Another Google Assistant-powered smart display is on the way, as JBL has now made its Link View available for preorder. First announced at CES earlier this year, the JBL Link View follows the release of Lenovo's Google Assistant-powered Smart Display -- you can check out our review here. The JBL Link View has an eight-inch display and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The display is also splash proof and comes with two front-facing 10W speakers, a rear-facing passive radiator for deeper bass and 24-bit HD audio streaming, resulting in JBL's "legendary sound," as the company puts it. A number of companies showed off their Echo Show and Echo Spot competitors during CES this year.

As artificial intelligence is entering all spheres of our lives, a lot of concern is arising about the possible white bias and patriarchy of the impending AI world. Research shows women are much more skeptical of and averse to innovation in comparison to men who embrace and triumph it. This fear of technological innovation has to do with the fact that society often views the role of women as replaceable by AI, which is visible in the abundance of women robots and female personal assistants, such as Alexa and Cortana. If we're coming to the point when most jobs are automated and robots become everyday reality in our lives, we'd better make sure those algorithms are beneficial for most people, be it an Afro-American woman or a Chinese man. As of today, 85% of the machine learning workforce is male.

Google's high quality Home Max speaker is coming to Australia. The company's most expensive audio product, which boasts sound 20 times more powerful than the standard Google Home, will be available in the country from August 9. The Australian release supports Assistant's latest features, such as Multiple Commands, as well as Home Max's biggest draw, Smart Sound, which automatically adapts to the environment of a room. Home Max launched in the US in December 2017, and Canada earlier this year -- international availability of Google's products is notoriously slow, although the regular Google Home and Home Mini are already available in the Australian Google Store. The Home Max will also be available from JB Hi-Fi, Harvey norman, David Jones, The Good Guys and Officeworks, and will cost $550.

There was so much compelling news in the world of VR and AR this July I couldn't possibly cover it all with the usual depth and relish to which readers have become accustomed. This is one of those cases where by the time I returned from vacation most of the July recap below wasn't really news anymore but this news, taken as a group, is a testament to the continued entrepreneurial energy being lavished on immersive tech and illustrates how things come over the transom to me in no particular order. From upper left, "Jurassic World" at Dave & Busters, the new AR Looking Glass, "The Art of Burning Man", and the Lenovo Smart Display.Universal, Looking Glass, Lenovo, Smithsonian This story contains news and commentary about new tricks from old dogs, like Dave & Busters, and new companies we've never heard of, like Looking Glass, with extraordinary innovations in 3D object creation and review.developments in virtual assistants, AR, VR, Motion Capture, AI, LBVR. Let's talk about what they really mean. Dave & Busters launched Jurassic World VR motion platform experience at all 111 Dave & Buster's domestic locations. I spent an hour in Dave & Buster's in Times Square last Wednesday and went through the simulation twice.

Alexa, how will voice technology impact my business? Voice technology may be relatively new, but as the global popularity of Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant and Alexa shows, consumers are more than ready to move on from their keyboards. As technology improves on smartphones and speakers, the concept of physically using a device will soon become a last resort and the digital assistant will reign supreme. Voice control is the epitome of a universally intuitive and lifestyle-friendly interface. The functional practicality and simplicity of talking, not typing, will appeal to all, regardless of age, ability or generation.

With user-friendly personas, digital assistants should build consumer trust for IoT devices and set performance standards. However, do current IoT-enabled devices actually live up to consumers' high expectations? For many, the answer is, "no." According to our State of Digital Lifestyles report, global consumers aren't ready to adopt IoT-enabled devices like digital assistants, with 43 percent having no plans to purchase one and less than one-fifth (19 percent) owning one today. To understand what's causing low adoption rates, we asked consumers their opinions about the use of internet-connected devices.

Siri, Alexa, and the other personal assistants that so many of us have in our homes, cars, and pockets are designed to learn from us. They familiarize themselves with facets of our lives – what routes we take to work, what musicians we like to listen to – so that they can perform more efficiently and improve a world of artificial intelligence-powered devices. But what can we learn from the AI in order to improve our world? Turns out there's a lot.

As artificial intelligence is entering all spheres of our lives, a lot of concern is arising about the possible white bias and patriarchy of the impending AI world. Moreover, research shows women are much more skeptical of and averse to innovation in comparison to men who embrace and triumph it. This fear of technological innovation has to do with the fact that society often views the role of women as replaceable by AI, which is visible in the abundance of women robots and female personal assistants, such as Alexa and Cortana. If we're coming to the point when most jobs are automated and robots become everyday reality of our lives we'd better make sure those algorithms are beneficial for most people, be it an Afro-American woman or a Chinese man. As of today, 85% of the machine learning workforce is male.

In a remarkable new app, Google has addressed one of the most pervasive grievances of our impersonal times: voice mail jail, or its technical name IVR (Interactive Voice Response). Although IVR's multiple menu options, long waits, and tinny music are a bother, they pale by comparison with the annoyance of the technology's characterless robotic voices. This is where a new feature of Google Assistant, called Google Duplex, a technology for automating for "real world" telephone tasks, has come to the rescue. And it does so by going against the grain by including the bane of all speakers, the dreaded "um" and "ah" words, also called filler words. Listen to the audio clip in this Google AI Blog post marked "Duplex calling a restaurant," where an automated male voice calls to make a reservation with a live receptionist. You'll hear him say "um" four times in 50 seconds.

Ditching a TV remote for simple voice commands sounds great in a lot of circumstances. And, with a little help from Alexa (and some other digital assistants down the road), the Sonos Beam comes as close to executing that as anyone has so far. And while the Beam won't let you toss your clicker just yet, it's still one of the best home audio devices around, even with its $400 price tag. The Beam is the latest in the Sonos series of speakers meant to pull double duty, handling both music as well as the sound that comes from your home entertainment center and TV. It's the smallest and cheapest option in the Sonos lineup to handle that kind of task, sliding in under both the Playbar and the Playbase.