Samsung is wading into the smart-speaker market with an entirely new product called the Galaxy Home. The speaker has a large, rounded body and sits on a tripod -- a very different design from competing speakers offered by Amazon.com, Samsung announced a partnership with Spotify, which is the default music player for the Galaxy Home. The speaker will be able to pick up streams from a Galaxy phone and hand it off to the speaker. The company didn't say much about the Galaxy Home apart from acknowledging its existence, and promising more details will come at its developers conference in November.

Apple may have released the HomePod just a few months ago, but rumors are already circulating about what's in store next for the smart speaker. The latest is that the iPhone maker could be preparing to release a cheaper version of the $350 HomePod, according to Chinese site Sina. The device would be priced at a significant discount of up to $200, and would be available through Apple's Beats audio brand. Apple might be releasing a cheaper, smaller version of its HomePod speaker. The report from Sina doesn't mention when a cheaper HomePod would go on sale, but noted that Apple is discussing the plans with one of its suppliers, a Taiwanese chip manufacturer called MediaTek.

Smart speakers have become one of the hottest markets in consumer tech. Amazon Echos and Google Homes were among the most popular gifts this past holiday season, and that sales bump solidified Amazon as the leader in the space. Apple has since struggled to catch up, with its recently launched HomePod, but other hardware makers have rushed to get in on the hype, integrating Alexa and Google Assistant into their own headphones, wearables, and speakers. Each of the three big smart-speaker platforms includes its own integrated music player--Amazon Prime Music, Google Play Music, and Apple Music. But for 159 million music lovers, another app is their player of choice: Spotify.

This is how the robot revolution starts. Boston Dynamics' robots won't be held back by puny humans Are you looking for the exact moment robots decide to turn on their human creators? You might want to mark this day on your calendar. Boston Dynamics has posted video of a SpotMini test where it gauged the bot's ability to adjust to interference -- in this case, from a pesky human. It needs hardware.Spotify might be building a smart speaker of its own Spotify might be working a smart speaker, according to new job listings.

Music streaming service Spotify may already be working on its own smart speaker. A trio of job listings posted by Spotify suggest that the company is set to start manufacturing its new upcoming hardware product. "Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organization for manufacturing, supply chain, sales & marketing," Spotify said on its "operations manager" job listing. Other hardware related job listings include "senior project manager: hardware production" and "project manager: hardware." The job listings were first spotted by MusicAlly.

It's better late than never for Facebook, who is now in the process of developing its own smart speaker. Mark Zuckerberg's social networking company is believed to be taking cues from Amazon's Echo Show for its upcoming hardware. On Thursday, industry sources disclosed to DigiTimes that Facebook's new hardware team, called Building 8, is the one in charge of the development of the company's smart speaker. The device that is currently in the works reportedly features a touchscreen. While the inclusion of a display fuels speculations that it could be an Amazon Echo Show copy, fans can rest assured that Facebook's hardware would be very different.

Roku could be next in line to create its very own smart speaker. The company's latest batch of job offers, and recent hires, have got Variety speculating that it may be prepping an Amazon Echo clone. Roku is currently advertising for multiple roles, with an eye on recruiting audio and voice experts. One open position for a senior software engineer claims the individual will be tasked with building the company's "center of audio excellence." It's also on the hunt for a "voice user interface designer" who will act as its "expert on all things voice related."

Facebook on Wednesday reported a surge in profits in the past quarter, fueled by strong growth in money-making ads to its more than two billion users. Net profit in the second quarter leapt 71 percent from a year ago to $3.9 billion while revenue climbed 45 percent to $9.3 billion. In after-hours trade, Facebook shares rose some two percent to $166.83 on the stronger-than-expected results. Recent reports suggest Facebook may be working on its own smart speaker to compete with Google Home and Amazon Echo in the budding market for home digital assistants. Facebook could also be working on a smartphone, according to paperwork recently spotted by cyber sleuths which the tech giant filed earlier this year.

Samsung is rumored to be making its own smart speaker that will be powered by the Bixby smart assistant. However, it looks like the South Korean company has doubts on the marketability of such a device. "Samsung currently does not view Al speakers as marketable, as the global market is already dominated by unbeatable Amazon and the Korean market is too small to make profits," an anonymous source told The Korea Herald. "More importantly, Samsung cannot afford to focus on the uncertain market, as most of its AI specialists -- whose number is much less than that of the US tech giants -- are currently going all out to develop the Bixby version in English." Samsung might simply be taking a "wait-and-see attitude" towards its ambitions for a smart speaker, mobile industry specialist and researcher Kim Jong-ki suggested.

Samsung is rumored to be building its own smart speaker, which will be powered by its Bixby voice assistant. The development of the device is said to have slowed down due to the lack of progress with Bixby. Samsung's smart speaker is said to be codenamed as Vega, according to The Wall Street Journal (via The Verge). Unfortunately, the WSJ's report didn't include details about the smart speaker's specifications, nor did it provide a timeframe for when consumers can expect it to be released. What was made certain about the report is the development of project Vega is being slowed down.