Alexa has become an inescapable name in American households. She's the voice of Amazon's Echo home speaker. Ask her to play any song, and it'll bump from the speakers within seconds.
Now, we may get used to hearing a new name at home: Siri.
Apple later this year will release a "HomePod" smart home speaker. It will rival Amazon Echo and Google Home, Google's home speaker product.
HomePod, aided by Apple's Siri digital assistant, will be priced at $349. It will begin shipping in December in the United States, Australia, and Britain. Apple unveiled the smart speaker at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
"We really believe it is going to take your home music experience to the next level," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said.
Amazon's and Google's voice-controlled speakers are low-priced and have been popular. They're all capable of controlling appliances around the home, fetching content from the internet, and more.
HomePod Embraces Siri
HomePod is designed to work with the Apple Music service. The speaker can produce rich and powerful sound while tapping into the artificial intelligence power of Siri.
Apple vice president Phil Schiller said the company's Siri team had turned the assistant into a "musicologist." It learns the tastes of its listeners and gets songs from the internet cloud.
The aim is to make HomePod a powerful assistant for news, messages, weather, traffic, home controls, and more, Schiller says.
HomePod was the icing on the cake of a presentation that included updates to Apple's iPad and Mac laptop lines. Apple executives also discussed upgraded operating software that enables augmented reality for iPhones and iPads. Augmented (meaning "added-to") reality works by superimposing a computer image onto the real world. In augmented reality, tablet or phone users can use their device to interact with the real world. The popular game Pokemon GO is an example of augmented reality.
Wide Selection Of Songs
Experts said Apple is playing to its strength in the music industry by focusing on sound quality and the many songs on Apple Music.
Jan Dawson analyzes technology companies for his firm, Jackdaw Research. "The fact that Apple is claiming to marry really great and smart audio with a smart assistant and cloud music service makes this device unique in the market," he says.
However, some tech experts note that Apple will be under more pressure. Rivals Google and Amazon have improved their computing smarts. Apple will need its Siri software to improve to keep up.
Siri has been given new male and female voices, which are described as more natural and expressive. Siri has added abilities such as translating English phrases into Chinese, French, German, Italian or Spanish.
Apple said it is also using "on-device learning" to enable Siri to learn people's tastes and favorite things.
Amazon Way Out In Front
Amazon has dominated the smart speakers category since 2014 when it introduced its first Echo speaker. It responds to voice commands and can do everything from switch off lights in your home to turning up the air conditioning.
A survey released last month by research firm eMarketer found Echo speakers held 70.6 percent of the U.S. market. That's compared with 23.8 percent for Google Home.
Cook also used the Apple keynote presentation to show off new iPad and Mac computer models. He gave the audience glimpses at coming versions of the software that powers these devices.
Craig Federighi is senior vice president of software engineering for Apple. He said the next Mac operating system will be named "High Sierra" in tribute to the California mountain range.
High Sierra Features
A key new feature for High Sierra: the ability to stop unexpected videos from starting to play automatically when landing on web pages. High Sierra also will be able to prevent ads from following people about the internet and collecting information on them.
High Sierra will be released later this year as a free update, according to Federighi.
Along with upgraded versions of iPad and Mac laptops, Apple unveiled an iMac Pro workstation that had the computing engine built in behind the screen. It was touted as the most powerful computer the company has ever made.
It's aimed at people who use computers to do design work on their computers, rather than people who simply use computers at home. The iMac Pro will be sold in December for $4,999.
Mac models were also boosted to work with virtual reality gear. The move by Apple is into technology that Facebook has with its Oculus unit. Virtual reality sets can be worn over one's head and make users feel like they are in another world.
iOS Is Overhauled
Apple's mobile devices are powered by a software called iOS. This software is getting a major update with the brand-new iOS 11.
The new software makes iPads quicker and more efficient. You can also now send money to friends using Apple's messaging application for mobile devices.
Some of the iOS 11 features are aimed at users in China, where Apple would like to boost iPhone sales. One new feature: enabling smartphone cameras to read QR codes. When you take a picture of these special barcodes, it will take you to an app or a website. QR codes are popular in China.
Source: Newsela.com
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