To answer the question posed in the subhed, no, Polk didn't create the Command Bar by taking a hole saw to the middle of its chassis and dropping an Amazon Echo Dot in there. But the feature is unquestionably designed to look like that, and this soundbar does support Amazon's Alexa digital assistant. Soundbars are hot these days, and they run the gamut from sub-$100 cheapies to the ludicrously priced, but wow-it's-impressive Creative X-Fi Sonic Carrier. Polk is going after the better-than-entry-level market with this $300 speaker. That makes it $100 cheaper than the recently reviewed Sonos Beam, and it comes with a nicely matched subwoofer.

Earlier this year, my home was infested with smart speakers--I've used a lot of them at this point. But I've never used an Alexa device as dedicated to the cause as the Polk Command Bar, a soundbar that wants to be an Amazon Echo so badly that it's practically in cosplay. It's designed to look like engineers smushed an Amazon Echo Dot right into the center of it. In many ways, that's precisely what Polk did. Polk worked closely with Amazon's Alexa team for two years to design the Command Bar, and had to get special approval to place an Echo-style glowing blue ring, along with mute, volume, and action buttons front-and-center.

But in the last few years, Alexa and Siri have moved in. With this invasion of AI assistants comes incredible command over technology: Don't set a timer or check the weather; ask. And don't spring for that spinning, oak coffee-table caddy to house your obnoxious array of remotes. With the latest TV innovations, all you'll need to say is "Alexa, play'Dawson's Creek'" to immediately power on your TV, streaming device and soundbar, search for the show (now on Hulu), and start where it you left off. "The control and convenience that comes from the next generation of voice is really going to enhance the TV experience," said John Taylor, senior vice president of LG Electronics and friend of Eugene Polley and Dr. Robert Adler, engineers who invented Zenith's original 1950 remote.

You need sound that matches the picture you paid for. You could set up a full surround-sound system--even a wireless one--which can offer superlative audio quality but requires serious money and time. Or you could go the easier route and get a soundbar. Drop a long brick of speakers on your TV stand, plug it in, and revel in the new sound. Even stereo bars that cost around $100--such as Vizio's 29" Sound Bar and the AmazonBasics model with built-in subwoofer--will put your TV speakers to shame.

This post is authored by Mickaël Savafi, Software Engineer at Microsoft. Azure ML is a drag and drop tool that lets users create machine learning experiments. Experiments are typically constructed by adding modules, tweaking parameters and validating these changes by running the experiment. For every change, however, validation requires running the entire experiment again, and so that can sometimes get quite tedious and time consuming. Today, we are excited to introduce the ability for users to select a portion of their experiment graph for execution.