Audio specialist Harman Kardon and Microsoft has officially announced Cortana- powered speaker. It is the first Amazon Echo competitor to use Windows voice assistant. Invoke is an elegant voice-activated speaker, allows you to control IoT devices, developed for busy people balancing the competing demands of work and home.
The speaker will deliver an exceptional experience to every customer by using 360 degrees speaker sound and intelligence of Cortana.
It is a voice activated speaker that can play your favorite music, manage activities, set reminders, deliver latest news, control smart home devices and much more.
What is Cortana?
Cortana is an intelligent personal assistant created by Microsoft for Windows 10, phones with Windows 8.1 and 10. It works across your iOS and Android devices and easily integrates with hundreds of apps.
See Also: Features of Amazon Intelligent Assistant – ALEXA
What is Amazon Echo?
Amazon Echo referred to as Echo also is a smart speaker developed by Amazon.com. The device connects to the voice controlled intelligent personal assistant service Alexa. The device is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks and more. In addition to all this it also controls several smart devices.
What is Alexa?
Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon. It is capable of voice interaction and fulfills your commands- at least simple ones, like dimming light, playing music tracks, providing weather, traffic and other real time information. It can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system.
Invoke and its look
Invoke is a smart speaker powered by Cortana and developed by Harman Kardon which resembles to Amazon’s Echo. It is much sleeker compared to Echo and comes with metallic speaker cabinet which is missing in Echo. This cylindrical shaped speaker has a blue light ring at the top which glows, calling Cortana to mind. It can do everything that Cortana can do.
It can do all the stuff you expect like telling weather, setting reminders, checking traffic and delivering news.
It might be available in two colors: black and white silver. It also comes with Sonique Far-Field Voice technology inside the chassis are three woofers and three tweeters that the give the Invoke “full range, true 360-degree sound.” Two passive radiators provide the small speaker with some decent bass output. These features are enough to convince users in buying it instead of Echo.
The most unique feature which makes it stand out is that you can make and receive Skype calls, making it a speaker phone.
You can easily connect it to popular music apps including Microsoft Groove, iHeartRadio, Pandora, TuneIn, and Spotify.
See Also: Features of Amazon Intelligent Voice Service – ALEXA (Part-2)
Requirement and availability
The device is official announced by Microsoft and will be available in US only from Fall 2017. Cortana voice activation will work with selected music services and home automation providers.
To setup Cortana app you need to have Windows 10 PC or phone with the Windows 10 Creators Update, Android or iPhone with Android version 4.1.2 or higher, or iPhone 4 with iOS 8.0 or higher.
Subscribe Now & Never Miss The Latest Tech Updates!