Microsoft’s Cortana is one of the major AI assistants in the market. Its main rivals – Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant both have smart speakers – a bunch of them actually which have been available for a while now. However, Microsoft just announced its first – the Harman Kardon Invoke a few days ago, and it is set to take on the Echos and the Homes.

Design

The Harman Kardon Invoke has the same tower-design as the Amazon Echo but gets bigger towards the base. There is a metallic speaker grille that wraps around a large portion of the phone save for the base (plastic) and the top.

It has a touch-sensitive top that lights up when Cortana is listening as well as when you rotate the dial to adjust the volume. At the base are two buttons – one for muting the microphone and the other for pairing with Bluetooth devices.

Specs and Features

The Invoke stands at 242 mm tall. It is also pretty heavy at 1kg thanks to the three 45mm woofers and three 13mm dome tweeters under its metal and plastic body. At the top lies seven far-field microphones for picking up your voice from any corner of the room

Even with that weight, it doesn’t have a built-in battery. There is dual band Wi-Fi support and Bluetooth 4.1 for connectivity and a micro USB port at the bottom for power.

Like other smart speakers, you can ask Invoke to create reminders, lists, and answer questions. You can also make calls to landlines and mobiles using Skype. Got some smart home devices like thermostats and bulbs? Ask Cortana to turn the heat up or dim the lights.

Invoke can also stream audio from services like TuneIn, iHeart Radio, and Spotify. Although it is limited compared to what you have on other smart speakers, Microsoft says it is in talks to add more services.

Setting up the Invoke is easy. Plug it to an outlet, download the free Cortana app (Windows 10 PC or phone, Android 4.1.2+, and iOS 8.0+). Sign into your Microsoft account and you are ready to go.

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Invoke Price and Availability

The Harman/Kardon Invoke is priced at $199.95 and comes in silver and black. It is available on the Harman Kardon official website and is limited to the US alone.

The post The Harman Kardon Invoke is Microsoft’s First Cortana Speaker appeared first on Gizmochina.

Amazon started the smart speaker race with the Echo. It later released the Echo Dot and Tap. All three are powered by Amazon’s smart Assistant, Alexa. Google joined the smart speaker race with the Home last year and Apple announced the Siri-powered HomePod this week. A report by the Korea Herald says Samsung is working on its own speaker that will be powered by Bixby.

Bixby is Samsung’s AI assistant that debuted on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ this year. It even has a dedicated button on both phones. Bixby is still not available globally. It is still limited to Samsung’s home country and won’t make it to the US until later due to some issues.

The news of a Bixby speaker isn’t surprising. Samsung and Apple are rivals and just minutes after the HomePod launched, tweets were already flying round about Samsung doing the same.

Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing says the HomePod will reinvent how we enjoy music just like the iPod did. While there have been jokes made about the design, it remains to be seen if the HomePod lives up to expectation in terms of performance when it goes on sale in December.

Samsung is no slouch either, we presume the speaker will also pack some impressive audio power when it launches. If you remember, it acquired audio giant Harman this year for a record $8B. Harman is the parent company of AKG, Harman Kardon, JBL, and Infinity to name a few.

The Korea Herald says Samsung has already been granted design patents for a standalone audio device. Now all we await is a launch date.

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Microsoft is also working with Harman Kardon to release its own voice powered speaker called Invoke. Invoke will play music, answer questions and handle tasks like reminders thanks to Microsoft’s AI assistant, Cortana. It is expected to launch in Q3 2017.

(Source, via)

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