Huawei is definitely bringing Amazon’s Alexa to the Mate 9

One of Huawei’s biggest priorities when building its Mate 9 was shoehorning some handy machine learning features into to it. The end result? A machine learning algorithm designed to improve performance by finding the patterns in how you use the phone and allocating resources like RAM accordingly. Turns out Huawei’s AI ambitions don’t end there: a spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that the Mate 9 will receive a software update that brings Amazon’s Alexa to that surprisingly slick phablet.

We’re not entirely sure of the timing yet, but we can confirm that the update will roll out in the US (obviously) and a handful of other markets. Either way, this is a big step for Huawei and for Amazon; the former gets to sell the first properly Alexa-enabled smartphone and Amazon gets the chance to forge a partnership with one of the biggest smartphone makers in China by volume. Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo and Echo Dot aren’t available in China’s site, but this could be a pretty effective trojan horse if and when Amazon makes that move.

By now, it’s all too common to see virtual assistants baked into smartphones — Apple has Siri, Google has its Assistant and Samsung will have… something better than S Voice when the Galaxy S8 launches. Most of those assistants wound up working on their respective smartphones by way of acquisitions, but Huawei’s approach closely mirrors what we’ve seen from many, many other companies at CES this year. Because Amazon has been so open with letting hardware makers run integrate Alexa, we’ve started to see a glut of devices go with “her” to enable voice commands. Cronologics’ Alexa-powered smartwatch launched earlier this year (it was alright), and here in Vegas, Alexa is making “her” way into everything from DVRs to appliances.

NVIDIA GeForce cards will stream gameplay to Facebook Live

NVIDIA’s currently opening CES with a keynote address, and the first big news is here: PC gamers with Nvidia graphics cards will be able to stream their games directly to Facebook Live.

Twitch and, to a lesser extent, YouTube Gaming, are far more popular platforms for game streaming than Facebook, but the social media company has been courting gamers and game developers in an effort to get more streams on its platform. So far, that’s led to a tie-in with Blizzard… and not much else.

That will change soon, though, as NVIDIA is partnering with Facebook to allow gamers to stream directly through Live. There wasn’t much detail other than that nugget, apart from the basics: streaming will happen through NVIDIAs GeForce Experience app, which is, obviously, only compatible with PCs with Nvidia GPUs.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

The Google Assistant is coming to Android TV

Google has talked about bringing its AI assistant to as many places as possible ever since it was first revealed at I/O in May 2016. Right now, it’s in the Pixel smartphone, Google Home device and the Allo chat app. Today, Google announced that its next destination will be Android TV devices, including the new NVIDIA Shield (as NVIDIA just confirmed at its CES press conference).

Android TV hasn’t really taken off as a platform to any real degree, but for those out there using it this will be a nice upgrade. It sounds like it’ll work just as you’d expect — you can ask it questions from Google, tie your Google account into it and get details on your calendar, find out the weather, ask how long your commute is and so forth.

But naturally you’ll be able to ask it to play video as well. Just as Google Home ties into Chromecast devices to let you tell it to play videos, the Assistant on Android TV will do the same. However, Android TV had pretty solid voice control from the start, so this isn’t quite as big a deal. But Google’s voice processing has undoubtably improved, and the Assistant’s conversational nature should make it easier to use than what’s currently built into the Android TV platform.

As for what devices will get this update, Google says it’ll come to any Android TV device that can run Android 6.0 Marshmallow or 7.0 Nougat. That includes the just-announced Dish AirTV Player, Sharp’s Aquos TVs, Sony Bravia TVs and the Xiaomi Mi Box. And the new NVIDIA Shield will work hands-free, which means you can really just talk to it like you can to Google Home, without having to press a remote button to activate the feature. Sadly, there’s no word on when this software update will roll out, but in the meantime we’re going to try and check out the Assistant on some Android TV devices here at CES.

LG Display’s 65-inch OLED prototype screen doesn’t need speakers

LG Display’s best prototypes here at CES 2017 were definitely its unusual 65-inch OLED Ultra HD panels with speakers integrated right into the display itself. How does that work? It’s all thanks to the slender nature of OLED tech, meaning an organic LED screen can act as a membrane for sound. A pair of tiny speaker drivers then deliver vibrations into the huge OLED screen, producing sound. (The entire screen itself vibrates while doing so.)

According to LG Display, these “Crystal Sound” displays should make for a more immersive audio experience, with sound coming directly from the image you’re watching, not from the sides or from underneath. In reality, the sound produced was a bit too tinny and weak — there’s obviously not much depth to work with when your speaker membrane is a very narrow OLED screen. The effect of the sound coming directly from within the screen is a cool one, it just needs a bit more oomph. At least it’s something for the prototype engineers to work on in time for CES 2018.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

NVIDIA unveils a new Shield TV with 4K HDR

NVIDIA’s Shield TV was one of the few successful Android TV devices — it was both a capable 4K entertainment device and a simple way to bring PC gaming into your living room. So it only made sense that NVIDIA had a sequel in the works. Today during his CES 2017 keynote, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang unveiled a new version of the Shield TV — now just called Shield — which will support 4K HDR for both games and movies.

Among other new features, the new Shield TV is also the first Android TV device to support Google Assistant. As you’d imagine, Google Assistant works just like it does on the company’s Home device and Pixel phones, but you can also command it to play media on the Shield TV. The company also announced a companion microphone accessory for the Shield, NVIDIA Spot, which will function similarly to Amazon’s Echo. You can spread Spot throughout your home to utter voice commands wherever you are.

Surprisingly, NVIDIA didn’t say much about the hardware powering the new Shield. I was expecting it to include the company’s X2 mobile processor, but if that were the case NVIDIA surely would have made that clear. It also doesn’t require much hardware to add HDR support, and we didn’t hear anything about improved game performance. The new Shield is still a compelling device, but it’s not quite the successor we were expecting.

Norton’s geodesic dome router protects your network with style

Norton is known more for its suite of software security tools, than actual tangible devices. But now the company has realized that many of today’s vulnerabilities are based on pieces of hardware that can’t be protected with software alone. With that in mind it’s releasing its first piece of hardware the $279 ($199 if you preorder it now) Norton Core router.

The secure AC2600 WiFi router identifies devices on a home network that’s been compromised and quarantines them from the rest of your devices. With IoT botnets on the rise and bringing down the internet, it’s becoming increasingly important to make sure that if one piece of hardware gets hacked the rest are kept safe.

The Norton Core wireless router. #engadgetces #ces2017 #ces

A video posted by Engadget (@engadget) on Jan 4, 2017 at 7:30pm PST

And while it seems like a no brainer for Norton’s first piece of hardware to be a secure router, the geodesic design seems out of character. According to the company it started with 30 initial designs then whittled those down to 15. It then showed seven to focus groups in regions around the world this is what everyone preferred.

People just love domes.

Besides making focus groups happy, the dome’s design is meant to keep the router out in the open instead of tucked away in a closet. So it’s pretty and helpful.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: Norton

NVIDIA Spot brings Google Assistant to every room in your home

There’s a common gripe with the Amazon Echo, Google Home and other voice-guided helpers: you have to stand within their listening range to make use of them. Not quite the Star Trek future you were promised, is it? NVIDIA, however, might have a fix: it just introduced the Spot, a hybrid mic and speaker that brings Google Assistant to every nook and cranny in your home. You need the new Shield TV to serve as the central hub, but you’re otherwise free to turn on lights, ask questions and otherwise use Assistant knowing that you’ll be heard.

The catch? Spot costs $50 per unit, and NVIDIA will only say that it’s due to arrive sometime in the months ahead. It won’t be cheap to outfit every room. However, this still makes Shield decidedly more compelling. Spot is likely to be more affordable than getting multiple dedicated smart speakers, especially in apartments and other homes where those speakers could easily be considered overkill.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: NVIDIA

NVIDIA brings GeForce Now cloud gaming to Mac and PC

Ever wanted to be a PC gamer, but didn’t want to buy a gaming PC? NVIDIA’s Jen-Hsun Haung wants your number. Taking the stage at CES today, NVIDIA’s CEO announced GeForce Now for PC and Mac — an offshoot of its cloud gaming service aimed at prospective PC gamers. Despite sharing the same name as the streaming service it offers to NVIDIA Shield users, GeForce Now for PC isn’t a gaming subscription service. It’s a server rental program.

Users of GeForce Now for PC won’t load up a streaming app and pick through a list of games — they’ll load up Steam, Origin, UPlay or other PC game providers and purchase games directly from the distributor. Then they’ll run that game on NVIDIA’s GRID servers through GeForce Now for an hourly fee. The result is a setup that, in the stage demo, looks remarkably like running games on a local machine.

The idea seems neat, but offloading your gameplay to the cloud isn’t cheap: NVIDIA says GeForce Now will charge $25 for 20 hours of play, and that doesn’t include the cost of the games. If you only played two hours a day, you’d spend $912 for a year of NVIDIA GeForce Now gaming. Still, if you really don’t want to buy a gaming machine with that cash, GeForce Now for PC and Mac will start rolling out in March.

NVIDIA built an AI backseat driver for its new AI car platform

NVIDIA hasn’t been shy about promoting its automative breakthroughs over the years, but now it’s actually beginning to seem real. At his CES 2017 keynote, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang revealed a new AI car platform, which will feature an “AI co-pilot” to assist you while driving. It could, for example, map your face to detect your mood, or see where you head is pointed to alert you if you’re distracted. And, like every good backseat driver, it’s not afraid to comment on your driving.

NVIDIA Co-pilot has a pleasant, if somewhat stiff voice, based on the demos we saw. But even if it’s trying to be gentle, it’s hard not to get a HAL 9000 vibe from its warnings. In fact, Huang mentioned it can even read your lips in noisy environments — and we all know how well that worked out 2001.

Seriously, though, Co-pilot seems like it could be a useful addition to plenty of cars. It could make driving a lot safer until autonomous cars are readily available (and legal).

Developing…

Sony is making its own wireless earbuds

In these heady days of headphone-free smartphones, there’s money to be made in the wireless headphone game. Sony revealed plenty of upgraded wireless speakers and headphones at its CES press event today, but there some prototype teasers too. The company had some tiny wireless in-ear buds, as well as some neck-anchored wireless headphones. Expect to hear more about both of them later this year, but Sony was already showcasing two different colors for each prototype, as well as charging cases for the in-ear buds. There’s no price and no date, but they look small, unassuming, and will be another notable wireless bud option when there’s not much competition. The Xperia Ear didn’t quite seal the deal.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.