Stacking up Apple HomePod, Amazon Echo and Google Home

Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple all have voice assistants vying for attention, and all are moving the concept of computer-human voice interaction forward. AppleInsider offers an abbreviated history of how we got here and the capabilities of these assistants and their devices in anticipation of HomePod. What do these things do? What do people use them for? And what is Apple doing differently?

Victor Marks 8 years ago 37

Amazon's Super Bowl ad reveals the same old Alexa ahead of Apple's HomePod

After a teaser suggested new voice options could be coming to Alexa, the release of Amazon's full Super Bowl spot reveals it was all just a joke, setting up a primetime ad where celebrities substitute in for Alexa — and poorly.

Neil Hughes 8 years ago 21

Amazon, big finance spearhead healthcare effort without 'profit-making incentives'

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase have announced plans to develop a program to pare down health care costs initially for their own employees, but with a suggestion that it could expand the effort to the rest of Americans in the future.

Mike Wuerthele 8 years ago 85

Voice commands coming to Amazon's Alexa app for iPhone & iPad

People wanting to make use of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant will soon be able to talk to it through the company's iOS app, instead of depending on an Echo speaker or other compatible device.

Roger Fingas 8 years ago 5

Apple holds onto decade-plus streak at top of Fortune's 'Most Admired Companies'

For the 11th year in a row, Apple on Friday took the top spot on Fortune's annual "World's Most Admired Companies" list, this time based on the opinions of some 3,900 executives, directors, analysts, and experts.

Roger Fingas 8 years ago 2

Amazon narrows the field of candidates for its $5B second headquarters to 20 cities across North America

Amazon has revealed its list of candidates for building a new headquarters in North America, publishing a shortlist of 20 cities and metropolitan areas that are still in the running to host the online retail giant's second base of operations.

Malcolm Owen 8 years ago 43

Apple picked as 'most innovative' company in recent US survey

Among a list of 12 major corporations, Apple was picked as the most innovative by a wide margin in a poll of U.S. adults.

Roger Fingas 8 years ago 27

Amazon Alexa making appearance in $1000 Vuzix augmented reality smart glasses

Amazon won't be the first company to deploy its Alexa voice assistant in glasses, with Vuzix stepping up to the plate to do so in mid-2018.

Mike Wuerthele 8 years ago 27

As Apple's HomePod misses Christmas, Amazon Alexa tops App Store charts for first time

In a first for the app, Amazon Alexa has topped Apple's U.S. App Store charts, backing claims that the Echo Dot speaker was the top-selling item on Amazon.com during the holidays.

Roger Fingas 8 years ago 83

Why Apple's Siri needs to become an 'ambient' ecosystem to compete against Amazon & Google

The HomePod — now due in 2018 — will mark Apple's first real attempt at making Siri an "ambient" voice assistant. Arguably, though, the company needs to push a lot harder if it wants people to choose Siri over alternatives from Amazon and Google.

Roger Fingas 8 years ago 59

Home security camera company Blink bought out by Amazon

After fulfilling a $1 million crowd-funding campaign for a debut security camera, shipping a second, and announcing a third Blink has been bought by Amazon for undisclosed terms, likely dashing any hopes for HomeKit integration.

Mike Wuerthele 8 years ago 8

Three Amazon video content development executives jump ship for fledgling Apple production effort

Apple is further growing its stable of video streaming executives, poaching three high-level staffers from Amazon with one who will retain focused on children's programming development.

Mike Wuerthele 8 years ago 16

Amazon discontinues its iTunes Match competitor that stored up to 250,000 songs in the cloud

Users looking to consolidate all of their legacy music purchases in a single cloud-based service will have one less option come mid-January, as Amazon has announced it will discontinue its song matching and uploading capability.

Neil Hughes 8 years ago 38

Apple TV 4K sells out at Amazon hours after launching

Customers hoping to get an Apple TV 4K before Christmas have one less option, as Amazon completely sold out of the set-top box only hours after it began sales of the device, reflecting years of demand that grew from a dispute between the two companies.

Neil Hughes 8 years ago 16

Apple TV 4K sales resume at Amazon after two-year block

After a more than two year sales block on Apple's set-top media streamers because of "customer confusion," Amazon now has two "Sold by Amazon" listings for the Apple TV 4K.

Mike Wuerthele 8 years ago 15

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