Apple is working on a new product that combines its HomePod smart speaker with the Apple TV. The upcoming device would include a camera for video conferencing and control over smart home equipment, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with Apple's internal developments. It would also include the same functionality we've seen from Apple's existing products: streaming video and audio, gaming capabilities, and Siri support. Apple is also said to be working on another product that would combine an iPad with a HomePod speaker. Similar products have been released by Amazon and Google recently, such as the Echo Show 10 or the Google Nest Hub.

Amazon's fourth-generation Echo Dot has evolved from its predecessors' puck-like appearance into a small ball, shaking up the idea of what a small smart speaker can look like. The new Echo Dot is priced the same as the last one, costing from £50, although it will be frequently available at a discount at various retailers, and looks like the full-sized £80 Echo hit with a shrink ray. It has a fabric top and front, hard plastic sides and back, and Amazon's traditional four-button array for turning the volume up and down, muting the microphones and an action button. It is a cute little ball that doesn't look like a speaker or its competition. But while it takes up the same footprint as its puck-shaped predecessor, it is about twice its height which makes it slightly less discreet in your home.

With the rapid development of storage and computing power on mobile devices, it becomes critical and popular to deploy models on devices to save onerous communication latencies and to capture real-time features. While quite a lot of works have explored to facilitate on-device learning and inference, most of them focus on dealing with response delay or privacy protection. Little has been done to model the collaboration between the device and the cloud modeling and benefit both sides jointly. To bridge this gap, we are among the first attempts to study the Device-Cloud Collaborative Learning (DCCL) framework. Specifically, we propose a novel MetaPatch learning approach on the device side to efficiently achieve "thousands of people with thousands of models" given a centralized cloud model. Then, with billions of updated personalized device models, we propose a "model-over-models" distillation algorithm, namely MoMoDistill, to update the centralized cloud model. Our extensive experiments over a range of datasets with different settings demonstrate the effectiveness of such collaboration on both cloud and device sides, especially its superiority in modeling long-tailed users.

Microsoft is buying AI speech tech firm Nuance for $19.7 billion, bolstering the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant's prowess in voice recognition and giving it further leverage in the health care market, where Nuance sells many products. Microsoft will pay $56 per share for Nuance, a 23 percent premium over the company's closing price last Friday. The deal includes Nuance's net debt. Nuance is best known for its Dragon software, which uses deep learning to transcribe speech and improves its accuracy over time by adapting to a user's voice. Nuance has licensed this tech for many services and applications, including, most famously, Apple's digital assistant Siri.

Speech processing research is at a high right now, with virtual assistants like Alexa, Siri, Google and others always listening and willing to help. But without a keen eye -- or ear -- for who this technology aims to assist, interest could wane, said Maxine Eskenazi, a Carnegie Mellon University researcher in the School of Computer Science who has worked on speech processing and spoken dialogue systems for decades. "We need to stop focusing on the agent and start focusing on the user," Eskenazi said. "It's only a dialogue if there are two individuals participating. If we make systems that are just fun for us to make but do not serve the user and do not help the user, then they'll stop using Alexa or Google."

Facebook is testing a video speed dating app that lets potential matches meet for four minutes to see'if sparks fly.' Called Sparked, the service is described as'video dating with kind people' and promises no swiping, no DMs and is free to use, but requires a Facebook profile to create an account, as first reported on by The Verge. The app cycles users through four-minute sessions, then a 10-minute second date can be setup and after that, the conversation can move to Instagram, iMessage or email. Sparked would be Facebook's second attempt at being a matchmaker – the social media firm launched a service in its main platform that was deemed the'Walmart of dating apps.' Facebook is testing a video speed dating app that lets potential matches meet for four minutes to see'if sparks fly.' Called Sparked, the service is described as'video dating with kind people' However, the latest app is a stand-alone innovation with a completely different model than the typical swiping and DMs. Sparked's theme is focused on people being kind while looking for that special someone. The first screen after opening an account reads: 'Dating is better when you're kind.

Facebook is dipping its toes further into the world of dating. The company's New Product Experimentation (NPE) Team, which creates experimental apps, has released a video speed-dating app called Sparked. It sounds a little like both Chatroulette and the video chat features that major dating apps have added since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. You'll go on a rapid-fire series of four-minute dates and, if you and the other person enjoy your time together, you can go on a 10-minute second date. At that point, you'll need to exchange contact details if you want to stay in touch.

Apple's digital assistant Siri has revealed April 20 as the date of the company's next unveiling event. Upon being asked'When is the next Apple Event?', Siri says'The special event is on Tuesday, April 20, at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA. You can get all the details on Apple.com.' Apple is expected to unveil the new fifth-generation iPad Pro, AirPods and AirTags – its long-rumoured high-tech tag device for tracking everyday items. It's expected to livestream the unveiling event online without an in-person audience, like its recent events, due to the current pandemic. MailOnline has contacted Apple for comment. Upon being asked'When is the next Apple Event,' Siri says'The special event is on Tuesday, April 20, at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA LEDs are small light sources in TVs that illuminates pixels to make an image.

If you're wondering when Apple will hold its next event, Siri may have the answer. Ask the digital helper: "When is the next Apple event?" and it will respond with "the special event is on Tuesday, April 20, at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA. You can get all the details on Apple.com." MacRumors, which spotted the reply, says the virtual assistant is providing it in certain instances on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and HomePod. While it's an open secret that Apple is planning an event for later this month where it's expected to debut a new iPad Pro, Siri has seemingly leaked the date ahead of confirmation.

Sonos's new smaller and cheaper Roam portable speaker is one that won't end up relegated to a drawer collecting dust as it sounds great at home too. The £159 Roam joins the much bigger and heavier £399 Move as the second of firm's battery-powered models and proves itself as one of the best options in a saturated market. The speaker has both wifi and Bluetooth and is triangular in shape, like a Toblerone, but only about the length of a 500ml bottle. It weighs 430g so won't drag down a bag and is easy to grip for carrying about the house. The front is a metal mesh, the back is high-quality mat plastic and the end caps are rubber to help absorb impacts if you drop it.