a microphone.

      Not yet, it's not. I have found speech-controlled systems to be clunky and of limited use. When I can talk to a computer like I can talk to a person, the technology will have arrived. For now it's still a novelty and a toy.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  2. too bad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Too bad Amazon already took the brand name "Fire".

    1. Re: too bad... by Ken_g6 · · Score: 1

      Won't have batteries, so it won't catch fire.

      I know the parent was a joke, but I don't see any name in TFS either. So may I propose the "Samsung Galaxy Commander"?

      --
      (T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
    2. Re: too bad... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Won't have batteries, so it won't catch fire.

      Samsung can make appliances catch fire even if they have water on board.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re: too bad... by KGIII · · Score: 1

      It says Bixby right in the summary. It even says it twice...

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  3. No!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No more spy devices!

  4. Will Go Great by Luthair · · Score: 1

    in South Korea. Samsung, please understand that what might be of interest to your domestic market is largely detracting from your products in the rest of the world.

  5. Re:Wow Samsung copying Apple again. by Luthair · · Score: 1

    Apple? They are the last to market, and if Samsung is setting their goal as Siri its a pretty low bar.

  6. Correction to summary by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Meanwhile, other tech companies like Alibaba, Apple, and Microsoft are developing their own smart speakers to compete with Amazon."

    Right now, Amazon is really the only player.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  7. Re-Phrased by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    Too much wireless. Bigger than a Nomad. Lame.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  8. I want an Apple HomePod. by grub · · Score: 1

    I truly do want an Apple HomePod.

    Apple's privacy rules ensure my data is kept secure from prying eyes. The benefits of a well-designed, well-built, and secure smart speaker based on Apple's A8 chip will be apparent. It looks wonderful and by all accounts sounds fantastic. I am sure Apple's HomePod will help improve my Digital Life with its sealed up, highly compresses magic inside.

    HomePod is only the latest brave act in Apple's 40+ years of making the bravest brave decisions of bravery.

    Here is the product

    I am not a paid Apple shill.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:I want an Apple HomePod. by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Unless Apple's privacy rules state that your data is encrypted at the device, I'm not sure how they can guarantee there will not be prying eyes.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:I want an Apple HomePod. by grub · · Score: 1

      "Trolling is a art,"

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    3. Re:I want an Apple HomePod. by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      I'm sure you also want that airpod subwoofer too.

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  11. The market seems to agree by s.petry · · Score: 2

    We have all of these pushes for IoT and voice, but as we just read on /. earlier Intel is laying off a bunch of IoT staff. There is no real growth in voice recognition, we are just moving around people who already use it. Apple's Siri big advancement in the last couple years is adding new voices, not really improving or adding new technology. The work involved is more about data storage, transfer, and compression than "new" technology.

    Like VR, it's a niche market and overly hyped for exactly the reasons people dislike it. It's intrusive and can be used for nefarious purposes as well as just being easy.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  12. Technology to Migrate to other Samsung Products? by mykepredko · · Score: 2

    Unlike the other talking box providers, Samsung makes TVs and other consumer devices.

    I would think the incremental cost of adding this technology to something like a TV would be very small, making it something that you couldn't avoid unless you were to avoid Samsung (which isn't that a horrific prospect in itself).

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
  13. Does it come with a self-destruct mechanism? by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    After all, Samsung has a proven track record in that respect.

  14. These will be in every home ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... after a standard is established whereby the speakers are not proprietary to a single channel.

    Until then, the market share will resemble Facebook vs Google+, where Amazon will be the dominate player.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  15. Re:Becsuse Apple does things right. by slaker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Like the mobile keyboard that didn't display lowercase letters and instead used a color shift to indicate letter case for some reason, up until iOS 9 or something?

    Or a mobile OS that won't natively play a FLAC file and doesn't natively support general purpose file browsing until, hm, whenever the next version gets released?

    Yeah. Those guys sure do have a handle on getting stuff right.

    --
    -- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
  16. They already have that by gweihir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Their TVs already listen to everything ans dens it to Samsung, last I heard. Just leave out the TV screen and they are almost done...

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  17. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  18. who would habe thought? by unami · · Score: 1

    really, samsung doing something everybody else has done before? qu'elle surprise. at least there's a good chance that they won't copy apple's design for a change.