Smart Speakers

Are you excited about the better sound quality promised by Apple's new high-end HomePod smart speaker?

If so, a new poll suggests you're in the minority of US consumers.

Morning Consult polled 2,200 adults between June 8 and 12 about what features matter most when buying a voice-controlled smart assistant. Thirty percent of respondents said price mattered most, more than double the 14 percent who said the accuracy of the device's voice recognition was the top priority.

That's not to say features like audio quality and compatibility don't matter. It's just that price trumped the rest.

That could make it hard for the HomePod, which is scheduled to go on sale in December for $350. Amazon, in the smart speaker business since late 2014, sells its Echo for $179.99. Google's Home speaker, introduced last year, sells for $129.

Digital Experience - Still More

By Bayle Emlein

Looking for a new, smarter phone? Of course you are.

As soon as the box for the new model arrives, we’re all shopping for the next exciting features. Coolpad, distributed by Cricket in the US, addresses the drive to use our telephone-shaped devices for everything including voice communication. The Coolpad Canvas screen is so sharp graphic artists will be tempted by the 5.5" drawing surface. And at MSRP prices under $50, you can afford to outfit the whole family.

At the time of the Spring Digital Experience show in San Francisco, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 chip was standard hardware, providing plenty of power to operate all features seamlessly. The operating system, essentially Android Nougat, did the same in a familiar interface. What’s not to like about these phones?

Digital Experience - Continued

By Bayle Emlein

At last, 3D printers are simple enough and affordable in the mass market. Because of 3D printers from Monoprice, “just because I want one” is good enough reason to get one.

The MP Select Mini comes out of the box ready to go. The analogy to automobiles is apt: at first just the fact that you could make the technology work was enough; then people wanted to be able to use the technology on their own, without a support team, hours of research and training, or investing a year’s income. The next steps in product innovation will come from what seems like random playing around and going down lots of roads to nowhere.

Monoprice 3D printers gives each of us the chance to be on the front edge of the wave. Besides designing tchotchkes for conferences and trade shows, I’m interested in figuring out how to develop a pair of shoes that really fits my feet and my notion of cute. In the meantime, get yourself a 3D printer and become a leader the next development in human tool making. A leader, of course, has followers and supporters: Monoprice offers a support team for users of its products.

Wonder Woman

In the weeks leading up to the premiere of Warner Bros./DC Entertainment's "Wonder Woman," the internet was peevishly aflutter with think pieces and armchair analyses of the studio's alleged mishandling of the movie's marketing. People who didn't have vast reserves of experience in launching multimillion-dollar media campaigns charged Warner Bros. with intentionally trying to tank "Wonder Woman" by failing to promote it, a paranoid web of assertions that didn't take into account certain quotidian factors such as the film's release date and production budget. In the history of cinema, no one has ever purposely botched the launch of a $150 million franchise.

Like most internet controversies, the premature nattering about the promotion of "Wonder Woman" turned out to be a whole lot of nothing. After a robust pre-launch campaign that incorporated everything from on-site promotions at South by Southwest and WonderCon to a Nascar integration to a TV-heavy paid-media plan, "Wonder Woman" opened last weekend to an impressive $103.3 million in domestic box office receipts. That marked the all-time most lucrative opening for a movie directed by a woman -- Patty Jenkins also wrote and lensed the 2003 Charlize Theron drama "Monster" -- and put "Wonder Woman" on a pace to rake in as much as $300 million in stateside sales.

As is generally the case with blockbusters, TV did a lot of the heavy lifting. According to iSpot.tv estimates, the studio thus far has invested $24.8 million in national TV inventory, which is within shooting range of the initial outlay for Warner/DC's 2016 release, "Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice." The comparable TV spend for that film, which introduced Gal Gadot in the Wonder Woman role, was $29 million.

Much of the "Wonder Woman" dollars have landed at the Big Four broadcast networks, with the movie's TV campaign beginning in earnest during CBS' coverage of the 2017 Div. I Men's Basketball Tournament. Along with the standard trailers and 30-second cutdowns, Warner Bros. also sprung for a custom spot featuring "Supergirl" star Melissa Benoist and Lynda Carter, who wielded the golden lasso in the 1975-79 ABC/CBS live-action "Wonder Woman" show. That particular execution aired on the CW during the May 22 season finale of "Supergirl."

Father's Day Gifts

If you were planning to get your dad another necktie for Father’s Day, you might want to reconsider.

According to a new poll by Ebates, electronics is the most wished-for purchase by fathers, at 18 percent. Power tools came in second at 15 percent, with tickets to a sporting event a close third (14 percent).

Fortunately for fathers, their spouses and kids are in general agreement, with 15 percent believing the man of the house wants to be gifted with power tools, while 14 percent voted for CE.

But if thoughts of 75-inch 4K TVs are dancing in their heads, dream on dude; the majority of respondents (62 percent) plan to spend less than $50 on a Father’s Day gift.

Yet 30 percent of those polled said that dads are under-appreciated and nearly a quarter believed he’s “the glue that holds the family together.” But sadly only one in 10 pops expected their families to do something special for them on June 18. So show your dad and the tech industry you care and get him something nice (and expensive).

The survey was conducted on behalf of Ebates by Propeller Insights and fielded among 1,000 adults. The cash-back shopping platform is a subsidiary of leading e-tailer Rakuten, and a sister site to BFads.net and FatWallet.

Honda Self-driving Cars

The president of Honda Motor Company has said his firm will aim to develop fully self-driving cars by around 2025, amid increasingly fierce international competition to produce autonomous vehicles.

“We hope to establish technologies (for fully automated cars) by around 2025,” President Takahiro Hachigo told reporters earlier in the week at the company’s research and development center in Tochigi Prefecture.

Honda is now aiming to develop fully automated “level 4” cars that require no steering wheel or brake operations under specific conditions such as the time of day, location and type of weather. “Level 4” cars are just one step short of “level 5” vehicles, which make driving completely autonomous with no restrictions.

Japan’s third-largest automaker by volume is struggling to gain a competitive edge in self-driving technology over its global rivals.

Nissan Motor and U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla are already selling their respective “level 2” cars, which offer automation of multiple functions including control, acceleration and steering.

U.S. automaker Ford Motor and German carmaker BMW are aiming to produce fully driverless cars by 2021.

Honda currently aims to launch self-driving vehicles that can drive and switch lanes on highways by around 2020, the year of the Tokyo Olympics.

“We will take (our self-driving cars) to local streets after realizing (self-driving) on expressways,” Hachigo said.

Smart Speakers

Competition is heating up in the global market for AI-powered smart speakers, as more global tech companies introduce new devices to rival forerunning voice-activated home speakers -- Amazon’s Echo and the Google Home.

This week, US tech giant Apple unveiled HomePod, the firm’s first voice-activated standalone speaker running on Apple’s artificial intelligence software Siri. It is equipped with Apple-engineered audio technology and advanced search algorithms.

The $349 Apple HomePod, available in black or white, will begin sales starting from December, initially in Australia, the UK and the US, Apple said in a press release.

Given Siri, already available on iPhone devices, currently supports more than 30 languages including Korean, Apple’s smart speaker is widely expected to hit other international markets in the near future.

Apple’s foray into the AI-powered home speaker segment comes as many competing tech giants around the world are also launching their own products with aims to grab a share of the growing market.

Amazon’s Echo, released in 2015, currently dominates markets like the US where home speakers are growing in popularity. According to market research firm eMarketer, Amazon will capture 70.6 percent of all voice-enabled speaker users in the US this year.

The remaining portion will be shared among smaller players, such as Lenovo, LG, Harmon Kardon and Mattel, it said.

Despite Amazon’s dominance, the smart speaker market is still considered a worthwhile investment due to its growth prospects. According to eMarketer, 35.6 million Americans are expected to use a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month this year, marking a 128.9 percent growth from last year.

“Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with the technology, which is driving engagement,” Martin Utreras, vice president of forecasting at eMarketer said in a statement. “As prices decrease and functionality increases, consumers are finding more reasons to adopt these devices.”

Eyeing this growth, not only Apple but also other tech giants including Samsung Electronics and Microsoft are preparing to launch smart speakers of their own this year.

Microsoft and Harman Kardon, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, are slated to release a voice-enabled speaker that plays music and handles everyday lifestyle tasks like managing calendars and checking for traffic this fall.