Wow, I remember reading the original article and wondering how many iterations of hardware it would take to make the model real-time. Google went from generating 0.2 seconds of audio in 1 second to 20 seconds of audio, that's an impressive 2 orders of magnitude improvement. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if in a few years we have a real-time model with a MOS equal to (or surpassing?) human speech.

Google is borrowing from Apple Inc.'s playbook as it takes on its rival in the high end of the smartphone market. The second generation of Google's Pixel phones unveiled Wednesday feature larger, brighter screens that take up more of the phone's front, changes that Apple is also making with its iPhone X scheduled to be released next month. Both the Pixel XL and the 5-inch Pixel will also have no headphone jack, something Apple did with the iPhone last year. Google also souped up the already highly rated camera on the Pixel, boasting that it will take even better photos than the iPhone. The smaller Pixel will sell for almost $650, $50 less than the iPhone 8.

Google has unveiled its new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones, with the Android-maker bullish that it can directly challenge the dominance of Apple's iPhone. The firm is using the new high-end smartphones and Android Oreo operating system to demonstrate its prowess in combining hardware and software, using exclusive features to attempt things other manufacturers including Apple cannot. The two phones both have the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 64GB of storage as standard, front-facing speakers, water-resistance to IP67 standards, no headphones jack and new 12-megapixel cameras on the back, but have different sized OLED screens. The Pixel 2 has a traditional 5in screen with large bezels at the top and bottom and costs from £629, while the Pixel 2 XL has a modern design similar to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG's G6, with an elongated 6in screen and small bezels, costing from £799. In a direct swipe at Apple, Google's vice president product manager Mario Queiroz said: "We don't save cool features just for the large device. You get all the goodness with both phones, so the only choice you have to make is what size you want."

Sonos made a host of announcements at an event in New York City on Wednesday, including a brand-new speaker--the Sonos One--that will incorporate Amazon's Alexa voice service. And in a pledge to continue being service agnostic, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said the Sonos One will also incorporate the Google Assistant in 2018. Sonos is taking preorders for the $199 speaker now and plans to ship it on October 24. As with previous Sonos speakers, you'll be able to use the Sonos One independently, as a stereo pair, or as surround speakers in a home theater, backing up a Sonos Playbar or Playbase. You'll also be able to use voice commands to control other Sonos speakers, even ones that don't support voice commands natively.

After months filled with teases, rumors and speculation, Sonos has finally introduced its first speaker with built-in support for voice commands. Today, at an event in New York City, the company unveiled the Sonos One, a device billed as "The Smart Speaker for Music Lovers." As expected, the main attraction here are the voice features, which at launch will be powered by Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant. We say "at launch" because Sonos CEO, Patrick Spence, ended the presentation with the news that the One will also work with Google Assistant in 2018. You'll notice right away that the new speaker, which arrives October 24th for $199, looks nearly identical to the Play:1.

Sonos has finally announced its own smart speaker that's powered by Amazon's Alexa digital assistant. Called the Sonos One, the upcoming smart speaker will arrive on Oct. 24 for $199. The Sonos One will work with different voice assistants, but at launch it will be powered by Alexa, the same digital assistant that's on Amazon's Echo speakers. The company says that its smart speaker will also work with Google Assistant in 2018, making the Sonos One the very first smart speaker that support multiple voice services. "We live in a golden age of streaming entertainment," Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said.

A new feature allows users to ask Amazon's voice assistant Alexa to play "baby making jazz music." The Sonos One wireless speaker, priced at $199, will be available Oct. 24. It will support multiple voice services, launching with Amazon Alexa, but will add Siri using AirPlay 2, and Google Assistant, in 2018. High fidelity wireless speaker maker Sonos wants to make it easier for you to bring voice control to your home sound system. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company Wednesday announced an immediately available update to its Sonos app allowing Amazon devices such as the Echo and Dot speakers to control their current Sonos speakers and systems with Amazon's digital assistant Alexa.

Google has unveiled a raft of new hardware in a bid to take on everyone from Amazon to Apple and Microsoft. Among the new releases are the Pixel 2 smartphone, a $99 Pixelbook convertible laptop and the $49 Home Mini speaker and $399 Max music speaker. Sundar Pichai began the presentation by saying it has been'hard to see the suffering' of the past few weeks, and in particular the Las Vegas shootings, saying our'hearts and prayers' and with the victims. Sundar Pichai began the presentation by saying it has been'hard to see the suffering' of the past few weeks, and in particular the Las Vegas shootings, saying our'hearts and prayers' and with the victims. He said the firm was working with disaster relief agencies to help where it could.

This is the first smart speaker for music lovers, the company claims. It looks like a Play:1 on the outside (not a bad thing), but it has a six-microphone array to pick up your spoken commands and lighting to indicate when voice control is active. It'll support Alexa out of the box, but Sonos says it's open to using other voice assistants -- in fact, Google Assistant will be coming in 2018. You'll have access to Alexa's skills from the get-go, of course, but the big deal is that you can control playback entirely through voice if you like. You can tell the One to play music on specific Sonos speakers or throughout your entire home, for instance.

Sonos has revealed its new speaker: the Sonos One, built so that you can shout at it. The company has updated its internet-controlled sound system to include microphones, so that it can be controlled just by talking to it. And that can be done in a whole range of ways: unlike similar offerings from Amazon, Google and Apple, Sonos's speaker can talk to a whole range of voice assistants, and play music from a huge set of different music services. The speaker will be available later this year, and can be pre-ordered from Sonos now. It costs $199 and the same in pounds – the same price as Sonos's Play:1 speaker, to which it looks almost identical.