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Samsung Says It's Working on an Amazon Echo Competitor (cnbc.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Samsung is working on a smart speaker that will be launched "soon", the company's mobile chief told CNBC, which will pit it against the likes of Amazon, Apple, and Google, in the hotly-contested space. DJ Koh, the president of Samsung's mobile division, said a smart speaker was on the way. "Maybe soon we will announce it. I am already working on it," Koh told CNBC in an interview ahead of the Note 8 smartphone launch which took place on Wednesday. And it appears the company could be moving fast on the product. "As I mentioned I wanted to provide a fruitful user experience at home with Samsung devices, and I want to be moving quite heavily on it," Koh said.
It's not too late, most people don't have one.
However Samsung just can't make software. Their phones are great, but every single piece of Samsung (not Android) software is total crap and/or redundant. I don't see why it would be any different this time.
For a long while, Microsoft's business model seemed to be "whatever Google and Apple are doing, do that, too". Every other announcement seemed to follow one by Apple or Google where Microsoft was "and we're ALSO working on that".
Samsung seems to be following the same pattern. Apple Pay and Android Pay begat Samsung Pay. Siri, Alexa, and OK Google? Here's Bixby!
Google Home and Amazon Echo? Samsung whatever.
Good luck with that.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
It's not too late, most people don't have one.
Most people don't want one.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Every SciFi movie I've seen has some sort of robot or artificial intelligence interface, especially on every spaceship.
What's not to like about it? I got one as a gift and use it for some generic stuff, what's the weather, set a timer, add an item to my shopping list. I find it very good at understanding me, even for groceries. I like it. NSA wet dream? Probably. I'll disconnect it if I have have the ISIS weekly meeting at my house.
-Unresolved symbol? Byte me!
Because it feels "Star-Trek-y"
Like the smart home I visited last weekend, which decided to switch off the lights 2-3 times a hour in irregular intervals with the owner groaning, and switching them on again with his smart-phone. (Which tool 2-3 times longer than taking the two steps to the switch which would have been right there)
I was worried that Samsung had given up on copying everyone else.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
We need an decent open source voice control platform. Also it should run locally. If it, or part of it, is going to be centralized it should be openly managed by a non-profit foundation or choice of foundations such as Apache, Mozilla, GNU, and Wikipedia. Thankfully it looks like Mozilla is stepping up to the plate. I hope we can support them so they get it done.
Well, I can't speak for anybody but myself but I bought an Amazon Echo about six months ago because I wanted a Bluetooth speaker and because I'm not an audio-nerd, it sounded just fine in my living room for music streamed from my phone or tablet. The Echo part was just kind of a fun bonus at first. Then I found it very useful for streaming BBC radio. I found out it can play all my Audible books. I use it for the customisable news-flash from the BBC, CNN and Sky News, setting timers, telling me what the weather is going to be tomorrow, finding out what is on at my local cinema this weekend, telling the time without having to fumble for my phone. It'll play the latest podcast episodes of my fav shows and order stuff from Amazon for me. As I'm into astronomy, it'll tell me what celestial objects are above the horizon in my part of the world and at what time and which direction. It'll tell me when the ISS is overhead. I can order Dominos Pizza from it and request an Uber. My young son loves it because he can request music without having to navigate any complex UIs, it can answer basic general knowledge questions for him, tell him jokes and stories and play interactive audio adventure games - some of which are surprisingly polished. I have two more Echo Dots in the study and the bedroom now. The technology may not be a necessity yet and not for everyone, but for a tech geek like me it's much more useful than I thought it would be.
Oh shut up. I keep hearing this paranoid bullshit. I did a network traffic analysis on my Echo as soon as I set it up. It doesn't fucking transmit anything until you say the assigned keyword. At least back up your tinfoil hat wearing bullshit with something more than "yeah, right!".
Re: My shopping habits. Well.....yeah. But Amazon would get that information anyway if I were to simply use their website to...you know...buy stuff from Amazon. The rest of your post sounds like paranoid claptrap, I'm afraid. The Echo doesn't transmit ANYTHING until you say the assigned keyword. I know this because I did a network traffic analysis on my Echo as soon as I set it up. So there's that. And the Echo is functionally incapable of calling the emergency services under any circumstances...at least in my country. Perhaps it can in the USA, I don't know. Why is it people are all "hur-hur....you gullible sheeple, letting this thing into your house to spy on you!" about the Echo, yet are more than happy to have an potentially much more invasive device be on their person at all times? Do you have a smartphone? Because I'm betting you do.
I suspect Echo's sucess over Google and Apple's voice assistant offerings has to do with Amazon's great developer support
I think the real reason is Google and Apple both offer products at a higher price and with no additional useful features. Choosing either over an Amazon Echo doesn't make much sense.
I was wondering this myself. Do that many people really use these things?
I use mine dozens of times per day. It is in the kitchen. When I am fixing my morning tea, Alexa updates me on my schedule for the day, and then gives me a five minute news brief. The light switch is across the room from the stove and sink, so it is nice to be able to switch it on and off with my voice. It is great for things like setting timers when my hands are wet. If I notice the milk jug in the refrigerator is getting low, I can just say "Alexa, add milk to the shopping list". Then when I get to the grocery store, I can pop up the Alexa app on my cell, and see the list. If I am washing the dishes, and remember something I need to do, I can tell Alexa to add it to my To-Do list without taking my hands out of the suds.
Could I live with out it? Sure. But for $149, it is definitely worth it.
Btw, this is the number of times I have used it to order something from Amazon: 0.