Too Much Time

It’s no secret that the spread of mobile devices and

faster mobile data networks has transformed global

media consumption in recent years. The average

person will spend a whopping 479 minutes, or nearly

eight hours a day consuming media this year, 12%

more than in 2011, according to Zenith's just-out

Media Consumption Forecast.

By 2020, people will spend an even more — 492

minutes a day — plugged in, per the report, easily

crashing through the eight-hour time-spent-with-

media barrier.

One-quarter of this time (24%) will be spent using

mobile devices, projected to reach 28% by 2020.

“Mobile technology is challenging brands to rethink

how they communicate with consumers,” said Vittorio

Bonori, global brand president, Zenith. “Brands need

to understand both the consumer’s mind-set and

where they sit on the consumer journey, to determine

how to communicate with them."

OLED iPhones

Apple Inc has decided to use OLED screens in all three

new iPhone models planned for next year, according to

South Korea’s Electronic Times - a report that sent

shares in Japan Display tumbling 10 percent.

Japan Display, one of the main suppliers of iPhone liquid

crystal display (LCD) screens, has lagged its South

Korean rivals in OLED production. By contrast, shares

in LG Display Co Ltd surged.

Apple recently started planning new iPhone models and

decided all three models would have organic light-emitting

diode panels, the report said on Monday, citing multiple

unnamed industry sources.

A representative at Apple’s South Korea office was not

available for comment. A Japan Display spokesman

declined to comment.

Apple Blocks Steam

Apple has blocked the plans of the biggest distributor

of PC-based video games to extend its reach into

iPhones, according to the game distributor, a sign that

Apple is serious about protecting its ability to take a cut

of digital purchases made inside games on its mobile

devices.

Steam, the dominant online store for downloaded games

played on Windows PCs, had planned to release a free

mobile phone app called Steam Link so that gamers could

continue playing on their mobile phones while away from

their desktop machines. But Apple has rejected the app,

blocking its release, according to a statement from Steam’s

parent company, the Bellevue, Washington-based Valve

Corp.

“The team here spent many hours on this project and the

approval process, so we’re clearly disappointed,” Valve

spokesman Doug Lombardi said in a statement to Reuters.

“But we hope Apple will reconsider in the future.”

Long Weekend

Here in the US of A we are about to begin the LONG Memorial Day weekend. We've given the whole staff off until next Tuesday so don't expect any post until then!

Happy Memorial Day to all!!

Alexa Scheduling

Amazon’s Alexa has been able to schedule meetings for

some time now, but starting today Alexa can schedule

one-on-one meetings based on the availability of both

meeting participants. The Alexa Smart Scheduling Assistant

also lets you move events around on your calendar with

voice commands and is the first such service to be made

available to Alexa and Alexa for Business users in the United

States.

Alexa is unable to schedule one-on-one meetings if the

person in your contact list lacks an email address, since

suggested meeting times and calendar invites are sent

via email.

However, if there’s more than one person in your contact

list with the same name, Alexa will ask: “There are multiple

people named John in your contacts, which would you like

to invite?”

Hydrogen One Handset

RED’s Hydrogen One handset is one of those devices

we’ll believe when we actually see it. The company’s

been promising up the $1,200 smartphone for a while

now, only to be hit with delays and outright admitting,

“We have no idea whatsoever what we are doing.”

Consider this some small vote of confidence, however.

AT&T announced today that it will be carrying the 5.7-inch

“holographic display device.” That, of course, shouldn’t be

taken as a tacit approval of the device, so much as a

confirmation of the fact that it does, in fact, exist.

Though in a press release tied to the announcement, a

market SVP says, “This revolutionary smartphone will

provide you with significant advancements in the way

you create and view content on the leading network for

entertainment.” So, take that as you will. Personally, I’m

holding off any sort of judgement until I can hold the thing

in my hands.

The carrier mentions “later this summer” in the press

release, which lines up with RED’s most recent mention of

an August launch date. As for price, your guess is as good

as ours. We reached out to AT&T to see whether the

company will be subsidizing the product on contract, or

simply offering up the $1,200 phone as is through its retail

channel. The carrier won’t comment on that, yet, though its

Next subsidy plan might make sense, cushioning the cost

by stretching it out over a longer period.

The Hydrogen One is, by all accounts, about as far as you

can get from a mainstream piece of mobile hardware. At

the moment, it feels more like a fun consumer electronics

thought experiment, but at least it’s one that’s real — and

coming to the second largest mobile carrier in the U.S. at

some point this summer.

Apple WWDC and Siri

For years, Apple has used the stage of its Worldwide

Developers Conference to announce upgrades to the

Siri personal assistant that would make it more useful.

This year's plan, according to a Siri trick Apple has put

out there: Siri will be smarter, get a new look and a new

voice.

Ask Siri to tell you about the WWDC conference, which

starts June 4th in San Jose, and you get one of three

answers both in audio and written form.

—"I'm gonna have a shiny new home. Well, not really

shiny, more meshy and matte."

—"La, la, la, Siri is getting a brand new voice."

—"I don't want to brag, but I'm getting a lot smarter. It

might be all that late night studying I've been doing."

The WWDC is when Apple welcomes app developers to

hear about what's new with the iPhone maker, delivers

previews of the IOS mobile operating system update and

hypes them on creating great apps to take advantage of

the new features.

What Apple promised about Siri at past WWDC's:

— 2013. Siri would get a new interface and a smoother

voice,

—2014 Apple brought hands-free Siri operation to iPhones

and iPads (say "Hey, Siri," to wake it up)

—2015. A move to make Siri more "proactive" to answer

questions without excessive prompting.

—2016, Apple announced a new initiative that it promised

would really make Siri a more helpful tool — the ability to

marry Siri with third-party apps like Uber and Circle. At the

time, Apple said opening Siri outside of just Apple apps

would make usage more widespread. But few app developers

signed on.

—2017. The HomePod, Apple's answer to Amazon Echo a

nd Google Home connected speakers, was introduced at

WWDC, with Apple touting on-command music selection

via Siri and the Apple Music subscription service.

Apple had no comment on this year's plans.

Another MSFT Acquisition

Microsoft has agreed to acquire Semantic Machines,

a Berkeley, California-based startup that develops

conversational AI – systems that help bots speak to

humans naturally – in a bid to improve its Cortana

voice assistant.

That’s a big win for Microsoft, because Semantic

Machines’ team includes some serious talent in this

space: its members have worked on the core systems

that powered Google Now; its CTO is the former Chief

Speech Scientist for Siri at Apple, while others came on

board from speech recognition heavyweight Nuance

Communications.

The move comes at a time when conversational AI’s

relevance is steadily growing: chatbots, smart speakers,

and intelligent mobile assistants all stand to benefit from

smarts that could enable them to do more than just execute

one-off commands from users.

With the tech that Semantic Machines is building, Cortana

could get better at asking and answering follow-up questions,

remembering information you’ve shared earlier, building

context by rifling through your profile, and carrying out several

functions in sequence after receiving detailed instructions from

a human.

Perhaps the best (and eeriest) example of what conversational

AI could make possible in recent times is Google Duplex, which

lets the company’s Assistant make a phone call on your behalf

to do things like a book a restaurant table or schedule a salon

appointment, by speaking with a human and practically deceiving

them into believing they’re talking to a person on the other end.

TiVo Announcements

TiVo announced today that its newest lineup of set-top

DVRs, including Series 4 (TiVo Premiere), Series 5 (TiVo

Roamio), and Series 6 (TiVo Bolt) devices as well as the

TiVo Bolt Vox, will gain support for Amazon’s Alexa virtual

assistant by June 1. Once the new firmware arrives, TiVo

subscribers with the Alexa app or an Amazon Echo smart

speaker will be able to change channels, adjust television

and A/V receiver volume, and more, with their voice.

The new TiVo Alexa skill will recognize playback

commands such as “pause,” “play,” “fast-forward,” and

“rewind,” in addition to channel-switching shortcuts like

“Alexa, go to ABC” and “Alexa, watch NBC.” It will also

support app launching — users will be able to open Netflix

by saying “Alexa, open Netflix,” for example — and platform-

specific TiVo features such as commercial skipping and eight-

second rewind.

The new voice controls seem to at least partially

cannibalize TiVo’s voice-enabled Vox remote, which

launched alongside the TiVo Bolt Vox and Mini Vox last

fall but is sold separately for $39. Vox adds voice functionality

to the TiVo Bolt, Roamio, and Mini, including playback

controls; the ability to search for movies and television

shows across live TV, DVR, video-on-demand, and streaming

services; and quick access to recorded content. The Alexa skill

may not have as many features, but existing Amazon Echo

device owners will now be less likely to purchase the remote.

MSFT Xbox Controller

Microsoft stumbled into the accessibility market about

three years ago, with the launch of the Xbox One Elite

controller. The Elite wasn't designed to help people with

disabilities play video games -- in fact, it was built for

hardcore players who wanted more mapping options by

adding rear paddle buttons, more sensitive triggers and

interchangeable analog sticks to the classic dual-grip

Xbox gamepad.

It just so happened these features were also in high

demand at organizations like AbleGamers, whose goal

is to make gaming accessible to anyone with disabilities

via education, community support and the creation of

custom controllers.

Around this time, Xbox's inclusive lead for product

research and accessibility, Bryce Johnson, reached

out to AbleGamers with a proposal. Johnson and a

small team of developers had just submitted a prototype

of an accessibility-focused controller to the annual

Xbox hackathon, and they wanted feedback on the

Design.

"We started jumping onto multiple calls with Microsoft

employees and Xbox hardware developers and talking

about this controller," AbleGamers COO Steven Spohn

said. "Bryce had been working with us on the Elite and

wanted to bring in our input for this new controller. It was

to be a device much like our own Adroit -- a standard

Xbox controller that could use switches, only this new

project could be everything we ever wanted to do better

and more."

That was two and a half years ago. Today, Microsoft

revealed the Xbox Adaptive Controller, the latest and

most disparate evolution of its gamepad line.

Trust Smart Speakers?

As it turns out, even consumers who willingly keep a

smart speaker in their homes don't trust them with

certain personal information.

A recent survey from comScore showed that 70% of

smart speaker owners haven't used theirs to order items

online, presenting a big challenge to the AI-powered

device's potential to serve as a new consumer shopping

System.

Concerns about security outweigh complaints about

product performance or features as the top reasons

consumers don't buy stuff on their smart speakers. A

lot of consumers don't feel comfortable sharing payment

information or purchasing data with their smart speakers

just yet, and a lack of trust isn't as easily resolved as a

product flaw.