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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday July 06 2017, @05:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the 回声 dept.

Alibaba's version of the digital personal assistant will be available on August 8th only in China and without a display:

Alibaba's "Tmall Genie X1" will go for 499 yuan ($73) to the first 1,000 people during a one-month trial, coming in below Apple's $349 HomePod and the roughly $180 Echo. Its biggest competitor, Tencent Holdings Ltd., is developing a voice-activated digital speaker that could hit the market within months, Tencent President Martin Lau said in a May interview. And on Wednesday, Baidu Inc. showed off its own "DuerOS" personal assistant.

Taking a page from Amazon.com Inc. and Google, Hangzhou-based Alibaba's speaker offers voice-controlled services from music streaming to newscasts and calendar-booking, according to its website. Importantly, the gadget -- powered by the AliGenie system -- may eventually simplify shopping for the Chinese e-commerce giant's 450 million active buyers who turn to the website for everything from cherries to makeup.

Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.

Related:
Amazon Rolls out Chatbot Tools in Race to Dominate Voice-Powered Tech
Amazon Dominates Voice-Controlled Speaker Market


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday July 06 2017, @08:09PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday July 06 2017, @08:09PM (#535849) Journal

    Echo Dot ain't the Echo, is it now?

    https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Echo-Bluetooth-Speaker-with-WiFi-Alexa/dp/B00X4WHP5E [amazon.com]

    Price: $179.99

    The Alibaba system is compared to the $180 Echo because it is larger and has a better speaker than Echo Dot, clearly.

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  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday July 06 2017, @10:39PM

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Thursday July 06 2017, @10:39PM (#535916) Journal

    Echo Dot ain't the Echo, is it now?

    Yes, it is. The only difference is the speaker size. In the context of the article, which is talking about voice enabled digital personal assistants, the Echo dot is exactly as relevant as the Echo itself - and a lot more popular, for the obvious reason. The article was doing price comparisons between systems, not names. The Echo Dot's more capable than the older Echo in several ways, too; for instance, you can wire it right to your stereo system if you like, and enjoy fidelity far beyond what the original Echo provides. It's also (a lot) smaller / more convenient, and fits in a lot more places, and consumes less power.

    Yep, TFS is very misleading on price / system. And considering it makes such a prominent point of it... thumbs down.