Company's delayed, £319 smart speaker pitched as music-first wireless speaker that can be voice-controlled via Siri Tue 23 Jan 2018 09.44 EST Last modified on Tue 23 Jan 2018 11.13 EST Apple's delayed £319 HomePod smart speaker will finally be available to buy on Friday in the UK, US and Australia. The 17.8cm tall HomePod is pitched as a music-first wireless speaker that can be controlled by voice using Apple's Siri assistant, which can also set timers, reminders, check the weather and control smart home devices. "It brings advanced audio technologies like beam-forming tweeters, a high-excursion woofer and automatic spatial awareness, together with the entire Apple Music catalogue and the latest Siri intelligence, in a simple, beautiful design that is so much fun to use," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing. The HomePod was announced in June to ship before the end of 2017, but Apple was forced to delay shipping in November as the product needed more work. Apple could only watch as Amazon got an over three-year head start with the Echo – while Google's Home is 14 months old – and it now has some catching up to do. Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, said: "This is a critically important device for Apple given the significant head start Amazon and Google have in this area.

Apple developers debuted their new home device which features Siri and Apple Music at the WWDC Conference in San Francisco, California. The HomePod speaker is photographed in a a showroom during an announcement of new products at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Monday, June 5, 2017, in San Jose, Calif. Apple's rival to the Amazon Echo and Google Home is finally ready to make its debut. The tech giant announced Tuesday it will launch its $349 HomePod speaker on February 9. Preorders for the device kick off January 26. The wireless speaker is considered Apple's contender in the surging smart speaker market, already dominated by Amazon with its popular line of Echo devices, along with Google Home.

How do we make recommendations in our lives? We do it based on our past experiences. Now imagine, what if we start making instant recommendations based on data in our real lives? First, we'll feel like an intelligent adviser. Second, we will no longer be humans.

Your message has been sent. There was an error emailing this page. Amazon's Echo Spot brings you all the features of its Echo, with a screen for displaying weather forecasts, news updates, sports scores, song lyrics and much more. All you need to do is ask Alexa. It fits comfortably on a nightstand and works well as an alarm clock and bedside calendar as well. Watch videos, call your friends, control your smarthome -- new features are added all the time.

In 2018, you'd be forgiven for assuming that any sensitive app encrypts its connection from your phone to the cloud, so that the stranger two tables away at the coffee shop can't pull your secrets off the local Wi-Fi. That goes double for apps as personal as online dating services. But if you assumed that basic privacy protection for the world's most popular dating app, you'd be mistaken: As one application security company has found, Tinder's mobile apps still lack the standard encryption necessary to keep your photos, swipes, and matches hidden from snoops. On Tuesday, researchers at Tel Aviv-based app security firm Checkmarx demonstrated that Tinder still lacks basic HTTPS encryption for photos. Just by being on the same Wi-Fi network as any user of Tinder's iOS or Android app, the researchers could see any photo the user did, or even inject their own images into his or her photo stream.

Apple will release its brand new HomePod in just a couple of weeks, it has announced. The smart speaker will go on sale on 9 February. Pre-orders will open this Friday, 26 January, it said in a statement. The 7-inch speaker will cost £319 in the UK, as well as similar prices in the US and Australia when it goes on sale at the end of this week. It will go on sale in France and Germany in spring, Apple said – voice assistants often roll out slower than other products, since they rely on having local data and languages.

Apple's own vision for the future of home audio, the HomePod smart speaker, will begin shipping on February 9th. Pre-orders for the device open this Friday, January 26th, and are open to users in the US, UK and Australia, while those in France and Germany will be waiting until the "spring." It will, as expected, be priced at $349 / £319, and is available in either White or Space Grey. HomePod is Apple's own weapon in the fight against Amazon and Google in the war of smart speakers with voice assistants. Like its rivals, the device can listen to commands, via Siri, allowing you to control your smart home and music playback.

Where you can swipe right or left for hours looking or should we say shopping, for your soulmate. Susana Victoria Perez (@susana_vp) has more. To connect on Tinder, users are supposed to swipe right. A student at Missouri State University swiped left by mistake, but not wanting to lose the opportunity, he emailed all the Claudias on campus Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018. He found her. (Photo: Leon Neal, Leon Neal, Getty Images) A Missouri State University freshman says he recently made the clumsy mistake while scrolling through his Tinder dating app.

For most businesses, machine learning seems close to rocket science, appearing expensive and talent demanding. And, if you're aiming at building another Netflix recommendation system, it really is. But the trend of making everything-as-a-service has affected this sophisticated sphere, too. You can jump-start an ML initiative without much investment, which would be the right move if you are new to data science and just want to grab the low hanging fruit. One of Machine Learning most inspiring stories is the one about a Japanese farmer who decided to sort cucumbers automatically to help his parents with this painstaking operation.

Consumers are increasingly making voice capabilities a central part of their mobile and home-based interactions. As a result, it is time for organizations to integrate voice-first technologies into consumer acquisition, sales, service and digital customer experience strategies. Subscribe to The Financial Brand via email for FREE!Based on the sales results of the past 18 months, there appears to be an almost insatiable appetite for voice devices by consumers. The demand and utilization of these digital assistants, coupled with the significant advancements in the underlying technology, indicate that voice-first devices are on the cusp of transforming commerce and marketing in virtually every industry. According to a recent study from CapGemini, "Voice assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa, and Apple's Siri, will revolutionize how consumers and brands interact in ways not witnessed since the dawn of e-Commerce. It is so much more than a new interface or an additional channel in an omni-channel world. It promises to be a curator of services and experiences that intelligently meet needs and engage consumers emotionally--anytime, anywhere."