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.

Solution is search of a problem

[sinij]

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

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! :)

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: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.

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.