Samsung announces Galaxy Home speaker with Bixby smart assistant -- The Verge

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"The speaker is supposed to deliver surround sound-style audio using six built-in speakers and a subwoofer. It also includes eight far-field microphones for detecting voice input. You’ll be able to say “Hi, Bixby” to activate Samsung’s assistant and ask it to start playing music or a number of other tasks. Samsung indicated that it’d be able to do many of the same things Bixby can do on a phone.

Beyond that, we don’t have many details. Samsung isn’t ready to fully announce the speaker yet, and it said that it’d share more at a developer conference in early November.

One of the big questions hanging over the speaker is how well its smart functions will hold up. It includes Samsung’s Bixby assistant, which few have seemed to particularly enjoy using so far. If Samsung wants this to be seen as an equivalent to an Echo, it’ll need an assistant that’s about as smart as Alexa. And right now, it isn’t clear the company has that."

Samsung announces Galaxy Home speaker with Bixby smart assistant -- The Verge