Harman Kardon's Invoke, the last Cortana smart speaker, will ditch Cortana

Cortana is continuing its slow fade with word that the Harman Kardon Invoke, the final smart speaker powered by Microsoft's once-promising voice assistant, will disable it with an impending update. Slated for release on Wednesday, the previously announced update will essentially turn the Invoke into a "dumb" Bluetooth speaker, Paul Thurrott reports. An FAQ on Karman Kardon's support site says the update will install itself silently in the background over Wi-Fi. Once the update is applied, the speaker will no longer respond to "Hey Cortana," nor will it connect to Wi-Fi anymore. Microsoft says it will give anyone with an "active" Invoke a $50 gift card in compensation for the lost functionality.