The market for smart speakers is heating up, with Amazon Echo and google Home vying for customers, and Apple rumoured to be working on its own Siri-enabled device. Not wanting to be left out, Microsoft has unveiled a smart speaker running its own artificially intelligent personal assistant, Cortana, made by Samsung-owned audio brand Harman Kardon.The Harman Kardon Invoke is a voice-activated speaker that can play music, manage calendars and activities, set reminders, check traffic and read out the latest news.
It integrates with Skype, so you can make hand-free calls to mobile phones, landlines and other Skype-enabled devices.You can also control your smart home devices using voice to do things like turn out the lights or control the temperature.The speaker itself has a curved metallic grill that comes in either "pearl silver" (white) or graphite (black), and projects sound a full 360-degrees, thanks to its cylindrical design.
It also features 7 microphones and "far-field voice recognition technology" that Harman claims recognises all details of voice commands, even in environments with high ambient noise."We are excited to partner with Harman Kardon to create a speaker that combines premium audio and stylish design with the intelligence of Cortana," said Jordi Ribas, corporate vice president of AI Products at Microsoft."This is our next step in bringing Cortana to even more devices to help users be more productive wherever they are."
Unfortunately there's a catch. For now, at least, Harman is only planning to launch the Invoke in the US. It will be available at select retailers and Microsoft Stores in the autumn.Microsoft said that it has also signed partnerships with HP and Intel to deliver Cortana-enabled devices in the future.Harman Kardon has previously worked with Lenovo to develop an Amazon Alexa-powered smart speaker called the Lenovo Smart Assistant.