For all my grumbling about switching from Android to iOS, it’s really not so bad. The one thing I really missed was Google Assistant, but the JBL Link 20 is doing an excellent job of filling that gap. It’s a portable Bluetooth and WiFi speaker with Google Assistant built-in, so I can take my “Hey, Google” obsession all over the house!
Google has their sights set on taking on Alexa this holiday season, and they have teamed up with JBL to produce three Google Assistant enabled speakers in the form of the JBL LINK 10, 20 and 300. All three of these speakers lets you interact with Google Assistant, so you can tell the speakers do things like play tracks on Spotify, set reminders, ask about the weather, or what’s on your calendar schedule that day. Of the three speakers, the JBL LINK 10 is the smallest and the most portable with a 5 hour battery life. The JBL 20 is…
After years insisting their system be as closed as possible with regard to everything but the streaming music services with which it has partnered, Sonos has finally moved into the “smart speaker” space. With the launch of the Sonos One, Amazon Alexa will be available out of the box with support for Google Assistant sometime in 2018.
If you’ve got an Amazon Alexa or Google Home device, then you’ve already found out that while intelligent speakers are okay, they usually aren’t that great to look at nor do they sound as amazing as one might hope.
Smart home technology has offered added convenience to many users, but when those devices require activating a smartphone for all interactions, they can still be a challenge for some disabled users. Now, however, integration with personal assistant technology such as Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Apple’s new HomePod could enhance smart home device value for all users.
Digital assistants have come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. Starting with Apple’s clunky early iteration of Siri in 2011, it’s only taken a few years to get here, with multiple competitors in common use (including Cortana and Google Now) and dozens of new versions to come.
Less than 24 hours after being unveiled, the Google Pixel XL 128 GB is officially out of stock. The phone, Google’s first attempt at managing the design process, had been widely criticized as too expensive.
I had already written about just how great the Samsung Galaxy S II commercial was a couple of months ago, but at the time Apple and Samsung were in the midst of the ‘copy me, copy you’ spectacle and so I wrapped it around a tongue-in-cheek accusation of copying. Certainly Samsung has learned that the macho specmanship approach of Motorola has a very narrow appeal, which shows very well in this new ad as well. The upcoming Nexus has gotten some very positive early looks, and should be a big success for Samsung and give a great look at the…