Amazon's Fire TV software is jumping out of set-top boxes and into its first 4K television set. The online retailer recently made available for pre-order the Element Amazon Fire TV Edition 4K TV. The set comes in 43-, 50-, 55-, and 65-inch screen sizes priced at $450, $550, $650, and $900 respectively. The televisions are expected to start shipping on Wednesday, June 14. Those are cheap prices for a 4K TV, especially one with smart features.

For the second year running, Google's massive I/O developer event will take place at the storied Shoreline Amphitheater, right around the corner from the company's Mountain View headquarters. Last year's conference had a host of major announcements worthy of such a high-profile venue -- it's where Google Home, the Google Assistant and the Daydream VR headset were all introduced. But this year, things seem like they'll be a little quieter, at least in terms of big consumer-facing hardware. It'll probably be a year of refinement, where big initiatives continue to be polished. We'll be there all three days this year, bringing you breaking news, analysis, interviews, videos and more.

While presenting own advanced Robo-Advisory Platform, Michał Różański, Managing Partner at EARP and CEO at Empirica, will illustrate the most important issues of building tailored FinTech software in his session at 20th Cloud Expo. He will share experiences we have gained for over 6 years of developing solutions for financial institutions and FinTech companies, including robo-advisors. We welcome all FinTech innovators interested in how properly implemented technology can move their businesses forward. Speaker Bio Michał Różański is Managing Partner at EARP and CEO at Empirica, the first european FinTech Software House, which delivers highly specialized software development services for financial industry. He is also the architect behind Empirica's flagship products like Empirica-Advisor, the robo-advisory software for wealth managers and Algorithmic Trading Platform, the cutting edge algorithmic tools for professional investors.

Facebook wants computers to better understand what people say. The social networking giant unveiled a research project on Monday that is aimed at jump starting the development of more powerful voice-recognition software used in things like Apple's (aapl) Siri, Amazon's (amzn) Alexa, and Google's (goog) Assistant. And the company is asking outsiders for help. Facebook's goal is for computers to eventually have meaningful conversations with humans. If successful, it would be a major step forward from current technology, which is still in its early stages. People can currently do some basics like using their voices to ask Amazon's Echo home speaker to play the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night or navigate automated phone trees when talking to your cable company.

Slated to hold its developer conference this week, Google is keeping up with the competition and bringing its artificial intelligence assistant to the iPhone, according to news reports. First reported by Android Police and confirmed by Bloomberg, Google is slated to bring its Assistant voice-powered assistant to the iPhone, as well as the company's existing Photos app and GE home appliances. Google I/O, where the company is expected to make the announcements, starts May 17. The Assistant is slated to be available in the App Store. Apple, which has its own virtual assistant, Siri, has been tight about allowing competing assistants on to its devices, but it has opened up the gates in recent months.

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham says Google Home is improved but is still a work in progress with some gaping holes. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham says Google Home is improved but is still a work in progress with some gaping holes.

Google's voice-controlled Assistant has only been available on Android and Home so far, but it might just spread its wings in the very near future. To start, Bloomberg tipsters claim that Google will use its I/O developer conference to launch Assistant on iOS as a free app. It wouldn't have the deep integration that comes with Android, but you could use it to access content available in YouTube and other Google apps. The app would only be available in the US at first, but you might not mind so much when the same sources also hint that Assistant will also provide a boost to Google Photos and appliances. Reportedly, Photos will use Assistant to help you create coffee table books from your image library.

NEW YORK--You've been able to ask Amazon's Alexa to help you search for movies and TV shows and deliver other Alexa "skills" through your television set. But only if you connected Amazon's Fire TV external streaming media player or Fire TV Stick to the TV. On Tuesday, Amazon begins taking preorders on Element Electronics Ultra HD 4K smart TVs, the first televisions with the Fire TV Edition built in. Amazon had announced way back during the CES industry confab in January that TVs with the company's Fire TV platform would be coming later in the year. With the supplied voice remote control, you can summon Alexa and bark out various commands: to have Alexa change channels, access more than 300,000 TV episodes and movies from Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO NOW, Showtime, Hulu, Sling TV and other content providers. You can also tap into what Amazon says are 15,000 channels, apps and Alexa skills.

The company best known for its search engine wasn't kidding around: It made hardware the centerpiece of its Google I/O developers conference here and later poached Amazon executive David Foster, who ran the lab responsible for Amazon's Kindle tablet and Echo smart speaker, to head hardware product development. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has referred to hardware as "our next big bet." A year later, Google has discovered that hardware can be, well, hard. As Google gets ready to lay out its vision at this year's I/O Wednesday, it's still making that hardware bet pay off. Pixel phones are in short supply and relatively few have sold.

Keeping up with all the news about new and improved chatbots is becoming close to impossible, and AI is still not there to summarize it all for us. Recent developments include Amazon bringing out in quick succession the Echo Look and the Echo Show, aiming to improve further its commanding 70% market share (for more on this, see below). Google showed off its AI prowess and raised the stakes by allowing up to six different voices to control Google Home and Microsoft teamed up with Harman Kardon to produce a voice-activated speaker featuring Cortana. But the rush to the new voice frontier is not limited to the battle for the smart home and established enterprises are on the voice wagon in full force. At a recent fintech conference, Bank of America executives talked about Erica, an AI assistant it will introduce later this year, allowing consumers using bank's mobile app to chat via voice or text message.