Earlier this month, Google held its Google I/O developers conference and showed off Google Home, an in-home product to compete with the Amazon Echo.

Amazon Echo and Google Home are products that work a variety of tasks, including being a wireless speaker, as well as an always-connected device that can respond to voice commands and queries. With Google Home and Google’s new Assistant feature, owners will be able to have limited conversations with the device, and with third-party connections be able to buy things like movie tickets, too.
Just a couple of days ago, a report surfaced that outlined Apple has had plans to build a product like the Amazon Echo, and Google Home, and that the project is well underway to being announced soon. That includes a brand new Siri SDK that could be shown off at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple is rumored to open up Siri’s reach to third-parties.
Now, according to an unnamed source speaking with VentureBeat, Apple’s plans may have come further into the light. The source spoke to the publication, saying that Apple wants to make the Apple TV “the hub of everything.” With as much money as the company has invested in the set-top box, including the latest generation device running tvOS, and the new Siri Remote, Apple sees that device as the means to launch a Google Home/Amazon Echo competitor.
To make that happen, a few things will have to change in a future model of the device. That includes a new Apple TV with a dedicated speaker and microphone, and even deeper Siri integration. The report also states that some changes will need to be made to the computing infrastructure to make this change work, but what that actually means and what it will look like remains unknown.
“Apple has considered several options — turning the existing Apple TV into a more comprehensive assistant, making the Apple TV’s Siri Remote the key device, or even building a standalone speaker just like Echo. Ultimately, the third option was dropped, given how much money Apple has spent on the development of Apple TV.
The problem with using the remote as the hub is that it doesn’t have a battery — it needs to be charged occasionally with a Lightning cable. The box itself has no microphone, but if it did, fan noise from a nearby device, like a television, could make speech recognition challenging. The Apple TV will eventually get its own microphone and speaker, the source said.”
The problem with using the remote as the hub is that it doesn’t have a battery — it needs to be charged occasionally with a Lightning cable. The box itself has no microphone, but if it did, fan noise from a nearby device, like a television, could make speech recognition challenging. The Apple TV will eventually get its own microphone and speaker, the source said.”
As for when a new Apple TV could be released, that remains a mystery as well.
What do you think of this idea? Do you want an Apple-branded competitor to Google Home and Amazon Echo?
[via VentureBeat]
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