Roku plans to add a voice-controlled digital assistant to its streaming TV players in an attempt to catch up with Google, Apple and Amazon. Roku's voice capabilities are currently limited to performing search requests and launching apps. The assistant will be able to field broader requests about video, music and other tasks tied to entertainment. Roku plans to add a voice-controlled digital assistant to its streaming TV players in an attempt to catch up with Google, Apple and Amazon. Roku's voice capabilities are currently limited to performing search requests and launching apps Roku revealed its plans for a home entertainment licensing program, which will allow OEM brands to build soundbars, smart speakers, surround sound, and multi-room audio systems using Roku Connect software. These would also be enabled with the Roku Entertainment Assistant.

Roku plans to add a voice-controlled digital assistant to its streaming TV players in an attempt to catch up with Google, Apple and Amazon. Roku's voice capabilities are currently limited to performing search requests and launching apps. The assistant will be able to field broader requests about video, music and other tasks tied to entertainment. Still, that's a much narrower scope than the assistants already available from its bigger rivals in the battle to build digital command centers in people's homes. Google's Assistant, Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa can perform tasks and control appliances that have nothing do with entertainment.

More than a decade ago we witnessed a change in the way we interact with mobile devices. We leave the keyboard behind, although there is a proposal that maintains it, and we opted for touch screens. However, in recent years we have seen how voice control is becoming more common, and much faster and more effective when communicating with machines for certain tasks. This is applicable to mobile phones but also to other devices. One of them, perhaps the most used after smartphones, is the television and there are few companies that are providing assistants capable of understanding our orders.

"Speakers are one of the most popular things to add to a TV," Roku's VP of product Mark Ely told Variety during a recent interview. That's why one main area of focus of Roku and its hardware partners are going to be smart sound bars, which double as internet-connected speakers when the TV screen is turned off. "These smart sound bars will work with any TV, but they work really great with Roku TVs," Ely said. In addition, Roku is also working with consumer electronics companies to make Roku-powered smart speakers. These can be placed around the home, and inter-connect with each other as well as Roku-powered sound bars to play multi-room audio, giving consumers the ability to play the same song synchronized across their home.

Still, that's a much narrower scope than the assistants already available from its bigger rivals in the battle to build digital command centers in people's homes. Google's Assistant, Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa can perform tasks and control appliances that have nothing do with entertainment.

As Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, "the only one constant in life is change". And this is certainly true for anyone working in areas related to or based upon technology (and few don't these days). The pace of technological innovation is such that even the most fantastic of imagined futures seem like they could easily become reality. As existing technologies reach maturity, unforeseen developments arrive ever more quickly, and innovations make the leap from consumer applications to business (and vice versa) it's imperative that we constantly seek to find those that have the potential to add value to our own business and those of our customers. As we look ahead to 2018, I've been working with my colleagues to identify some trends that we think will have an impact on our business and industry.

Singles have been warned to avoid the'puffery' of dating websites which claim to have scientific proof they can find love. The warning comes after the popular site eHarmony was found to be misleading those looking for a partner. The company made the advertising claim that it used a'scientifically proven matching system'. A billboard ad for the website on a London Underground platform seen in July said: 'Step aside, fate. It's time science had a go at love.' Singles have been warned to avoid the'puffery' of dating websites which claim to have scientific proof they can find love (pictured, eHarmony's controversial advert) It went on: 'Imagine being able to stack the odds of finding lasting love entirely in your favour.

This might be a helpful time to clarify that AI is often a catch-all term for an assortment of different technologies. There's artificial intelligence in our digital assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana and the Google Assistant. You'll find artificial intelligence in software like Facebook's Messenger chatbots and Gmail's auto-replies. It's defined as "intelligence displayed by machines" but also refers to situations when computers do things without human instructions. Then there's machine-learning, which is when computers teach themselves how to perform tasks that humans do.

Remember how Amazon and Microsoft unveiled a team-up that would let Alexa and Cortana talk to each other by the end of 2017? As you might have noticed, that didn't quite work out as planned. Thurrott has pointed out that the voice assistant crossover still isn't available as 2018 begins. Both Amazon and Microsoft have said that they expect to say more "soon," but that's no guarantee of news at CES or another imminent event. The team-up promises to greatly simplify voice control in the home.

LG's TVs have taken home our Best of CES Award for three years running and in 2018 it's ready to take on all comers once again. As with all home electronics of the current era, the company's new TVs are AI-ready with its ThinQ technology, but you'll probably be more interested in their support for third-party smart home services like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The top of the line OLED TVs will have its new "Alpha 9" processor inside that's not only powerful enough for AI, but also ready to push video at high frame-rates of up to 120FPS. The chip also claims better color performance and "four-step process of noise reduction" although we'll be interested to see if it can be disabled to avoid any artifacts or motion-smoothing type impact on picture quality. There's no word yet on the OLED display prices, but if you'd rather stick to LCD technology that will likely be cheaper, LG's Super UHD lineup will have a similar Alpha 7 processor inside, and improved backlighting with denser LED zones.