Samsung Targets First Half of 2018 for Smart Speaker (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Samsung is aiming to introduce a smart speaker in the first half of 2018, entering a crowded field of voice-controlled devices from Amazon, Apple and Alphabet, people briefed on the plans said. The device by the South Korean technology giant will have a strong focus on audio quality and the management of connected home appliances such as lights and locks, said the people, who asked not to be identified talking about private plans. The gadget will run Bixby, Samsung's digital assistant that rivals Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant. It will also synchronize with TVs, Galaxy smartphones and other Samsung devices, the people also said. The upcoming speaker, the report claims, will be priced at about $200.

Comments

Still don't understand why there is a "price"

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> (listening/marketing device) priced at about $200

I still don't understand why there is a "price" attached to these things. I'd think companies would be giving them away, and for guys like me, they'd need to pay me to put something like this in my living space.

Re:Still don't understand why there is a "price"

[pr0fessor]

I don't know either.. I don't know anyone that owns or is even looking to buy one but they somehow appear to sell according to TFA.

According to Gartner, voice-activated speakers will become a $3.5 billion market by 2021, up from $720 million in 2016.

Re:Still don't understand why there is a "price"

[DogDude]

People are more likely to "buy" something with a higher price. Perceived value.

Re:Still don't understand why there is a "price"

[DontBeAMoran]

They are extrapolating numbers from early sheep adopters. What they don't realize is that the whole planet is not filled with sheep.

Re:Still don't understand why there is a "price"

[leonbev]

It gets better than that... Walmart is offering a $25 gift card if you buy it from them and hook it up their purchasing service. So, basically it's $5 plus tax and shipping.

I think that they REALLY want to get everyone using their ecosystem this Christmas, just to make it more difficult for Samsung and Apple to get in later.

Re:Still don't understand why there is a "price"

[thegarbz]

Because people are willing to buy them?

Re:Still don't understand why there is a "price"

[DontBeAMoran]

I guess it depends on your definition of "filled"...

Re: Still don't understand why there is a "price"

[peragrin]

That's because everyone has picked the cheap cheap price and thrown it out as garbage.

More fucking spyware

[b0s0z0ku]

It's good for kindling. Or giving to your worst enemy.

Yeah, yeah, computers have mics. Which can be disabled with a "dummy plug." So do cell phones, but they're not omnidirectional (you basically need to talk/shout at one to be heard) and aren't designed to listen 24/7.

This is a device that needs to listen to your home 24/7. No thanks. If someone gives me one for X-mess, I'd return it to them, specifically shove it where the sun don't shine.

Re:More fucking spyware

[PolygamousRanchKid]

This is a device that needs to listen to your home 24/7.

. . . maybe it's doing more than listening in the middle of the night while you are sleeping . . .

"Tomorrow you will not consciously remember these instructions, but will follow them. Here is your list of things to buy on Amazon tomorrow . . .

Solution is search of a problem

[sinij]

Is there demand for smart speakers? Are there everyday people excited to get these devices?

Re:Solution is search of a problem

[b0s0z0ku]

Yes. There are a lot of dumb sheep who want telescreens.

Re:Solution is search of a problem

[thegarbz]

Yes. Outside the IT crowd concerned for privacy there's a billion plus people out there who don't give a crap about that and see instead the functionality that it provides.

Re:At this point, the train has left the station

[tripleevenfall]

The market probably won't support the players that are already out there.

And there are still plenty of people who don't want to pay several hundred dollars for the privilege of planting listening devices all over their home.

So all new songs...

[LordHighExecutioner]

...will contain the line "Bixby, catch fire!"

I want dumb everything

[svendsen]

I feel like either I am way behind on what people in general want or the PR marketing from Google, Apple, Samsung, etc. has infiltrated my brain and turned it to mush.

I don’t want smart anything in my house (lights, thermostats, speakers, etc.). The only thing I want connected is my alarm system for obvious reasons. I don’t know anymore if I am in the minority or majority on this.

I have been house hunting lately and a lot of new construction has all this smart technology and while it does have that cool factor it also has that creepy/security issue factor.

Re:I want dumb everything

[DontBeAMoran]

The only smart technology I want in a house is empty conduits to pass my own wires.

Re:I want dumb everything

[MightyYar]

I'm cautiously dipping my toe in, and parts of it are quite nice. For instance, I have a problematic room in my house where there are pocket doors preventing the installation of a traditional light switch. Instead I have a Z-Wave flat, battery-operated switch which looks and behaves exactly like the other AC powered switches. There have been remote switches forever, but using a Z-Wave controller I can set the remote to turn on and dim all of the lights in the room in a single group (they are on two circuits), and when the lights are already on shut off both light circuits and the ceiling fan, if on. It's a little thing, but handy. Once you have Z-Wave going, it becomes natural to add other things that make sense - for instance putting the outdoor floodlights on Z-Wave with a task that warns me if I leave them on after xx hours or after a certain time at night. Putting in a Z-Wave (or even "smart") thermostat that lets you turn on your heat from your phone so that your house is nice and toasty when you get home. A Z-Wave attachment on your alarm system so that you can let guests or professionals in without giving them your code. A Z-Wave lock on the door for the same purpose (and to warn you if you've left a door unlocked, much like the lights - or simply to log who enters a combo into the door and when).

So that's just old-school home automation... what about voice control? I don't find it particularly compelling... I tend to just stick a physical switch in practical places. But I can certainly see useful commands like "OK, Google, are all the doors in the house locked?". Or "OK, Google, we're leaving." which shuts off all the lights in the house, turns the heat down / AC off, and arms the alarm system... of course a button near the door would accomplish the same thing - as would a "going to bed button". I have no plans to integrate voice control of the home automation at this point.

BUT, it is super-compelling for media. My introduction to it has been my Sony TV, which runs Android. Navigating all the apps and menus on the TV is more complicated than it has ever been... it's a damn computer now! But after initial setup, you don't need to do any of that - just say "Play Tom Petty" and the TV plays Tom Petty. Say "Play Orange is the New Black on Netflix" and it puts on the next episode in your Queue. It's really fantastic and extremely wife friendly. I have hard-wired speakers in most of the rooms of the house. They used to be hooked up to AirPorts, and it was great for streaming iTunes anywhere in the house (Apple had the synch thing down pat right from the beginning). Recently, I've replaced the AirPorts with Chromecast audios. I haven't pulled the trigger yet on a Google Home, but the Chromecast audios work very well (I have them hard-wired into ethernet) and it is tempting to have the Google Home to handle streaming by voice rather than setting the music via smartphone or computer. The smartphone in particular is problematic because I have a whole family and the person who started the music is not necessarily around when you want to stop it or change what is playing. It's not a big deal since the new cast will overwrite the old one, but it does lead to a haunted-house situation when at 12 AM someone's phone decides to reassert itself and blare music! :)

Re:I want dumb everything

[DontBeAMoran]

I wouldn't mind smart tech to let me know about the state of basic things (temperature, lights, locks) but I would never give it any control over it nor would I want anything with microphones or cameras.

And yes, I store my smartphone in a sealed tube with a built-in faraday cage when I get home.

Re:I want dumb everything

[MightyYar]

I get the paranoia over locks and security systems, but lights and temperature? Why not let it control those things? Do you think hackers are going to turn your lights on and off or set your thermostat really high? The microphone thing has me weary, but I'm warming up to it as I realize that Google and Apple are already listening all the time through our family's smartphones. In the case of Google you can see what they have listened in on the Voice and Audio Activity Page.

Re:I want dumb everything

[b0s0z0ku]

Funny. My audio activity page is blank, because I disabled "OK, Google" and other such things on my phone when I used a smartphone. Also, phone mics aren't very good as picking up sounds not immediately near them (by design).

I'm not worried about hackers? I'm worried about the big-pig firms themselves (Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, they're all terrible). They don't need access to a voice feed inside my home. They don't need to know when I'm home, when others are home, etc, etc, via lighting and temperature settings.

I'm not so disabled as not to be able to flip a switch, thanks.

Re:I want dumb everything

[MightyYar]

It's weird - I was responding to DontBeAMoran but you are acting like I was replying to you. I certainly never accused you, b0s0z0ku, of not being capable of setting your phone up the way you like it, or of having the incapacity to flip a switch. I am curious, though, about what your worry is specifically? What is wrong with Google or Apple knowing when you are home?

Re:I want dumb everything

[MightyYar]

I get that, but is this really something you worry about? What if you put hard-limits on the settings?

Re:I want dumb everything

[b0s0z0ku]

Here's my problem. If Apple or Google know it, the courts and government know it by extension. Either by pressure or subpoena. Plus what people talk about in private, being caught in a lie about being home when they were having sex with a married man's wife, etc is future material for blackmail. Best not to create the data. Let people have their petty vices. A roll in the hay with someone else's spouse without divorce lawyers ever being the wiser. "Pass the joint." (puff, puff) High school drinking parties. Etc. A surveiled society is a boring, controlled one with unhappy people. I love that in some parts of the US and other countries, you can go cash only and totally disappear.

Re:I want dumb everything

[LynnwoodRooster]

I like having parts of my home "smart". My garage door, most of my lights, the thermostat, the fountain in the back - all are smart devices. I leave the house, the garage door automatically closes. When I return, and the system senses my presence, it opens up (I ride a motorcycle, no need to carry/fish for a remote). Lights come on when it's starting to get dark, turn off at my normal bedtime (easily overridden), outside lights turn off at sunrise, fountain turns off later in the evening and comes on about 30 minutes after sunrise, etc. Thermostat (furnace only - no cooling) is remote controlled, but stays in "low temp (62 degrees)" mode unless someone is home. Front door auto-locks after being unlocked for 3 minutes, and so on...

It's kind of nice to not have to worry about stuff being left on, unlocked, running when you're away. I also have a house full of SONOS speakers, and it's nice to be able to have music pretty much everywhere... Maybe I'm buying into the dystopian Big Brother future that so many here complain about - but it's convenient, and I haven't noticed any change in marketing/advertising to me...

Re:I want dumb everything

[MightyYar]

If I had something to hide, I wouldn't be interested in these services, that is true. But I'd also need to ditch my cell phone, since that records my rough location at all times from the tower data - and obviously the government has access to that as well. I'd probably also have to play some tricks with internet usage, since that would probably indicate when I was home as well. Unlike a Google Home, you could track me right to the house of the married man's wife with a cell phone.

Re:I want dumb everything

[b0s0z0ku]

You can leave the phone at home.

As smart home tech becomes entrenched, you might not be able to turn it off/disconnect it from the cloud without freezing in the dark.

Re:I want dumb everything

[ChatHuant]

I get the paranoia over locks and security systems, but lights and temperature? Why not let it control those things? Do you think hackers are going to turn your lights on and off or set your thermostat really high?

Well, a simple scenario off the top of my head: those hackers could easily infer whether anybody is in the house by intercepting and monitoring the lights and temperature readings from the sensors you so kindly provided them with. They could do it from anywhere, and, in case they aren't the high-minded moral people we think they are, they could break into your house. Or, they could sell this information to less technically inclined folks with a dislike for property laws, who would be very happy to know when you're on vacation.

Or: suppose the hacker notices that the only light on this evening is in your kid's bedroom? Do you really want this information to be available to anybody in the world?

As I said, just a couple of things off the top of my head; I'm sure there are ingenious people out there who could come up with even more interesting ideas.

Re:I want dumb everything

[MightyYar]

Maybe. For now, there are still ways to accomplish things without "phoning home". For instance, the Z-Wave controller I use is a little board that plugs into your Raspberry Pi. By default it does connect to a server to register itself so that your phone app can easily find it - but you can disable this and just hard-code your IP (or use a domain name if you have one, like from DynDNS). But it's running on the Pi so you can do with it what you please, including simply disconnecting it from the network altogether if you want air-gap security. I don't think there is a viable voice-controlled solution yet that doesn't phone home, but I do expect this to change in the not-too-distant future.

Re:I want dumb everything

[MightyYar]

Meh... has this ever happened? Isn't it far more effective to drive/walk/whatever over and ring the doorbell? If I answer, mumble something about supporting orphans and if I don't, break in? What if they get there to abduct my son only to realize that he simply left the light on? How do they know the light belongs to my son? If they want my son and have done enough research to find out which light is his, why not simply come over and pick him off? It seems contrived, and frankly I won't worry about it until it becomes a thing.

Re:I want dumb everything

[ChatHuant]

Meh... has this ever happened?

I don't know whether it has already happened from thermostat data, but burglars do use social media, like facebook or Twitter to find vulnerable homes. Burglars do like to know the owner is not home before acting.

Isn't it far more effective to drive/walk/whatever over and ring the doorbell?

Of course not, duh. A hacker in Russia can't ring your bell at all, and a local malefactor gang can't run about ringing all the doorbells in the city every few minutes - not to mention that ringing a random bell may alert the homeowner and puts them at risk. But running a script that checks thermostat sensor data from many houses at regular intervals is easy and safe, and can provide burglars with excellent targets of opportunity. As a bonus, houses whose owners can afford the newfangled digital devices are better targets already.

Re:I want dumb everything

[MightyYar]

OK, so while it is POSSIBLE for Russian hackers to determine my presence/non-presence and pass that along to local American organized crime centered around using these tips to burglarize houses... it has never actually happened. I'll worry later.

Re:There is nothing smart in a smart speaker

[DontBeAMoran]

Let's make that the official quote:
Smart speakers are surveillance devices for dumb people.

Solution for the sticking point?

[mysidia]

I want to be able to play my local media. Google Home and Alexa will only let you tell the player to play songs by STREAMING music from their respective services; which requires a working uninterrupted internet connection ---- oddly the seemingly easier thing to do, play from a local file share or request a download from a local web server seems to be omitted from their capabilities.

Where can I get a speaker that I can ask to play a song that I have indexed on a local NAS?

I can do this manually with an app using the Sonos multi-room system, but I want voice command to play from indexed songs that I OWN, and I don't want to be bound to monthly for a streaming service to access my content.

Re:Solution for the sticking point?

[Baron_Yam]

And the voice processing should be local, too. No traffic should leave your LAN unless it's critical to the function it serves... which should be what YOU want, not what some tech company wants.

It'll happen (if it hasn't already). There will be a FOSS project at some point and you'll be able to install your own system that isn't owned by a megacorp. And you know what? As a percentage of the market I doubt anyone will use it because they'll be happy with their Google Home or Amazon Alexa.

Re:Solution for the sticking point?

[LynnwoodRooster]

I believe the SONOS One speaker will play from your local repository, or from any streaming service supported by SONOS.

Re:At this point, the train has left the station

[cayenne8]

And there are still plenty of people who don't want to pay several hundred dollars for the privilege of planting listening devices all over their home.

THIS ^^

I can't imagine that many people wanting to voluntarily bug their own homes....but then again, look at all the people that gladly voluntarily give all their personal information, location, images, etc. to places like Facebook and other social media corporation without a second thought.

I guess they must have removed 1984 as required reading in schools a few decades back or something?

You know...this was YEARS back on /. where they had an article about schools putting cameras into classes to monitor grade school kids.

I thought this was creepy back then, but I did mention that "what one generation tolerates, the next generation embraces".

Sadly this has proven quite prophetic, and just getting worse.

Funny that we call these things "smart speakers".

[hey!]

Why don't we call them "smart microphones"?

Re: At this point, the train has left the station

[peragrin]

Except they are basing it on bixby, the worse voice assistant every desgined. I created a Samsung account just so I could disable the damn bixby button. It is so damn annoying

I hate smart speakers

[DontBeAMoran]

http://weknowmemes.com/generat...

South Korea must be the primary target market

[ITRambo]

Amazon and Google own this market already. Microsoft is once again too late to market to matter. Samsung Bixby? No one really cares outside of South Korea..

All these names are driving me crazy!!!!

[reboot246]

There's Siri, Alexa, Bixby, etc. etc. What we need is a standard of ONE name. In Star Trek they say "Computer", but that's too common to be used to get a computer's attention. We need a word nobody uses anymore. A word that doesn't come up in polite conversation. One obscure word that would be used only for getting a smart speaker's attention.

I know! I know! CowboyNeal!
(my second choice was Cmdrtaco)