All items tagged with smart speakers (248)

The First Smart Speaker from Apple: A Strong Design and How It Is Perceived

October 15, 2020 by Joao Martins

The First Smart Speaker from Apple: A Strong Design and How It Is Perceived

For this edition of The Audio Voice, I intended to focus a bit more on the latest developments in the fascinating world of sensors and how it impacts product development and design in all applications areas, particularly in consumer electronics, automotive, and health applications. After writing previously about Apple - the sensors on the Apple Watch and the surprising firmware updates for the AirPod Pro earbuds - I really didn't want to go back to Apple. But as always, Apple has a way of surprising us exactly when we least expected, and the company made another important audio announcement.

Apple Unveils HomePod mini Smart Speaker to Expand Its Smart Home Ecosystem

October 13, 2020 by audioXpress Staff

Apple Unveils HomePod mini Smart Speaker to Expand Its Smart Home Ecosystem

Opening what was broadly expected to be an event focused on the iPhone 12 unveiling, Apple introduced the new HomePod mini. Unlike the original HomePod, primarily focused on the music listening experience, the HomePod mini is touted as an actual Smart Speaker. In fact, betting on leading on four fronts: to combine a great music listening experience, an intelligent assistant, and smart home capabilities, with built-in privacy and security, in a beautiful compact design. Also much more affordable, at just $99.

Google Introduces Nest Audio Smart Speaker With Focus on Music Reproduction

October 1, 2020 by Joao Martins

Google Introduces Nest Audio Smart Speaker With Focus on Music Reproduction

Google held the company's traditional hardware announcements event. Apart from a new mandatory phone, the star of the event was the new Nest Audio smart speaker, bigger and more powerful than the Google Home that it replaces. Rumored for months, the new smart speaker reflects the hard work by a dedicated engineering team, resulting in a better overall speaker design, but also improved multi-room streaming features. Inside, there's more intelligence to support voice commands locally, and there's even a microphone "privacy" mute switch, when required.

Amazon Reimagines Echo Smart Speaker Family for 2020

September 29, 2020 by Joao Martins

Amazon Reimagines Echo Smart Speaker Family for 2020

Amazon.com introduced its all-new line-up of Echo devices, featuring completely new designs, enhanced audio, more powerful hardware, and experiences that make Alexa voice assistant more engaging, and helpful. Most of the new Amazon products will be available at the end of October 2020, and that includes an all-new Echo (4th Gen), now with better sound and integrated smart home hub; the new Echo Dot and Echo Dot Kids Edition featuring the new spherical designs and improved audio, and Echo Show 10, the smart speaker with screen.

Futuresource's Audio Collaborative 2020 Expands as Two-Day Live-Streamed Event

September 14, 2020 by Joao Martins

Futuresource's Audio Collaborative 2020 Expands as Two-Day Live-Streamed Event

Futuresource Consulting is putting together another edition of the company's renowned Audio Collaborative event, which for 2020 will be shifting to an all-virtual experience. With health and safety being of prime importance during the coronavirus outbreak, Futuresource must ensure all co-workers, exhibitors, thought leaders and attendees feel at ease to best experience and deliver the range of fascinating topics lined up. Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th of November, from 14:00 – 18:00 GMT, Audio Collaborative 2020 will be more global than ever.

Global Home Audio Market Dominated by Tech Giants and Big Brands in Q2 2020

August 21, 2020 by Futuresource Consulting

Global Home Audio Market Dominated by Tech Giants and Big Brands in Q2 2020

The CE Team at Futuresource Consulting shared some key topics and trends from its latest Global Home Audio Report, revealing how home audio products have returned to strength in Q2 2020. Global home audio products posted an unexpected strong performance in Q2 2020, delivering 20% shipment growth and 10% value growth quarter-on-quarter, according to preliminary results from Futuresource Consulting’s latest quarterly tracker. APAC leads the way, with North America and Western Europe in recovery.

Global Smart Speaker Sales Reach 30 Million Units in Q2 2020

August 12, 2020 by audioXpress Staff

Global Smart Speaker Sales Reach 30 Million Units in Q2 2020

Defying the impact of the pandemic, global sales of smart speakers in Q2 2020 rose to 30.0 million units, an increase of 6% compared to Q1, according to preliminary results from Strategy Analytics. On a year-on-year basis, worldwide shipments of smart speakers and smart displays fell by 0.4% in Q2 2020, still a very robust indicator. Amazon retained first place with a share of 21.6%, followed by Google (17.1%) and Baidu (16.7%).

The Intelligent Microphone: The Next Generation of MEMS Microphone Technology

August 6, 2020 by Mike Klasco

The Intelligent Microphone: The Next Generation of MEMS Microphone Technology

At the end of July 2020, audioXpress ran a product release on Vesper's VM3011 intelligent digital micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) microphone. Its claim to fame is a power saving architecture that enables battery standby life that otherwise would be unattainable without the "smarts." There are another half-dozen developers working on integrating all sorts of capabilities within the MEMS mic package. This article, originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter, discusses those developments.

AKM Develops Ultra-Low Power Intelligent System Wakeup ADC With Integrated Acoustic Activity Analyzer

July 21, 2020 by audioXpress Staff

AKM Develops Ultra-Low Power Intelligent System Wakeup ADC With Integrated Acoustic Activity Analyzer

Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corporation (AKM) has developed the AK5706, a high-performance 24-bit stereo A/D converter (ADC) with an integrated Acoustic Activity Analyzer (AAA) wakeup solution consuming only 30μA, audio buffer, and support for digital and high-SNR microphones. Designed for systems that must listen for specific types of audio activity while consuming very low power, the AK5706 is ideal for products such as speech recognition systems, as well as security and smart home devices.

Servo-Control in Mainstream Audio: From Motional Feedback to the Bend-Sensor

July 16, 2020 by Mike Klasco

Servo-Control in Mainstream Audio: From Motional Feedback to the Bend-Sensor

Imagine a new class of speaker diaphragm position sensors that enable audio engineers to reduce distortion and extend bass response from studio monitors, soundbars, smart speakers, and even smartphone microspeakers. With the precision of laser displacement instrumentation, this sensor is located between a stationary component of the speaker and an appropriate moving part to provide an error correction reference signal back to the amplifier. Well, that sensor has already been developed. This article was originally published in The Audio Voice weekly email newsletter.

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