News on the Hingham Apple Store tragedy, stirring the Apple/Disney M&A stew, and the noise around various voice assistants – we’re wrapping a holiday shortened week with TMO Managing Editor Jeff Butts. Happy Thanksgiving, one and all.
Google Assistant
Siri is Still Version One â TMO Daily Observations 2021-06-03
The Infamous Dan Moren joins host Kelly Guimont to discuss Siri, and how the Apple voice assistant stacks up against others. Or doesn’t…
Sonos Roam Portable Speaker: Small Enough for Your Backpack, Big Enough to Fill a Room
Smaller than most water bottles, Sonos Roam will easily fit into your go bag or your travel carryon, and it’s waterproof IP67 rating will keep the worries away. At home on your Wi-Fi, Roam is a fully-fledged Sonos and AirPlay 2 speaker, and its sound can fill a room… or a picnic area.
Turn Your Phone Into a Universal Remote and Control Multiple Smart Home Devices: $19.95
We have a deal on Hombli, a smart IR remote control that turns your iPhone or Android device into a universal remote for multiple smarthome devices. The Hombli acts as a hub, and you control it with a companion app. With it, you can access over 80,000 devices from popular brands including Samsung, Sony, and Philips, and you can use hands-free voice commands using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. This device is $19.95 through our deal.
Sonos Move: Portable, Weatherproof, Water Resistant, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Voice-Assistant Speaker
In a move that simultaneously felt like a very natural evolution of their product line as well as (finally?) answering every unrequited request ever made of the company, Sonos today announced Sonos Move, a portable, battery-powered, water resistant, weatherproof, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi speaker.
2019 Voice Report Shows Siri, Google Assistant Tied
Microsoftâs recent 2019 Voice Report shows that usage of Google Assistant and Siri are tied at 36%, while 41% of survey respondents are concerned about privacy.
Google Assistant Can Read Your Kids a Bedtime Story
If you have Google Assistant and the latest version of Google Play Books on your iOS device, it can now read your kids a bedtime story.
Ahead of National Tell a Story Day taking place on Saturday, youngsters now have more ways to hear a bedtime tale. As of today, the feature will be available on iOS and Android phones in English in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and India.
Sounds like a great feature. When I asked Siri to read me a bedtime story, she said: âNext youâll be asking me for a glass of milk. And a dark matter cookie.â Damnit Siri, that doesnât even make sense.
Google Duplex Rolling Out to Google Assistant on iOS
Google Duplex is a feature that lets the Google Assistant make reservations on your behalf. The company is starting to roll out the feature to iPhones and other non-Pixel phones.
The support site for Duplex lists the iPhone as being part of this rollout, with Android phones simply requiring Android 5.0 or higher to use the automated calling service. iOS users simply need to have the Google Assistant installed to get started.
Macaulay Culkin is Home Alone with the Google Assistant
Macaulay Culkin recreated scenes from the classic Christmas movie Home Alone in Google’s latest advert. Reprising his role as Kevin McCallister, the clip showed Mr. Culkin adding aftershave to a shopping list, setting reminders, and fighting intruders with the help of the Google Assistant.
Apple's Maybe Free TV Shows Plan, Google and Apple's AI Battle - TMO Daily Observations 2018-10-11
John Martellaro and Bryan Chaffin join Jeff Gamet to share their thoughts on how Apple will promote its streaming TV content and follow up on yesterday’s subscription TV overload discussion. They also look at competition in the artificial intelligence space with Google’s new Call Screen feature.