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Phil’s Ramblings
Last month I wrote about the increasing Brother” in the dark as much as possible.
competition among digital assistant providers. The Essential Home is still in development,
Building on the success of the Amazon Echo, with an expectation that it will be available
Google, Apple and Lenovo have all announced later this summer. It will be interesting to see
their versions. A start-up company is working just how successful it can be in limiting data
hard to bring a similar device to market, Elli-Q, transmission outside users’ homes, while still
designed specifically for seniors. providing all the functionality of its estab-
In addition to the products mentioned lished competitors.
above, recent news includes the introduction of On a different front, Microsoft has just
the Amazon Look, a device somewhat similar announced Windows 10 S, a “lightweight”
to their Echo designed to offer suggestions for version of Windows 10 Home designed for
choosing clothing. Before the dust had settled, the education marketplace. Apple gained an
Amazon quickly followed up with another new early lead in school technology, while Mi-
digital assistant, called the Amazon Show. This crosoft went after the business market.
is the first digital assistant that includes a cam- Google’s Chromebooks have been making
era and screen, thus adding a video chat capa- inroads in both markets, however, because
bility to the underlying Alexa engine. While the of their simplicity, security and low cost.
functionality is somewhat similar to Skype, Their approach differs from the two competi-
each participant in an Amazon Show video con- tors because their operating system is actual-
versation must have their own Amazon Show ly on Google servers; the Chromebooks
device. (With Skype any computer or themselves are similar to the terminals that
smartphone with a webcam and display will suf- used to be on employee desks at companies
fice.) Amazon Show shipments are scheduled which operated a mainframe computer to do
to begin late this month. all the heavy lifting. As a result, hardware
As I write this, I have just finished read- requirements for Chromebooks are lesser
ing about yet another competitor in this arena – than for their Apple and Microsoft competi-
Essential Home. Developed by Andy Rubin, tors, but they are just as fast (or faster) in op-
the creator of Android, this device takes a dif- eration.
ferent approach. While it is intended to provide About three years ago Microsoft worked with
much the same functionality as the Echo and their manufacturing partners to develop
Google Home, it goes about it in a new way. “netbooks” like the HP Stream, designed to
The other devices are basically two-way com- match Chromebooks in cost and perfor-
munication tools. The user asks a question or mance, while still offering a full Windows 8
gives a command; the device forwards them to (and now 10) operating system to handle
an Amazon or Google server which contains many of the common application software
the AI engine that serves as the brain for their offerings traditional Windows customers were
operation. This provides the opportunity for used to on their larger and more expensive
Amazon and Google to accumulate a lot of in- devices. (More than one tech writer back
formation about your likes, dislikes, interests, then referred to the HP Stream as a
etc. The Essential Home is being designed to “Chromebook Killer”.) As I understand it,
do much of the processing right on your device, Windows 10 S represents another step by
minimizing personal information being passed Microsoft in the same direction – to provide a
up the line to the supporting servers. Given pri- low cost, simple-to-use computer for schools,
vacy concerns, this new device may prove very with minimal IT support demands.
attractive to those who are trying to keep “Big
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