Russia isn't going to sit on the sidelines while American companies like Amazon and Google conquer the smart speaker world. Search giant Yandex has launched the Yandex.Station, billed both as Russia's first smart speaker and the company's first hardware product. The device uses Yandex's in-house voice assistant, Alice, to handle upwards of 4,000 skills like checking traffic, ordering pizza or finding flights. However, its real specialty is video -- it's an unusual bridge between audio-only speakers and smart displays. The Yandex.Station has an HDMI output that lets you stream videos directly to your TV, whether it's from Yandex's own KinoPoisk or alternatives like Ivi and Amediateka.

Schlage's Sense Smart Deadbolt is now compatible with Google Assistant, giving users with enabled devices voice control over their lock. By saying, "OK Google, is my door locked?" or "OK Google, lock my door," Sense owners can check on the status of their deadbolt or lock it using Google Assistant. The company announced that Google Assistant support was on the way during CES earlier this year. Schlage Sense locks also work with Siri and the company introduced the ability to unlock Sense deadbolts with Alexa earlier this month. To use Google Assistant with your Schlage Sense Smart Deadbolt, you'll have to get a Schlage Sense Wi-Fi adaptor, through which you can also lock and unlock the smart deadbolt with your phone.

When Apple launched the HomePod in February of this year, early users squawked in equal measures about its unbelievable audio capabilities and the fact that it was a WiFi-connected smart speaker that didn't "talk" to other speakers. Its limits, not just around stereo pairing and multi-room audio but also around some basic voice commands, established it early on as a $349 product that only true Apple fans or audiophiles should consider. But Apple promised then that key updates were in the works for HomePod, that super impressive sound machine built into a body like a soft roll of toilet paper. Now, a week ahead of its giant annual software conference, those key updates have come. HomePod is still one of the more expensive smart speakers in its class, and Apple doesn't plan to offer any kind of bundle deal on the hardware.

For years, "smart" TVs have largely been defined by internet connectivity and a wide array of apps. LG, with its webOS platform, has been at the forefront of that push. This year, the company has focused more on making its TVs more intelligent thanks to its'ThinQ' initiative, first integrating Google Assistant and now rolling out support for Amazon's Alexa. All of LG's 2018 OLED TVs and Super UHD TVs with ThinQ AI are now compatible with Alexa-enabled devices -- including Amazon Echo, Echo Show, Echo Plus. Users have the power to switch channels, toggle TV volume, browse available content and even initiate private YouTube streams in another room, all through the power of their voice.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Moscow-based Internet firm Yandex launched a $160 smart speaker on Tuesday to work with its digital assistant'Alice', becoming the latest challenger to take on the leading voice-activated home helpers from Silicon Valley.

Artificial Intelligence is profoundly changing the way we consider technology. It is advancing quickly, with key headways running from virtual assistants, (for example, Apple's Siri and Google's google assistant) to fraud recognition. This developing tech now has an impact in regular day to day existence. A research performed by Forrester Research anticipated an expansion of 300% in investment in Artificial Intelligence 2017, contrasted with 2016. Tools and innovations assume a critical part in development of any technology.

Where do I focus my marketing spend next year? The diversity of digital marketing trends is huge: content marketing, social media marketing, marketing automation and artificial intelligence – just to name a few. Check out this list of the top digital marketing trends for 2018 to decide what to incorporate into your marketing strategy next year. In the end, you will find an infographic summarizing all digital marketing trends. The top content marketing trend for 2018 is delivering highly personalized messages. Remember that personalized content is not limited to "Hello $First Name$" messages.

Voice control gadgets – such as Amazon's Alexa, Google's Home or Apple's Homepod – are becoming increasingly popular, but people should pause for thought about advances in machine learning that could lead to applications understanding different emotions in speech. The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, recently said that 20% of the company's searches are initiated by voice via mobile phones. And, at the end of 2017, analysis of the US market suggested that a total of 44m Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices had been sold. The technology has increasingly impressive abilities to recognize words, but – as an expert on acoustics – it is clear to me that verbal communication is far more complex. How things are said can be just as important as the words themselves.

Speaker: Daniel Pyrathon Recommender systems have become increasingly popular in recent years, and are used by some of the largest websites in the world to predict the likelihood of a user taking an action on an item. In the world of Netflix, this means recommending similar movies to the ones you have seen. In the world of dating, this means suggesting matches similar to people you already showed interest in! My path to recommenders has been an unusual one: from a Software Engineer to working on matching algorithms at a dating company, with a little background on machine learning. With my knowledge of Python and the use of basic SVD (Singular Value Decomposition) frameworks, I was able to understand SVDs from a practical standpoint of what you can do with them, instead of focusing on the science.

The Amazon Echo with Alexa is great, but it can act a little funny sometimes. These are Ranker's best stories involving Alexa. If you're worried about what exactly Amazon's Echo-connected speaker has been recording in your home, there's an easy way to find out. Amazon makes all recent recordings available for listening in the companion Alexa app for iOS and Android. Amazon has said consistently that the Echo speakers only listen in and record after you use the wake word, usually "Alexa," to make your request.