Apple may have gotten a head start on virtual assistants when Siri arrived on the iPhone 4s back in 2011. But rivals Amazon and Google have a big lead when it comes to smart assistants for your home, thanks to their Amazon Echo and Google Home devices. Not to be left out, Apple is entering the voice-activated home assistant arena with the HomePod, a Siri-enabled smart speaker that's available now for $349. Apple is hoping to make the HomePod stand out by positioning it as high-end audio gear with artificial intelligence, rather than a simple home assistant. The HomePod largely succeeds in that regard, but it's not without a few drawbacks.

Loneliness and isolation have long been the forbearers and sidekicks of mental illness. When social media became a fixture in everyday life, many hoped it would remedy both issues and create a more connected and healthier human existence. But the opposite has proved true. Researchers are looking at artificial intelligence (AI) as a possible way to reverse the trends of isolation and loneliness, and thus improve mental health. Where AI can't improve a feeling of connection for social media users, it might still make things better by predicting an individual's need for intervention, and even summoning assistance from friends, family, and mental health professionals when needed.

In mid-2016 Forrester listed the five emerging technologies that will have the largest impact on the business world in the next five years: the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, augmented reality, intelligent agents and hybrid wireless networks. Today, thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are able to understand consumer behavior, interpret their needs and make decisions in real time. Its application is already unstoppable in the world of Marketing. The advantages are clear and it is up to you to decide how and where to implement it in each organisation. Smart Insights classify AI techniques throughout the customer lifecycle that can be implemented by companies of any size – they are not only within the exclusive reach of technological giants- and that contribute to the customer's conversion funnel.

After smartphones, the next big thing arguably is artificial intelligence enabled voice-activated virtual assistants. Although the smartphone will not become obsolete any time soon, interaction with multiple devices would be a reality as a result of virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri. Among the big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft that are contributing to making the virtual assistant platforms more tech-savvy, Samsung's newly announced Bixby is a cut above the rest as cutting-edge and state-of-the-art AI technology is its backbone. Bixby 2.0 is integrated with Viv which for the uninitiated is developed by the tech gurus who were the masterminds of Siri. In 2010 Siri was sold to Apple and the developers ultimately quit Apple and formed a new company of their own which is widely known as Viv Labs.

Apple planted its HomePod smart speaker deep inside a walled garden: You must have an Apple-branded mobile device just to set it up, and you can pretty much use it only with Apple's own services if you want voice control for music. The company then adds insult to injury by leaving its older iPhones, iPads, and iPods outside that garden wall. Unless you're an ardent Apple fan who upgrades to new iOS devices with relative frequency, you won't even be able to set up a HomePod. If you own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod model that Apple essentially rendered obsolete last fall when it established the hardware requirements for iOS 11, you're out of luck. You can stream music from various devices to a HomePod using AirPlay, but not until you've set up the speaker using an iOS device running iOS 11 or higher.

We worried that Apple's HomePod could fall behind because Siri isn't quite as capable as competing virtual assistants. As the just-debuted HomePod advertisement helpfully illustrates, the $349 speaker can do so much more than that. As near as we can tell, each purchase will include built-in apartment expansion, Spike Jonze visuals and dance-offs with FKA Twigs set to a brand-new Apple Music-exclusive Anderson .Paak song (Til It's Over). Or maybe it will just sound that way?

Last year the average American spent more than 290 hours behind the wheel of a car – that's roughly equivalent to seven 40-hour weeks – according to a report published by the AAA Foundation. When you expand that globally, the amount of time we spend driving is staggering. That's why automakers like Renault-Nissan, Volvo, BMW and Toyota are embracing the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide new ways to help drivers stay safe, connected and productive during their time on the road. By 2020, 90 percent of new cars will have connectivity capabilities1 and Microsoft is helping the automotive industry drive this transformation. Today at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, we announced the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform, an offering built on the powerful Microsoft Azure cloud. It brings Microsoft's intelligent services in virtual assistants, business applications, office services, visual analytics and productivity tools to the car, to reduce driver distractions and help drivers be even more mobile.

Microsoft is finally bringing its Cortana digital assistant to Outlook mobile apps for Android and iOS devices. The Redmond giant is reportedly in the process of testing Cortana within Outlook, so a future update could soon bring this integration to all users. The Verge learned from sources familiar with Microsoft's plan for Outlook Monday that the company is in the process of integrating Cortana directly into Outlook apps. This means Outlook users will soon be able to use voice commands to control the popular personal information manager. For instance they could listen to and respond to emails using their voice.

If vintage video games don't soak up enough of your Monday, give Google's Song Maker a try. The interface is a big grid, in which each block represents a specific sound, whether its a melodic tone or piece of a drum kit. When you click play, a line moves across the grid, triggering each sound as it goes, which creates a musical loop. You can make some impressive and complex compositions if you know what you're doing. Of course, I made a total cacophonous wreck that sounds like a bunch of angry babies got loose in a Guitar Center.

Right now, my house is like a party for smart assistants. There are Google Home devices all over the place, a couple Amazon Echoes with Alexa thrown around, and even a Cortana in the kitchen. Shouting a "trigger phrase" in my home sometimes causes a cacophony of responses from every room. Siri, however, showed up fashionably late to the party in the form of the HomePod, which was originally scheduled for release at the end of 2017, but came strolling in here in 2018. The first wave of reviews rolled around and confirmed what most people suspected since its announcement: The HomePod is a great machine for music, but its streaming compatibility is too narrow and its smart home capabilities are too limited to compete with Google and Amazon who have headstarts measured in years.