virtualassistants
Latest
Samsung unveils Bixby, its Siri competitor
It was only a matter of time until Samsung launched a full-fledged virtual assistant of its very own -- "S Voice" just never quite cut it. Today the company unveiled Bixby, a new assistant that'll debut with the Galaxy S8 on March 29th. Naturally, it's meant to help Samsung differentiate itself from Apple's Siri and Google's Assistant. Bixby seems different on a conceptual level: It's meant to serve as a new voice-based interface for controlling your apps, rather than just something that you can ask a few questions.
Amazon's Alexa ecosystem is exploding, for better and worse
The Internet of Things still mostly feels like the Internet of Crap, but there's one ray of hope in the connected home on which plenty of companies are jumping aboard: Amazon's Alexa. In particular, I'm talking about the voice-powered ecosystem that's quickly grown around the company's virtual assistant. At CES, we saw Alexa integration in Dish's upcoming Hopper, washing machines and, much to our delight, a dancing robot. It's even heading outside the home: Both Ford and Volkswagen are bringing Alexa to their cars for hands-free commands.
Amazon's Echo Dot is a great way to bring Alexa to more rooms
I haven't been shy about my love for the Amazon Echo. I wake up with it, and aside from my phone, computers and TV, it's one of the gadgets I rely on most throughout the day. So when Amazon announced the $90 Echo Dot, which brings all its larger sibling's features to any speaker, I was onboard before you could say "Alexa, what's the weather?" I couldn't wait to bring Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant, which is the heart of soul of the Echo, into my bedroom (ahem) and office. It took a long while for the Echo Dot to finally reach me (Amazon, once again, refused to make it available early for reviewers), but after a week of living with it on my nightstand, I'm finding it just as useful as the original.
Viv, from Siri's creators, is the virtual assistant of your dreams
Siri made the world aware of the potential of virtual assistants, but several years after its release, it's still a bit basic. Siri can only do certain very specific tasks, and she doesn't play well with third-party services. So for its next product, Viv, the people behind Siri aimed to build a much more capable virtual assistant. And at this point, it looks like it's succeeded, judging from a brief demonstration today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City.
Microsoft's AI strategy is about more than just Cortana
With the Tay fiasco fresh in our minds, Microsoft has unveiled its "Conversations as a Platform" at its annual Build developer conference Build, in the hopes that devs will create AI bots that work with Cortana. The idea is to make it easy to do things like shop, order services, look up your flight or schedule meetings simply by chatting with Microsoft's virtual assistant.
Microsoft officially launches Cortana on iPhone and Android
After several months of beta testing, Microsoft's virtual assistant Cortana is officially making her debut on competing platforms. You'll be able to snag the Cortana app for iPhone and Android phones on their respective app stores, or via Microsoft's Windows 10 companion app, starting today. It'll also be deeply integrated into the Cyanogen OS-powered OnePlus One come December (with the 12.1.1 Cyanogen update). If you've been following along with the Cortana beta releases, there won't be much new with these finalized apps: At the most basic level, you'll be able to track reminders and notifications for things like flights and packages across all platforms, as well as manually ask Cortana questions. Beyond that, Cortana's feature set will be different for each platform.
