Google talked about a lot at this year's I/O developer conference, but one demo quickly stole the show: a male voice on a phone, making a restaurant reservation. The restaurant was real, but the person making the call wasn't -- it was Google Assistant, powered by an AI system called Duplex that's meant to complete tasks by interacting with humans on the phone. It was, uh, pretty eerie, and it won't be long before Google Assistant is calling a business near you. The company confirmed that today that it will start testing its Duplex-powered calls with "trusted testers and select businesses" in New York and San Francisco within weeks. That said, there are very strict limits on what the Duplex-powered Assistant can actually do.

When Google unveiled the Duplex phone-calling reservation AI at I/O last month, the world was shook. Despite the potential convenience it presented, the system's ability to mimic human inflections in conversation was uncanny and borderline-creepy. Back then, we only heard recordings of what Assistant could do with Duplex technology. At a recent demo in New York, though, I got a chance to chat with the real thing, playing the role of a restaurant staffer on the call. More people will be taking calls made by Google Assistant soon, as the company begins public tests of the Duplex technology. Only a select group of users and restaurants across the US will be involved in the initial wave, though.

There are two distinct ways of looking at the new Sonos Beam soundbar: from the perspective of a person who already owns Sonos speakers, or as a person who does not have any Sonos speakers. The company says nearly 40 percent of Sonos purchases within the past year were made by people who already own a Sonos speaker, and that once people buy a Sonos product, they use it for years. You will think you are listening to Beyonce or Childish Gambino or "Chill Hits" on Spotify. But what you're really hearing is "Buy more Sonos." You will wake up with no recollection of having bought the thing, and you may have some explaining to do. However, if you've never owned a Sonos speaker and you happen to be looking for a TV soundbar that lets you use Amazon's Alexa to control the experience, then the Beam is worth considering.

Google is working on some nifty new features for Google Maps, including a short list of your favorite places, the possibility of a'virtual positioning system' and more. Assistant is coming to Google Maps in a big way, with a ton of new shortcuts, as well as the ability for the digital assistant to text your friend when you're on your way. Google is rolling out a tool called'Your Match', which uses machine learning to determine your location and interests, serving up targeted suggestions for new businesses opening up in your area and more.

Increasingly funny AI assistants get critiqued, a new version of macOS previewed and so many questions on the notion of dual-screen laptops. AI assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google and Cortana all bring canned humor to go along with their helping virtual hands. We talked to one of the writers behind the jokes, and then had several comics evaluate each assistant's material to see which one came out on top. Has Apple been listening to its critics? Maybe, based on Dana Wollman's first impressions of macOS Mojave.

The Google Home finally has the ability to speak Spanish. Though Spanish was available as part of Google Assistant for some time now, for whatever reason it wasn't available through the Home, Home Mini, or Home Max. Spanish support started to quietly roll out two weeks ago, and now Google is formally announcing the feature. Three localized versions of Spanish are available: one for Spain, Mexico, and the US. The Home and Home Mini actually launched in Spain last week (where, obviously, Spanish support was available from the start), and Google is also bringing those devices to Mexico as of today.

You can finally use Amazon Alexa for iOS as an (almost) hands-free voice assistant. The tech giant has rolled out voice control to the iOS version of its assistant, so you can simply fire up the app on the iPhone to use it to adjust your smart lights or to start playing music. You can use trigger words to summon Alexa skills, as well as ask the assistant questions about sports, history and pretty much everything you want to. For some queries like weather forecasts and movie times, it also shows on-screen responses with additional details. We said "almost" hands-free, though, because you still need to tap the Alexa button for the app to respond to your spoken commands.

As our dependence on technology builds and the privacy-destroying, brain-hacking consequences of that start to come to light, we are seeing the return of a science-fiction trope: the rise of the robots. A new wave of television shows, films and video games is grappling with the question of what will happen if we develop the technology to create machines in our own image. Westworld posits that if we could develop realistic androids, we would want to rape and murder them for fun. In Blade Runner 2049, they have replaced humans as sex workers and manual labourers. In the recently released video game Detroit: Become Human, androids are nannies, carers and even pop stars, omnipresent in the home and in city life.

A recent Refinery29 piece by lifestyle editor Cait Munro confirms what we seasoned homebodies have always known: Staying at home is cool. That declaration is based on a recent survey from market research firm Mintel that suggests almost three in 10 young millennials (people aged 24-31) prefer drinking at home because it takes too much effort to go out. And they're not alone--55 percent of Americans of all ages would prefer a night in with a glass of rosé over a bar crawl. The survey participants cited everything from wanting to drink in a relaxing environment to a desire to save money as the impetus behind their general aversion to bars and clubs, but the millennials Munro interviewed herself offered another rationale for the shift from the streets to the sheets: online dating. What Munro calls the Netflix-and-Chill factor can be accurately described by this quote from Jenifer Golden, "a self-proclaimed'older millennial' and one half of the duo behind the podcast It's Complicated" who says, "It's the whole dating idea of Netflix and like, I'm going to sit on my couch, watch all of the things that I could possibly watch and drink all my wine from Trader Joe's. Why would I leave my house? I can invite somebody over to hang out with me."

Google's line of smartwatches formerly known as Android Wear, now known as Wear OS, have suffered from sameness and repetition. But there are big changes coming this year. Google's confirmed there will be a revamp of Wear OS watches, starting with at least one product arriving this fall, maybe even up to three. Will it be Google's own Pixel watch to join the Pixel 3 phone and Google's growing line of self-made products like Google Home, Daydream View, Google Clips and the Pixelbook? Or, will it be made by others, like Google tends to do with some products?