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The Amazon smart-speaker family includes the Echo, Plus, Spot, Dot, and Show devices. (Source: PCMag)

Update | Amazon Echo device records and sends private conversation without permission

It has been reported that an Amazon Echo device recorded and then sent out a husband and wife’s private conversation without their permission. The Alexa-enabled smart speaker sent the audio file to a random contact who just happen...
Relay Starter Pack (Source: Relay by Republic)

Republic Wireless intros the Relay secure smartphone for kids

The Relay secure smartphone for kids by Republic Wireless is so secure that it does not feature a display. This accessory can be considered a basic phone with tracking capabilities for kids, as it features nationwide 4G LTE connec...
Xiaomi France teaser (Source: Facebook)

Xiaomi coming to France on May 22

Promising to bring a "new attitude" to Europe, Xiaomi is ready to enter the French market. The Chinese brand will open its first Mi Store in Paris on May 22, but more are expected to follow in other French cities over the coming m...
The ZBOX CI329 features ZOTAC's signature honeycomb fanless design for improved passive cooling. (Source: Zotac)

ZOTAC's ZBOX CI329 quad-core Gemini Lake fanless mini PCs launched

The ZBOX CI329 Nano from ZOTAC is powered by Intel's Celeron N4110 CPU that integrates a UHD Graphics 600 GPU, which allows it to handle 4K resolutions and H.264/265 decoding. Thanks to the low 6.5 W TDP CPU, the mini PC does not ...
According to the report, the global smart speaker market has enjoyed a year-over-year growth of 278%. (Source: BBC)

Amazon and Google dominate global smart speaker market

A new quarterly research report has been released that shows Amazon and Google currently leading the pack in terms of global smart speaker shipments and market share. However, although Amazon has shipped twice as many units in Q1 ...
Samsung Bixby-powered smart home ecosystem (Source: Samsung Newsroom)

Samsung Bixby coming to ovens and robot cleaners this year

Already available in smartphones, TVs, air conditioners, washing machines, and refrigerators, the Samsung Bixby virtual assistant will also be added to the company's robot cleaners and ovens by the end of this year. Samsung remain...
HTC headquarters, Hsintien, Taiwan. (Source: News4Europe)

HTC's trip down the spiral continues as company records 55% drop in revenue

HTC's latest revenue figures show the company falling deeper into a pit of bad sales numbers. Revenue for April spelled a 55% year-on-year decline, which is impressive considering how bad 2017 already was for the company—sales-wis...
An estimated 39 million Americans have a smart speaker in their home. (Source: TechHive)

Voice shopping could be worth US$40 billion by 2022

A press release from a strategy consulting firm has stated that voice-based shopping will enjoy incredible growth over the next four years, hitting a total of more than US$40 billion in sales across the US and UK by 2022. The mark...
John Legend (Source: Getty Images)

John Legend coming to Google Assistant later this year, six new voices already available

Thanks to the recent introduction of six new voice choices, Google Assistant now features a total of eight such options — four female and four male voices. Even more, Sundar Pichai has confirmed at Google I/O that John Legend's vo...
Assets loaded on the card can be verified via smartphone through a validation app. (Source: Tangem)

Bitcoin gets physical

A Swiss technology company has started rolling out smart banknotes called Tangem Notes that offer a physical presence for cryptocurrencies. The "banknotes," which are actually plastic cards, have been launched for sale in a large ...
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook's smart speakers coming in October

The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal forced Facebook to delay the launch of its first smart speakers, which are now scheduled to arrive in October, loaded with the Facebook M artificial intelligence software solution. These smar...
Amazon's total revenue for 2017 was US$177.86 billion. (Source: Phys.org)

Amazon, Intel, and Microsoft post impressive quarterly results

Amazon, Intel, and Microsoft have all published quarterly financial reports showing better than expected results. Microsoft revealed revenue of US$26.8 billion while fellow tech giant Intel managed revenue of US$16.1 billion for t...
Fire TV devices were developed by Amazon and manufactured by Foxconn. (Source: Amazon)

Amazon's Fire TV Cube is coming soon

The question “What is Fire TV Cube?” has been posted on a splash page on the Amazon website. Amazon Fire TV is a digital media player and microconsole created by the Seattle-based online shopping giant. Rumors of a cube-shaped dev...
The Vaunt smart glasses could deliver simple messages or display route directions. (Source: Liliputing)

Intel's vaunted smart glasses facing the axe

According to a report, Intel is planning on closing down its New Devices Group. This particular division of the chip-making giant was involved in developing wearable projects. One of these projects was called “Superlight” but was ...
In-house Facebook chips could be used in future Oculus Go headsets that currently use a Qualcomm SoC. (Source: ABC)

Facebook expected to start making its own processors

A report from Bloomberg has stated that Facebook is creating a chip-making team. Job listings have appeared on the social-networking site’s careers section that seem to point toward this eventuality. Other tech giants, such as App...
Pre-orders for the Apple HomePod were apparently strong, but sales of the device have been slow. (Source: Apple)

Apple has reportedly reduced HomePod production

A report from Bloomberg has stated that Apple has had to cut manufacturing orders with Inventec in regard to the HomePod. Apparently, the smart speaker has not been selling in huge numbers and Apple workers have commented that sto...
The CL200 wallet-sized mini PCs are specifically designed for IoT workloads. (Source: Logic Supply)

Fanless wallet-sized mini PCs revealed by Logic Supply

The CL200-series ultra-compact form-factor PCs measure only 3.26 x 4.56 x 1.33 inches and have a fanless case due to the 6 W TDP Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core/dual-thread SoC powering the systems. The entry-level CL200 comes with ...
Samsung Q7F. (Source: Samsung)

Samsung's new ambient mode provides a reason to leave your TV switched on

This week Samsung was showcasing their 2018 Smart TV lineup including a new ambient mode that displays relevant information, models with local lighting zones to improve dark and light parts of a scene, specialised power and data c...
Amazon has stated "we're aware of this and working to fix it." (Source: TheINQUIRER)

Unexplained Alexa laughter is freaking people out

Apparently, some Alexa-enabled devices have started laughing in a disturbing manner at their owners. There have been reports made of unrequested creepy chortles issuing from smart speakers and Amazon devices by a number of users, ...
Amazon has reportedly acquired Ring for more than US$1 billion. (Source: Ring)

Rumor: Amazon acquires video doorbell maker Ring for US$1 billion

According to Reuters, Amazon has acquired the smart video doorbell maker Ring for more than US$ 1 billion. The current Ring doorbells can integrate with Amazon Alexa and it's likely that the company wants to expand in the home sec...
Archos has presented 'Hello', a portable smart display running Google Assistant in two different sizes. (Source: Archos)

Archos presents 'Hello' portable smart home display with Google Assistant

Archos has presented Archos Hello, the company's first smart home device. Hello is a smart display with a built-in battery for optional portable use. The device runs on Android Oreo with Google Assistant and will come in two diffe...
Amazon Echo Show smart speaker with touchscreen

Facebook Aloha and Fiona smart speakers could launch in July

Facebook's upcoming smart speakers are expected to arrive in July, reveal insiders familiar with the matter. Sporting 15-inch touchscreen displays, they are also supposed to provide video chat and social features.
Google will acquire IoT platform Xively for $50 million. (Source: Google)

Google acquires Internet of Things platform Xively for US$50 million

Google has announced that it intends to acquire the Internet of Things platform Xively in order to expand its own Cloud IoT Core infrastructure. Google will pay US$50 million for the takeover.
Google has announced to support more locales and languages for Google Assistant in 2018. (Source: Elger van der Wel)

Google Assistant will support 17 new languages in 2018

Google is planning on bringing its Google Assistant service to a large number of new countries and the voice assistant will also support multiple new languages in 2018. The company has announced this during a presentation at the D...
The new MIT AI chip is bringing power efficient neural-net processing to mobile and IoT devices. (Source: MIT)

MIT reveals superefficient AI chips for smartphones

Researchers at MIT managed to simplify and adapt the intricate algorithms required by large neural-nets in order to be ran on mobile devices and smart home appliances.
Bixby is going to be in every Samsung product by 2020. (Source: Samsung)

Samsung bringing Bixby voice assistant to TVs, white goods, to boost AI efforts

Samsung is looking to expand its Bixby voice assistant platform across all of its consumer products, including white good, by 2020. The move is aimed at increasing its IoT footprint as well as its AI efforts.
Mi India Xiaomi Mi TV teaser still image (Source: @XiaomiIndia)

Xiaomi Mi TV apparently heading for India

While the Redmi Note 5 is headed for India and expected to arrive on February 14, it looks like the Mi TV is going to be introduced locally on the same day.
Amazon Alexa was initially released in 2014. (Source: Digital Trends)

Amazon may be creating AI chips for Alexa

There are rumors that Amazon is in the process of developing new artificial intelligence chips to be used in hardware that features the company's virtual assistant, Alexa. The chips could help reduce response times by utilizing sp...
Sony XBR55X900F 4K Android smart TV with Google Assistant (Source: Amazon)

Sony smart TVs with Google Assistant coming soon

In addition to the X900F series that Sony unveiled at CES 2018, this iconic Japanese brand also announced the X850F series. Both feature Google Assistant support and have been listed already on Amazon at prices that range between ...
The Nest thermostat shown alongside a Google Home speaker. (Source: Google)

Nest folded into Google's hardware team

Google has announced that it is folding the Nest smart home products team into its rapidly expanding hardware division. The move will see the end of Nest-branded products in favor of Google's own "Made by Google" branding.
Intel Xeon D-2100 processor (Source: Intel Newsroom)

Intel Xeon D-2100 processors now official with up to 18 cores and 36 threads

The new Xeon D-2100 processor architecture allows for up to 18 "Skylake-server" generation cores and was designed to provide lower-power processing to multiple enterprise applications, focusing on the needs of data centers and net...
ADB.Miner worm global infection map (Source: 360 Netlab Blog)

ADB.Miner worm turns your Android device into a mining rig

Although it quickly infected a few thousand devices worldwide, the spread of the cryptocurrency mining malware ADB.Miner seems to be quite limited at this time. However, there is still time for this piece of code to become a serio...
Kazuo Hirai at Mobile World Congress 2013. (Source: Cellanr via flickr)

Kazuo Hirai steps down from Sony CEO role, replaced by man responsible for selling off VAIO

During the presentation of Sony's Q3 2017 financial ressults, they announced the resignation of their current President and CEO, Kazuo Hirai, to be replaced by Kenichiro Yoshida. Hirai's time at the top was defined by a return to ...
The Apple HomePod won't support regular streaming via Bluetooth.

Apple's HomePod speaker only supports music streaming via AirPlay

In contrast to many other smart speakers, Apple's HomePod will not support streaming over regular Bluetooth. You'll need an iOS device to stream music as the speaker only supports Apple's proprietary AirPlay protocol.
Samsung Hwaseong manufacturing plant, Samsung shutting down one of two plants in Slovakia

Samsung shutting down a manufacturing plant in Slovakia

Due to the lack of workers, Samsung decided to shut down one of its two manufacturing plants they have in Slovakia. However, this is pretty good news, since earlier reports claimed that the company was considering the possibility ...
PowerVR Series8XT GT8540 GPU layout (Source: Imagination Technologies)

Need to drive six 4K monitors at 60 Hz on the go? Imagination has a solution for that

The new PowerVR Series8XT GT8540 GPU uses Imagination Technologies' Furian architecture and provides an 80 percent fill rate gain over its predecessor. Even more, it can feed up to six 4K displays at 60 fps simultaneously.
Google Home Mini

Google Home Mini Review

This little one hears everything. Today, we have taken a look at Google's small smart speaker. After having had some difficulties with touch inputs, everything should be working again now. We took a closer look at the smart little helper and wondered: What about privacy and data protection?
| 173 g
The Apple HomePod packs a powerful CPU, directional speakers, and a 6-microphone array. (Source: Apple)

Apple HomePod up for pre-order on Jan 26, arriving Feb 9

Apple's wireless HomePod speaker is finally launching on February 9 for US$349 with pre-orders starting tomorrow in the US, UK, and Australia. The HomePod features an enhanced Siri experience, spatial awareness, and a wide soundst...
Samsung Newberry County manufacturing plant opening ceremony (Source: Samsung Newsroom US)

Samsung's first US home appliance plant begins production

Samsung plans to make one million washing machines in the recently opened Newberry, South Carolina factory. This new manufacturing plant should also create more than 1,000 jobs by 2020.
The Alexa-powered Echo from Amazon is the top selling smart speaker. (Source: Amazon)

Smart speaker penetration in US households strong says study

A new study shows that there is strong consumer interest in smart speakers. As many as one in six households in the US have purchased a smart speaker with sales peaking during the recent holiday period.
Whirlpool smart appliance close up (Source: Whirlpool Corp)

CES 2018 | Whirlpool smart appliances now feature Google Assistant and Alexa support

Next to the voice commands available via both Google Assistant and Alexa on multiple Whirlpool smart appliances, Amazon Prime subscribers also get to use the Amazon Virtual Dash Buttons feature with some of them.
The Anker PowerHouse 200 is suited to glamping. (Source: Anker Innovations)

CES 2018 | From Anker Innovations: A 200 Wh battery bank, portable projector with speaker, and an Alexa car kit

Anker Innovations, who is perhaps best known for their line of portable power banks, has announced a mammoth power bank, an Alexa powered car kit, and the expected availability of the Nebula Capsule
The ZOLO Model Zero suits a modern minimalist design asthetic. (Source: Anker)

CES 2018 | From Anker Innovations: A funky home speaker with Google Assistant, and truly wireless Bluetooth earbuds

Anker Innovations has announced the ZOLO Model Zero, a new home speaker with a unique design, and a release date for the upcoming ZOLO Liberty+ Earbuds.
The Lenovo Smart Display combines a smart speaker and a tablet. (Source: Lenovo)

CES 2018 | The Lenovo Smart Display is a tabletop tablet and Google Home rolled into one

If the idea of a smart speaker interested you, but the idea of not having a screen was of concern, then the Lenovo Smart Display is worth a look. It comes in 8-inch and 10-inch versions and allows both verbal and visual communicat...
Torrenting can affect your coziness at home. (Source: The WireCutter)

Torrenting can cost you the ability to remotely control your smart thermostat

Armstrong Zoom Internet has sent notices to its users that copyright infringement can lead to speed throttling that not only affects file transfer but also the ability to remotely control connected devices such as smart thermostat...
Samsung patent for AiO modular system (Source: Patently Apple)

Samsung patents modular TV that turns into an AiO PC

A fresh patent by Samsung describes a modular TV that features a curved display and a modular base that can be configured as needed, from a speaker and wireless charger all the way to an AiO PC.
LG ThinQ Smart Speaker powered by Google Assistant. (Source: LG)

CES 2018 | LG previews their premium Google Assistant ThinQ smart speaker ahead of CES

We can expect three new audio products from LG at CES in the form of a 5.1.2 channel soundbar, an 1800-Watt party speaker, and a premium smart speaker powered by Google Assistant that likely sits between the Google Home and Google...
Xiaomi Yeelight Smart Assistant Speaker. (Source: Xiaomi)

The Xiaomi Yeelight Smart Assistant Speaker is a US$30 Alexa Dot

Xiaomi has announced a new smart speaker produced via their Yeelight subsidiary which will start shipping in early 2018. A dual AI system uses Xiaomi's AI technology inside China and Amazon Alexa worldwide.
LG ThinQ logo (Source: LG Newsroom)

LG intros ThinQ brand for AI-driven devices

Although the ThinQ name has been used by LG for a few products already, all devices and services of the South Korean-based multinational giant that feature artificial intelligence will be placed under this banner starting in 2018.
Android Oreo (Go edition) now official (Source: The Keyword)

Android Oreo Go now official, targets low-end devices

Next to Android 8.1 Oreo, Google intros the Go edition, which is a variant of its mobile operating system that comes with a lighter set of Google apps and has been optimized to work on devices with 512 MB to 1 GB of memory.

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Redaktion, 2013-05- 8 (Update: 2013-09-27)