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Amazon and Google's voice assistant speakers could soon become your next landline | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it

From thenextweb.com - February 17, 2017 11:18 AM

While most folks are ditching their landlines because they now have a phone with them wherever they go, they might make a comeback as a feature in voice assistant speakers, reports The Wall Street Journal.

According to the WSJ’s sources, Google and Amazon are considering adding the ability to make and receive voice calls to the companies’ Home and Echo devices respectively. They’re currently equipped to handle tasks like controlling your lights and smart appliances, streaming music and ordering groceries online. Enabling voice calls would certainly make those voice-activated speakers a lot more useful, and give you another reason to stop carrying your smartphone around the house all the time.

Of course, the big question is, how will calls work? Google already has a bunch of products like Hangouts and Voice for handling voice communication, and syncs your contacts’ numbers across its apps. It also has Duo for video calls and the company said last August that it planned to add support for voice-only chats....

OK, Alexa: A Google Home Versus Amazon Echo IQ Test | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it

From www.wired.com - November 4, 2016 11:05 AM

REVIEWING A PRODUCT designed to learn over time is like reviewing a newborn baby. So much functionality is dependent on artificial intelligence and machine learning, the only certainty is that it’ll get smarter over time. Who knows what it’ll end up being: A jack-of-all-trades? A specialized savant? Or maybe just a creeper that records everything you say?

Consider the Amazon Echo. At birth, it didn’t have the ability to order you Domino’s, play Spotify playlists, or get things from Amazon Prime. In the past year, its capabilities and intelligence have evolved significantly. That’s thanks to hundreds of “skills” created by developers with the Alexa Skills Kit, partnerships with major companies such as Uber and Sonos, and Amazon’s new Music Unlimited service, which offers deep voice-control features.

At the ripe old age of two, Amazon’s Echo already has offspring in the form of the Echo Dot and Echo Tap. And now it has a neonate arch-rival in the form of Google Home. In the long term, the competition between the two platforms will be great for users of both devices: Two heavyweights in the tech world will be trying to make their voice assistants smarter, more versatile, and more useful than the other one.

As of now, they’re more like twins than not: They both tell decent jokes, they both stream NPR if you ask for news, they both do IFTTT, and they spout recipes and random facts with ease. Because it’s had more time in the world, Amazon’s platform has the advantage in many key areas. But Google Home ($130) trumps the full-size Echo ($180) in a few ways too—and not just in terms of price. They’re both really good, and they’re both going to get smarter. A lot smarter....

Amazon and Google's voice assistant speakers could soon become your next landline

OK, Alexa: A Google Home Versus Amazon Echo IQ Test