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CES 2017: Huawei to Pre-Load Amazon Alexa Virtual Assistant in its Flagship Smartphone

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We've seen it in third-party speakers and cars already at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but Amazon's Alexa is also about to become a smartphone personal assistant. Chinese mobile company Huawei used CES 2017 to announce it will be the first handset maker in the U.S. to pre-load the voice-activated AI into a phone.

C1ZhP27XcAA_fVQ.jpg-large-800x400.jpeg

The HUAWEI MATE 9 will be the first smartphone to integrate with Amazon Alexa. Speak to the future #HuaweiCES2017 pic.twitter.com/Eg5NBhpV7j - Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) January 5, 2017
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Less than a week ago, Alexa was exclusive to Amazon's tablets and Echo smart speakers, but anyone who picks up the U.S. version of Huawei's flagship Mate 9 smartphone - set to launch "early 2017" - will also be able to invoke the virtual assistant.

Huawei's announcement sets the stage for Alexa to compete directly in a mobile market already busy with AI assistants battling it out for supremacy. Meanwhile, Apple's Siri is still only available on iOS devices and Macs running macOS Sierra, although rumors have persisted that Cupertino is working on its own Siri-powered connected smart speaker, while the AI is likely to feature heavily in any autonomous car system the company may be working on.

Elsewhere, Google recently upgraded its Google Assistant for its own-branded Pixel phones, and last year Samsung acquired Viv - developed by the creators of Siri - for integration in its next round of flagship smartphones.

Article Link: CES 2017: Huawei to Pre-Load Amazon Alexa Virtual Assistant in its Flagship Smartphone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/01/05/ces-2017-alexa-smartphone-huawei/
Romy90210 said:
Damn Alexa is being integrated into everything lately.. From Refigitators to now cars and non-Amazon phones?? Siri has really missed the bus ride to the concert.... I really miss the days when Apple was the mighty leader.. :( SMH.. #RIPSIRI
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I miss the days when people used their phones themselves and didn't pretend they were too busy to the point they needed a virtual assistant to use their phone for them.
 
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chr1s60 said:
I miss the days when people used their phones themselves and didn't pretend they were too busy to the point they needed a virtual assistant to use their phone for them.
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You do see the flaw in what you are saying there, right?
 
Is this a paid deal or is Amazon giving it away for free hoping that it only drives more people to other Amazon services?
 
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Romy90210 said:
Damn Alexa is being integrated into everything lately.. From Refigitators to now cars and non-Amazon phones?? Siri has really missed the bus ride to the concert.... I really miss the days when Apple was the mighty leader.. :( SMH.. #RIPSIRI
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I'm unsure how Alexa being intergrated into products that Apple would never allow Siri to be part of is a failure of Siri? I've never used Alexa before but wouldn't the actually functionality of the two be a better indicator of quality?
 
I'd still rather not talk to an AI living inside my phone. So I can't really say Siri is missing anything here for me personally, if I wouldn't have used this either.
 
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goobot said:
I'm unsure how Alexa being intergrated into products that Apple would never allow Siri to be part of is a failure of Siri? I've never used Alexa before but wouldn't the actually functionality of the two be a better indicator of quality?
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Except Siri is handicapped, even on Apple own's devices... Have you used any of the other AI's?
 
EdT said:
The way that Alexa and Google do a much better job of voice and search functions is by monitoring what you type and say, whether you are asking a question or not.
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Amazon Echo only records/saves anything after you have said the wake word.
 
joueboy said:

No Alexa! No!!!
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Oh holy crap, that is pretty awful. It should at least default to having that stuff filtered. One of the things I've always liked about Apple is how family friendly they are.

As for Alexa, it's pretty incredible how quickly it is expanding now. Siri is quickly dropping into last place and becoming more and more irrelevant. Apple pretty much has no choice but to make Siri a priority for their updates this year.
 
Weaselboy said:
Amazon Echo only records/saves anything after you have said the wake word.
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Even in the article I linked, it says that after it hears the wake word Echo goes back a little BEFORE the wake word to ensure it uses the entire sentence. There is no way Amazon could afford the bandwidth or storage space to continuously monitor every Echo sold but the choice of what is recorded and when isn't in the end users hands.
 
EdT said:
Even in the article I linked, it says that after it hears the wake word Echo goes back a little BEFORE the wake word to ensure it uses the entire sentence. There is no way Amazon could afford the bandwidth or storage space to continuously monitor every Echo sold but the choice of what is recorded and when isn't in the end users hands.
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It is a fraction of a second to grab the complete word/sentence. Like I said, there is no evidence anything else is being recorded or stored.

You are correct, it is up to Amazon and their firmware to decide what gets recorded. But the fact still is there is no evidence anything is being stored or recorded now.

...including a fraction of a second of audio before the wake word
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Speedy Dingo said:
Yes, yes they are. (Sadly)
Siri just loves finding things on the web for whatever thing she doesn't understand. "I found this on the web for why is Siri so dumb?"
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Agreed. Siri always pulls up some most useless results when you're looking for something so specific.
 
Alexa is popular precisely because you don't have to use your phone. Bragging about Alexa being in the phone is marketing nonsense please giving that the Google Home is so much more accurate
 
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