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Facebook Smart Speaker Coming Next Year With 15-inch Touch Panel

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Facebook is planning to release its own smart speaker to compete with similar connected devices offered by Amazon, Google, and Apple, a report out of Taiwan claimed on Tuesday.

However, instead of voice recognition functions in the vein of Siri or Alexa, Facebook's speaker will focus more on displaying visual imagery via a 15-inch touch panel, according to sources in the supply chain.

amazonechoshow-800x618.jpg
Amazon's Echo Show was the first smart speaker to feature a display​

The device will be manufactured by Pegatron for release in the first quarter of 2018 and has already begun small volume pilot production at plants in China, said the sources. The touchscreen is said to be supplied by LG Display using in-cell technology, while the chassis is constructed from a magnesium-aluminum-alloy.

Market watchers predicted high growth for Pegatron going into the second half of the year, with the manufacturer already fulfilling iPhone orders for Apple as well as Surface and Xbox One orders for Microsoft.

Amazon is reportedly working on a successor to its popular flagship Echo speaker for release later this year. The company hopes to steal the spotlight from Apple as it prepares to launch its music-oriented HomePod speaker, costing $350.

Research firm Strategy Analytics claims worldwide smart speaker shipments reached 5.9 million units in 2016, 4.2 million of which were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2016. The smart speaker market is expected to reach $5.5 billion by 2022.

(Via DigiTimes.)

Article Link: Facebook Smart Speaker Coming Next Year With 15-inch Touch Panel
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/07/25/facebook-smart-speaker-touch-panel/
"Amazon is reportedly working on a successor to its popular flagship Echo speaker for release later this year. The company hopes to steal the spotlight from Apple as it prepares to launch its music-oriented HomePod speaker, costing $350."

Amazon isn't going to steal the spotlight from Apple. Currently, It's Apple going to attempt to steal the spotlight from Sonos.
 
djcerla said:
Zuck is a very smart guy but this is a mistake.

A native Instagram iPad app would be much more appreciated by his users than a spyware device you even have to pay for.
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A very smart guy? For what? He's smart, that's all. Don't put him next to NASA engineers, or even his own engineers.
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Relentless Power said:
"Amazon is reportedly working on a successor to its popular flagship Echo speaker for release later this year. The company hopes to steal the spotlight from Apple as it prepares to launch its music-oriented HomePod speaker, costing $350."

Amazon isn't going to steal the spotlight from Apple. Currently, It's Apple going to attempt to steal the spotlight from Sonos.
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Or Apple is attempting to steal the spotlight from the world with the first distance charging device.
 
shareef777 said:
I wonder if those people that are scared of Google/Facebook/Amazon products still wear tin foil hats like they did in the 90s.
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Yeah, like those companies have great track records when it comes to protecting users’ privacy. Can’t believe anyone would give them a 24/7 all-access pass to their home.

Anyway. This trend is so ridiculous and dystopian but unfortunately I can only see it getting worse from here.
 
MacRumors said:
Amazon is reportedly working on a successor to its popular flagship Echo speaker for release later this year. The company hopes to steal the spotlight from Apple as it prepares to launch its music-oriented HomePod speaker, costing $350.
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Here's the thing...

If we take Apple Marketing at it's word and assume the HomePod speaker is actually better than the Echo speaker, the throw down most comes down to this: How difficult will it be for Apple improve Siri enough to be as good as or better than Alexa vs. how difficult will it be for Amazon to put in a better speaker?

We can collectively hate on all of the non-Apple players in this space because they are not Apple but this particular market is not going to be won with "a better speaker" if the software is inferior. A better speaker is easy to install and still beat Apple on price. If Alexa is still better for these purposes than Siri when HomePod rolls out, Amazon can win on speaker quality, price and software. I don't think Apple can take it's big margin and win on commodity hardware components. Thus, Apple has to significantly improve Siri to be obviously better than Alexa... OR bring something else to this that the others lack and that is not quickly replicated (such as changing out a speaker).

If Apple is really going to try to woo buyers on "better quality speaker," I don't think they can be successful at the (relatively) highest price. Imagine if iOS was inferior to Android and Apple was trying to win iPhone buyers on the claim that the internal speaker is better. If it actually is (judged OUTSIDE of Apple HQ and Apple controlled environment), competitors can simply put in a better speaker. If it isn't superior, it's a scenario of really paying up for a logo.

Personally, I'm hoping for a massive leap forward with Siri so it becomes obviously superior to Alexa AND something not yet announced that further justifies the Apple premium. Else, the existing and future players can always pack superior hardware into a cheaper-priced box and leverage better software to beat Apple on this kind of product.

Not trying to cause some to meltdown- just stating what seems to be obvious facts. Here's the weird case where Apple's main marketing punch about this so far is "superior speaker quality", something easily beaten by any of the other players one-upping the speaker quality. Usually Apple distinguishes itself on proprietary software only available on Apple hardware. In this case, the software is mostly Siri, which is not typically thought of as best of it's kind (at least by objective-minded people).
 
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Oh yay, just want i want - a speaker that is constantly listening to me from Facebook, the company who constantly messes with, resets and obscures privacy settings.
 
subjonas said:
View attachment 710051
How about this? Nice and clean. But I guess this is assuming people have a spare iPad.
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And you have to assume a mobile device will stay at home so it can be used like these (conceptually stationary) things. Once can use a mobile device as their TV too but I bet most people have a TV set anyway. One can argue it's a whole computer too but I bet many have a laptop and/or desktop too.

iDevices are a good shot at do-everything devices... but they are intended to be MOBILE. For the single, living-alone, that's no issue at all. For everyone else, the desire for generally stationary can trump the utility of using a mobile device like it's a stationary one.

It's like the very oft-thrown argument of using an iPhone as a remote control. Great if you are single, living alone. However as soon as the "good remote" leaves the home with you, the others back home no longer have a "good remote."
 
"Well now. I'm not going to talk about Judy" (Sorry, I have been watching too much Twin Peaks).

Anyway, this seems like a bad idea, for everyone. I think there are good reasons why Facebook never made a successful iPhone competitor, and I think many of them apply here too. If people must use Facebook at all then I think that is best done as software with at least some kind of 'leash' on a hardware and OS level.

"In fact, we're not going to talk about Judy at all, we're going to keep her out of it."
 
69Mustang said:
Curious. What makes you so bullish on Energous? To date, they've been more sizzle than steak. It's almost August and they have yet to get FCC approval for their mid size far field transmitter.
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Just a plethora of evidence they've been working with Apple and a 99% chance Apple is adding some type of wireless charging to an iPhone this year.
 
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