Within a decade, our living spaces will be enhanced by a host of new devices and technologies, performing a range of household functions and redefining what it means to feel at home. The promise of devices that not only meet our household needs but anticipate them as well has been around for decades. To date, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. Advances such as the Nest thermostat by Alphabet (parent company to Google) and Amazon's Alexa personal assistant are notable, but the home-technology market as a whole remains fragmented, and the potential for a truly smart home is still unrealized. A tipping point may be at hand.

Google Home is bumping up its smart home capabilities to better compete with Amazon's Echo lineup. The search giant just announced that you can now use Home to turn on Belkin WeMo products such as smart plugs and light switches. Google Home is also supporting Honeywell thermostats for those times you need to turn up the heat without getting off your chair. The new Home features should be available now. You can check by opening the Google Home app on your phone.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. The race to build the next Jarvis has intensified in the last 6 months. Amazon's (presumed) Christmas Alexa sales - alongside wide acclaim for Google's Assistant - have opened a few eyes in the tech world, and now Apple is starting to make noises about AI.

The League, which is often described as an "elitist dating app" and "Tinder for the rich," has arrived on Google Play. If you're wondering why you don't hear a lot of people talk about their experience on it, it's because the service promises exclusivity by having aspiring members go through a rigorous screening process. The team will vet your job, your degrees, your looks and other aspects of your life before you can get in -- and you might even have to deal with a waitlist. According to founder Amanda Bradford, the launch on Android is an important step to grow the app's user base. "Opening up The League's community to Android users is something we wanted to do yesterday. By design, The League's target demographic is incredibly small -- we're only accepting 10 to 20% of users who sign up. Opening up to Android allows us to double our user base without lowering our acceptance standards, while also increasing diversity of our user base. We can also now finally expand internationally, something we plan to do this spring."

Samsung is expected to replace its S-Voice functionality with an artificially intelligent Bixby voice assistant in its upcoming S8 device. But, how would Bixby fare in comparison with Google Assistant -- the U.S. tech giant's Artificial Intelligence enabled voice assistant? "Samsung and Google will have to continue to maintain their strategic partnership to nurture the AI and the market for the emerging technology," Lee Kyeong-Tae, corporate strategy planning vice-president, Samsung Electronics told The Investor on Tuesday. Samsung has in the past come out with devices having two voice assistants, S-Voice and Google Voice. But this time, the company seems to have different plans for Bixby.

Virtually every major smartphone vendor, from Apple to Samsung to LG to Huawei, is expected to release devices featuring artificial intelligence this year. Industry sources tell DigiTimes that virtual assistants will once again play a large role in the mobile industry in 2017, and that significant upgrades are on the way. According to DigiTimes' sources, Apple is working on an "enhanced" version of its Siri virtual assistant for its next generation of iPhone devices. The report doesn't specify whether or not this new Siri will appear on the iPhone 8, but with all the talk of the sweeping changes and additional features Apple is planning to bring to the iPhone for its 10th anniversary, a more advanced Siri would make sense. The report also points to Apple's acquisition of machine learning and AI startup Turi last August, which it says will allow the company to "further strengthen the functionality, as well as the market share" of Siri, which is now competing with the likes of Cortana, Alexa and Google Assistant.

When Apple removed the traditional headphone socket from its latest iPhone, part of the rationale was that wireless headphones were now coming into the mainstream. And Apple had its own player in this field, its AirPods. But then there was an unexpected delay in their launch, raising fears over technical issues. Now they're finally here, are they worth the £159 price tag? The AirPods are not the first wireless earbuds on the market, but until the start of 2016 they all had a cable joining the right and left earbud.

Apple released Tuesday the iOS 10.3 Beta 1 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The Beta 1 is a Developer Beta and not a Public Beta, which means that its availability would be restricted to iOS developers for now. Still, the iOS 10.3 Beta 1 holds clues to features that will be included in the final version of iOS 10.3 when it releases as official software update to all eligible iPhone, iPad and iPod models. Here are five features you can expect in iOS 10.3: While Apple introduced the AirPods back in September, the wireless earphones were just recently made available to customers.

At CES 2017, plenty of car makers were showing off the latest tech. One of the most interesting developments is that popular digital assistants are making their way onto infotainment systems, with Nissan and BMW demonstrating Cortana. Cortana will be familiar to Windows users as it's built into Windows 10 as well as Windows phones. Although there's no firm date yet when you'll be able to buy a car with Cortana, both Nissan and BMW unveiled their plans at CES to bring the digital assistant to some models in their ranges. Nissan's demo showed the most advanced integration, with Cortana able to tailor preferences and settings based on who's driving, which suggests user profiles will be involved.

If your Google Home device is not responding to your commands, then it's probably due to a dirty mic. Tech junkie and web developer Robby Payne shared his experience this week and advised other users who may encounter the same problem to try this nifty trick in making the Google Assistant-powered speaker receptive again. In Payne's story, which he shared on Chrome Unboxed, his Google Home device stopped responding to his questions and commands one day. The lights atop the speaker would spin upon hearing his daughter's questions, but the device would go out and not provide any response. Despite resetting the AI speaker, it still remained to be unresponsive.