Huawei has launched an LTE-connected smart speaker and router, the Huawei AI Cube, complete with Alexa built-in, but the weirdest thing about it is the shape. Making its debut at IFA 2018 today, the Alexa speaker may be called a cube, but in fact it's a stubby cylinder. Huawei does say the design may change before launch, but what shouldn't are the capabilities.
Lenovo's Smart Display works with any connected home tech the Google Assistant supports, but now it's getting into the action with a range of Smart Home Essentials. The new line-up of accessories kicks off with three products, all of which will work with the Lenovo Smart Display as a hub.
The Google Assistant is going multilingual, with the ability to recognize and then reply to more than one language at a time, alongside a host of new smart home features. Announced at IFA 2018, the new language feature means smart speakers like the Google Home and Google Home Mini will be able to differentiate automatically between two languages, and respond in the same.
Earlier this year, LG announced a rather big team up with Google that would see Google Assistant come to 2018's lineup of ThinQ TVs. LG first announced this partnership at CES in January, then by the time Google IO rolled around, the company was ready to announce and release the TVs that would host Google's AI companion. At the time, those TVs were only confirmed for the US, but today LG announced that its support for Google Assistant will soon spread to a few other regions around the world.
The Internet of Things or IoT is one of the fastest growing segments in the tech market today. For the most part, this market is made up of stationary devices that communicate with each other over short distances. This has practically limited IoT products to houses or rooms within a building. Samsung, however, proposes a future where IoT devices can cover distances as far as 10 km without using much power. Naturally, it’s proposing its shiny new Exynos i S111 system-on-chip to power that future.
Philips Hue is gaining two more connected lighting ranges, with the Hue Signe Collection and Hue Play joining the line-up of wirelessly-connected lamps and bulbs. Rather than retrofitting existing fixtures with new, smart bulbs, however, the two new ranges are standalone lamps in their own right, with installation promising to be as straightforward as plugging them into an outlet.
Google is said to be planning to release a new smart speaker, and it might be looking to the Echo Show for inspiration. A new rumor claims that Google will release a smart speaker with a display at some point this year. If that turns out to be true, then that means Google would have a smart speaker to compete with almost every device in Amazon's Echo line up.
The striking GLAS thermostat has gained Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support, with the two new AIs joining Cortana as the smart home gadget goes up for preorder. Announced last year, the voice-controlled HVAC controller has a distinctive translucent OLED screen which stands proud of the wall it's mounted on.
It seems that even Alexa is participating in the back to school rush this year. Today, Saint Louis University announced that it will outfit "every student residence hall room and student apartment on campus" with an Alexa device. All told, that means SLU is outfitting student living spaces with around 2,300 Echo Dots.
Budweiser has a new promotional smart beer cooler that feels an awful lot like rubbing salt in a wound: it only unlocks when the Cleveland Browns win a game. The company is providing these coolers -- each a large fridge with a glass front showcasing shelves full of Bud Light -- to the FirstEnergy stadium where the Browns play, as well as at bars throughout Cleveland. Presumably it'll be months or years before they unlock.
Samsung wants to tame your smart home and end your WiFi deadspots, with its new SmartThings Wifi mesh router system. Promising not only smoother internet access for things like online gaming, streaming media, and general browsing, the mesh networking system also integrates an IoT hub that could leave you spending less time jumping between apps and more time letting your connected home do the hard work in the background.
Samsung has a new SmartThings Mesh WiFi router, promising not only whole-home wireless coverage but control over your smart home too. The new router, which taps into Plume's WiFi mesh technology, arrives alongside a refreshed SmartThings hub for those happy with their existing router, together with a bunch of new sensors.