People use their phones for messaging more than almost anything else. That's why companies like Apple, Facebook, and Snapchat are dumping truckloads into making it easier and more fun to send messages. In May at I/O, Google announced Allo, its latest foray into the brave new world of messaging. Now, the app is finally available on Android and iOS. Allo looks like most of the messaging apps you've probably already used before.

Denon put wireless speaker leader Sonos in its crosshairs when it launched its HEOS wireless audio platform in 2014. This past month, Denon showed a major commitment to HEOS by integrating the multi-room audio technology into its new receiver models. Denon upped the ante again yesterday, announcing it will integrate Amazon's Alexa digital assistant into HEOS products. We should see Alexa-powered HEOS speakers and components sometime in the first quarter of 2017. With digital assistants gaining greater integration in smart devices, computers, and gaming consoles, audio is the next logical battleground.

HAL didn't want to open the pod bay doors in "2001: A Space Odyssey", but Google Allo is much more accommodating. Things didn't go so well when the humans of "2001: A Space Odyssey" tangled with the artificial intelligence HAL. Fortunately, Google's Allo is much friendlier. In the classic 1968 movie, astronaut Dave Bowman asked eerie supercomputer HAL to open the ship's pod bay doors and let him back inside. HAL infamously replied "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

Let the Great Messaging War of 2017 begin. Today, Google is launching Allo, a revamped messaging app meant to compete with the likes of Apple Messages and Facebook Messenger--two products that in recent months have steadily unveiled a slew of new features. Google thinks it could leapfrog them both, thanks to its most valuable assets: a wealth of data about what we do and search for online, and the billions of dollars it has invested in machine learning. When you message people, Allo creates smart replies akin to those found in Inbox--but those smart replies are carefully calibrated to both the content and context of your conversation. So, for example, if someone sends you a picture of them skydiving, you can immediately tap on a series of well-tuned responses: "So brave," "How fun," and "So exciting!"

The Google Assistant wants to get to know you. NEW YORK --At its most basic level, Google Allo is similar to the many mobile chat apps that let you schmooze with friends through a combination of texts, pictures, emojis and fancy stickers. But the piping hot messaging space is fertile ground for bots and artificial intelligence, and Allo, which Google starts rolling out to the Google Play Store and Apple App Store Wednesday, represents the coming out party for the AI-driven Google Assistant that was announced in May at the Google I/O confab. You'll have to communicate with other Allo users to get the full-fledged Allo treatment, but you'll also be able to send standard SMS texts to people who don't have the app. Allo, which is free, only works on Android or iOS devices.

Amazon hasn't dared to make a smartwatch of its own yet, but it might not have to when companies like iMCO have shoehorned Alexa into a wearable themselves. See, iMCO and the ex-Googlers working on the Cronologics OS have successfully turned what could've been another bit of crowdfunded vaporware into an actual product -- the CoWatch -- complete with blessings from Amazon. At last, you'll be able to order multiple pairs of shoes straight from your wrist. The CoWatch goes on sale on Amazon today with prices starting at 279, but we got to put a near-final model through its paces ahead of the company's big day. Spoiler alert: having Alexa with you everywhere you go can be very cool, but the CoWatch definitely isn't for everyone.

Recommendation systems allow executives and manager to recommend products their customers will like, and in the process take the guesswork out of marketing efforts - but they're still underused, and often under perform. We explain their use cases, how they work, why they might fail, and how to solve these issues. In a world dominated by mail, social media, youtube ads, chat applications and other communication technologies, marketing executives and managers have never had more ways of reaching out to customers. Yet this explosion in communication channels is a mixed blessing: while customers can be reached more easily, marketing teams also need to tailor their message much more than a decade ago: gone are the days of "one message to every customer". Non-tailored messages are often considered like junk or spam, and have become largely ineffective at driving sales.

It was reported that the Apple company is about to acquire artificial intelligence startup Turi Inc., in a 200 million transaction. Artificial intelligence appears to be the next big step for the main technology company worldwide. Apple is trying not to be left behind by buying this Seattle-based machine learning startup. With the acquisition of Turi, Apple is aiming to tap into the Artificial Intelligence researcher's community which has suggested that the multinational tech company is too secretive about its AI advances. As well, Apple is planning to use Turi to improve its personal assistance program, Siri.

Google has added a middleman to your mobile chats - a personal virtual assistant that is not shy about interjecting itself into the conversation. The new Allo app, launched globally today, aims to keep chats flowing by suggesting words and emoji to add to your messages. The app also includes an'assistant' to suggest restaurant recommendations when food is mentioned, and can send daily weather and sport updates. This photo combo of images provided by Google demonstrates the use of the company's new Allo app. Personal Assistant: Chats often involve making plans, and when this is the case Google Assistant can retrieve information on nearby restaurants, movie times and even the weather.

The buzziest thing Google announced at its I/O conference Wednesday was Allo, a chatbot-enabled smartphone messaging app that looks to take on iMessage, Facebook Messenger, and the Facebook-owned WhatsApp. Early sentiment about Allo is overwhelmingly positive: It looks beautiful, lets you doodle on images before you send them, comes with stickers as well as emojis, and it's the first Google product to offer end-to-end encryption, which is certainly a good thing. But if you care at all about your privacy, you should not use Google Allo. Allo's big innovation is "Google Assistant," a Siri competitor that will give personalized suggestions and answers to your questions on Allo as well as on the newly announced Google Home, which is a competitor to Amazon's Echo. On Allo, Google Assistant will learn how you talk to certain friends and offer suggested replies to make responding easier. Let that sink in for a moment: The selling point of this app is that Google will read your messages, for your convenience.