The world got its first glimpse of Allo at Google's yearly I/O conference on Wednesday. Its creators hope the Android and iOS app will transcend similar services like Amazon Alexa, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. Receiving a photo of clam linguini prompted Allo to offer responses like "Yummy!" and "I love linguini!" Known as Smart Reply, the feature may one day keep thumbs from worrying about autocorrect, as full conversations could be had at one tap per message. As Allo gets to "know" its user over time, other responses, such as "I wish I wasn't allergic," could conceivably be produced. The app will do more than just recognize images and suggest responses, however.

Google has joined the war to be your digital butler. Speaking to a packed amphitheater of developers here, Alphabet's flagship company on Wednesday unveiled a hot-rodded personal assistant it says will let people control their homes, book movies, search the internet, ask follow-up questions about an Italian restaurant and sort through dog pictures using voice commands. The salvo places Google in the middle of a contest among technology giants to build an artificial intelligence that hold consumers' hands as they navigate the real world. Perhaps with an eye towards modern politics, Google declined to give its personal aide a gendered name. Its main physical form is a small, white, buttonless speaker called Google Home. It looks similar to Amazon's Echo, its own smart speaker powered by Alexa.

Google I/O opened with the tech giant launching a new social smart chat app called Allo. It's a mobile-only app that works just like Hangouts but it's "smarter" in a sense that it has a chat bot that will answer your queries when you have no one else to chat with. It's not a robot nanny but a chat assistant-slash-artificial intelligence that does smart search so you don't have to do it on your own. Just say'Ok Google' and see what The Google Assistant will serve up. Officially known as The Google Assistant, this concept is said to be more of an "ambient experience" according to Google CEO Sunday Pichai.

The device is similar to the Amazon Echo, which was released in the US in 2014. Although derided when it was first unveiled, the Echo has become a fixture in many American homes, although it has not been released elsewhere. But despite being well behind Amazon in releasing its own speaker, Google is counting on its AI prowess, voice recognition technology and the stash of data it already has on users to gain an advantage. By always listening, Google Home can respond to any queries just by users saying "OK Google" and issuing a command, rather than having to type a phrase into a search engine or check emails to dig out flight details.

Yesterday was the first day of Google's annual I/O developer conference: its equivalent of Apple's WWDC in terms of revealing new products and services for the year ahead. While there were no direct news about the music aspects of Google Play and YouTube, there was plenty for the music industry to think about in Google's other announcements. Starting with Google Home, a connected speaker controlled by its owner's voice, which will compete directly with Amazon's Echo. The speaker will use the Google Cast technology to stream music, which means that services like Spotify will be supported alongside Google Play Music. Amazon's speaker has been a big hit in the US, and Google is training its sights squarely on the device.

The Amazon Echo is a great product, especially if you can picture yourself using it in any of the scenarios from the video. Check the latest pricing here: (US) http://amzn.to/1lBImC8 I also highly recommend using wemo switches with the Echo for lamps and other things, like in my case my christmas tree - http://amzn.to/1TGfgMm In this review, I did not go over every single feature with the Echo, but instead, I wanted to show the main uses that I think the majority of people would find helpful and interesting. Using it with Hue lights was just awesome.

For the past year and a half, the tech world has been recovering from Amazon's surprise announcement of the Echo. Now, Google is finally doing what everybody wanted it to do: release a competitor. It's called Google Home, and it's coming out later this year for an unspecified price. You can sign up to be notified for updates at the Home website. Mario Queiroz is the executive behind the project.

At long last, it appears the Siri virtual assistant is making it to Mac desktops. MacRumors reports that sources close to Apple have shared screenshots that show Siri icons appearing both in the dock and menu bar of early versions of Mac OS X 10.12, due in the fall of this year. The site did not have any other evidence at the time beyond what its sources were telling it. Macrumors says the images come from a source that provided "reliable information about Apple's software plans in the past." Apple is widely expected to unveil Mac OS X 10.12 at WWDC next month.

Google, playing catch-up with Amazon's surprise hit Echo speaker, unveiled a rival device called Home that promises even more dazzling artificial intelligence. The Home, slated for release later this year, will be powered by the impressively chatty Google Assistant, a voice-activated rival to Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri that Google execs said can better understand human speech and complex queries. Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai -- who took the reins of the search giant last year after founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin created its holding company, Alphabet -- showed off the assistant's abilities at Google's annual I/O developer conference Wednesday in Mountain View, Calif. In addition to showing it ordering movie tickets, arranging travel and answering trivia questions, Pichai demonstrated how the Assistant can answer queries about photographs. It can even group them into surprising categories, like those that show "hugs."

If opening musical numbers are any indication, Google wanted to make sure everyone knew it was going to be a mind-blowing yet quirky day right from the start. After two years holed up in San Francisco's Moscone Center, Google's annual I/O developer conference kicked off outside on Wednesday, in a white-tented amphitheater on the company's campus in Mountain View. To begin, two musicians, placed in what looked like giant crows' nests, played strings that ran the length of the forum, stretching from their perches to the metalwork above the stage where Google CEO Sundar Pichai would soon appear. The tune was a number by Yann Tiersen, whose jaunty French folk music has found a wide and loving audience through films like Amélie. The video that followed took that vibe and gave it a Four Loko.