04-05-2021
Industry News Digest: Alexa-Powered Lamborghini and Many Faces of Social Audio
More tech companies embrace social audio
Ever since Clubhouse became the most hyped-up pandemic app a couple of months ago, we see more companies jumping in on the social audio trend. Last week, Slack and LinkedIn admitted to being working on audio features. LinkedIn is reportedly testing audio networking features, while Slack CEO took it to Clubhouse to announce that they’re “just building Clubhouse into Slack, essentially.” Via TechCrunch and Quartz.
Siri will no longer have a female voice by default
Apple mobile devices will soon ask users to pick a voice for Siri from a certain range when they set up the virtual assistant. Currently, the company allows users to pick between a male and female voice as well as six different accents including American, British, Indian, and Irish but defaults to a female voice for US devices. (In some countries, such as the UK, Siri defaults to a male voice.) Via CNN.
Lamborghini’s Huracán EVO will come with a built-in Alexa
According to Lamborghini, this integration will enable users to control “climate and comfort settings including air conditioning, heater, fan speed, temperature, seat heaters, defroster, and airflow direction, as well as lighting.” The voice assistant will also pull up a screen showing the car’s torque vectoring and traction control along with its usual suite of skills for interacting with smart home appliances, playing music and podcasts, and basic navigation. The Verge.
Video creation startup InVideo launches voice assistant
Five months after closing a $15 million funding round, video editing startup InVideo has debuted a voice assistant for its platform. The Intelligent Video Assistant (IVA) understands voice commands for producing and editing videos, offering suggestions, and pulling together the platform’s resources from start to finish. Via Voicebot.ai.