Google preparing to launch display-equipped smart speakers
San Francisco, Aug 17 : Google is reportedly preparing to launch a display-equipped smart speaker in a direct competition with Amazon and Alibaba Group Holding in the voice-activated gadgets category.
"Google targets to ship some three million units for the first batch of the new model of smart speaker that comes with a screen. It's an aggressive plan," Nikkei Asian Review quoted an industry source as saying on Thursday.
The new product would be part of the Google Home range of smart speakers, running on Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Google Assistant, similar to Amazon's "Echo Show", which is a pair of two-inch speakers with a 7-inch touchscreen that display visual output for Alexa's responses.
Google's upcoming model with the display is still likely to rely on voice commands, but users should be able to play YouTube videos, check their calendars and view maps, the report added.
The Android developer's AI speaker lineup currently features the standard Google Home, the cost-effective Home Mini and the high-end Home Max.
The first two options are positioned against Amazon's regular Echo and Echo Dot, while the top-of-the-line model competes with Apple's HomePod, which comes with the Siri voice assistant.
The search engine giant accounted for 36 per cent of over 9 million smart speakers units shipped in the January-March period of 2018 with Amazon acquiring a 28 per cent market share.
Other technology players, including JBL, Lenovo, LG and Sony have also signed up to make screen-equipped smart speakers.
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MP: 7-year-old girl raped and murdered; minor relative detained
Barwani (MP), Jan 28 (PTI) Police on Wednesday detained a 17-year-old relative of a seven-year-old girl in Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly raping her and killing her by throwing her into a canal, a police official said.
Superintendent of Police Jagdish Dawar told reporters that the body of the child was recovered from the Indira Sagar Canal on January 26, following information from residents of a village in the Rajpur police station area of the district.
He said the post-mortem report concluded severe injuries to the girl’s private parts and attributed her death to drowning.
Dawar said a 17-year-old boy, a close relative of the girl, has been detained in connection with the rape-murder.
The teenager told the police that he kidnapped the girl from her home on the night of January 25 while her family members were asleep, took her to a nearby canal and raped her, according to the official.
When the girl started screaming during the sexual assault, the minor boy allegedly threw her into the canal, with the intention of killing her. The child drowned in the water body, the official said.
The detained minor will be produced in a juvenile court.
A case has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and an investigation is underway, he added.
