The Cupertino, California-based technology giant has struggled in the home space and has ceded much of the market to its rivals. Its current devices remain limited in their functionality, with Apple’s Siri voice-control service lagging behind Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant. The new devices — along with upcoming changes to Siri — are aimed at turning around Apple’s fortunes.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-18/apple-to-expand-smart-home-lineup-taking-on-amazon-and-google
Category Archives: voice technology
A ‘Screenless Smartphone’ Is Here—But What Does That Even Mean?
WTF is a “screenless smartphone”? Yeah, we were wondering that, too. Titan is a set of eSim-enabled, voice controlled earbuds with embedded live voice translation. If you’re unfamiliar with an eSim, it allows you to use cellular plans without requiring a physical nano-SIM. (A SIM stands for security information management, and traditionally collects, monitors, and analyzes security-related data.) Said another way: It’s the thing that helps make your smartphone a connected, data-driven device.
https://www-vice-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.vice.com/amp/en/article/k7bxpw/mymanu-titan-screenless-smartphone
The subculture history of the internet – Cyberpunk [1990] Documentary
The AI startup erasing call center worker accents: is it fighting bias – or perpetuating it?
The danger, Aneesh said, was that artificially neutralizing accents represented a kind of “indifference to difference”, which diminishes the humanity of the person on the other end of the phone. “It allows us to avoid social reality, which is that you are two human beings on the same planet, that you have obligations to each other. It’s pointing to a lonelier future.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/23/voice-accent-technology-call-center-white-american
What Does the Future of Work Sound Like?
Before the pandemic, two-thirds of U.S. office workers were in open office environments filled with bad acoustics and distracting noises from loud group meetings, phone and video calls, watercooler chatter, and the clicking of keyboards. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Made Music Studio’s research shows that companies can improve employees’ workplace experiences — by creating a sense of privacy, masking bad noise, and enhancing mood, focus, and even productivity — through the right use of sound.
https://sloanreview-mit-edu.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-does-the-future-of-work-sound-like/amp
Analyzing Trends with Tim Stock 