Jul 12
Jul 12
Amazon is reportedly looking to offer an Echo that more directly competes with high-end speakers like the Sonos line of device of Apple’s HomePod, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The speaker should be released sometime next year, according to the sources cited in the report, and will be somewhat wider than the existing Echo models (perhaps more akin to the Echo Sub, pictured above), packing in four separate tweeters to help boost the song quality.
It will, of course, also offer access to the company’s Alexa voice assistant, which is what has propelled Echo to its current level of success. Bloomberg notes that it’s also likely to work better for the high-fidelity audio version of Amazon’s music streaming service that has previously been reported to be in the works.
This could make for an interesting working relationship with some of Amazon’s existing partners, including Sonos, since it sounds like this will be a direct competitor. Newer Sonos speakers, including the Sonos One and Sonos Beam, support Alexa voice commands out of the box. While both Echo devices and Sonos support multi-room streaming and speaker grouping, Sonos has always had far superior audio quality when compared to the Echo hardware – albeit at a premium price.
Sonos, meanwhile, is gearing up to launch speakers powered by its technology with Ikea, with the Symfonisk line that is set for release in August. Smart speakers are a busy space with a lot of money and interest from many companies big and small, but Amazon has a lot working in its favor if it can also produce something that wins on high-quality audio at a reasonable price.
Jul 12
Bloomberg reported last April that Amazon was working on a home robot codenamed ‘Vesta’ (after the Roman goddess of the hearth and home) last year, and now the publication says that development on the project continues. Plus, the report includes new details about the specifics of the robot, including that it will indeed support Alexa and have wheels to help it move around. My terrible artist’s rendering of what that could look like is above.
The plan for Vesta was apparently to release it this year, but it’s not yet quite ready for mass production, according to Bloomberg’s sources. And while it could end up mothballed and never see the light of day, as with any project being developed ahead of launch, the company is said to be putting more engineering and development resources into the team working on its release.
Current prototypes of the robot are said to be about waist-high, per the report, and make their way through the world aided by sensor-fed computer-vision. It’ll come when you call thanks to the Alexa integration, per an internal demo described by Bloomberg, and should ostensibly offer all the same kind of functionality you’d get with an Echo device, including calling, timers and music playback.
For other clues as to what Vesta could look like, if and when it ever launches, a good model might be Kuri, the robot developed by Bosch internal startup Mayfield Robotics which was shuttered a year ago and never made it to market. Kuri could also record video and take photos, play games and generally interact with the household.
Meanwhile, Amazon is also apparently readying a Sonos-competing high-quality Echo speaker to debut next year.
Jul 12
Astronomers have used the most powerful radio telescopes on Earth to observe a circumplanetary disk of gas and dust believed to be similar to one that circled Jupiter and created its moons. The disk surrounds planet PDS 70 c, which is a still-growing gas giant that is 370 light years from Earth and was revealed for the first time last … Continue reading
Jul 12
Links make the digital world go round—links to your Twitter profile or the daily headlines or a file stored in the cloud. Being able to manage those links and open them more efficiently can be a bigger time-saver in your day than you might think… and so we’re going to outline how you can take more control over your…
Jul 12
While SCUBA diving off the coast of Zanzibar, marine biologist Luiz Rocha saw a fish he had never seen before. He sent a photograph to his collaborator Yi-Kai Tea, currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Sydney, who confirmed that it was a new species of fairy wrasse from the genus Cirrhilabrus. As a fan of…
Jul 12
Earlier this week, Nintendo finally announced the long-rumored Switch Lite and it looks good. At $200, even though it doesn’t have support for the standard model’s docking feature, the Switch Lite seems like the natural upgrade for anyone still clinging to a 3DS, and a perfect handheld companion for long car rides or…
Jul 12
Megan Rapinoe And Alex Morgan Have Best Reaction To Surprise Trumpian Party
Posted in: Today's ChiliJimmy Kimmel brought the White House to the World Cup-winning stars of the U.S. Women’s National Team.
Jul 12
A service member jumped onto the speeding, semi-submerged vessel in the heart-pounding clip.
Jul 12
A fat woman is judged by society, by her doctor, by the clothes she tries on in changing rooms. It’s time that changed.
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