Apple prepares a new HomePod assistant, what is it about?

The Apple company will recover its HomePod smart speaker with a new model, which will have a processor that will integrate the next generation of Apple Watch watches, the S8 chip, and a screen on top as a great novelty.

The technology company is preparing to launch a large number of devices for the remainder of this year 2022 and for the beginning of the next.

In that sense, and as usual, the news will include four iPhone 14 models, three Apple Watch 8, several Mac computers with M2 and M3 processors, as well as new iPads, AirPods Pro, and Apple TV. In addition, it is expected to present a mixed reality headset and highlight the HomePod speaker.

Apple launched the first version of HomePod in 2018. Photo: Europa Press. - Photo: Europe Press

Apple launched the first version of HomePod in 2018 and ended production in 2021, with the intention of betting on the most compact and cheapest model, HomePod mini. However, shortly after the abandonment of the large speaker was known, Mark Gurman, an analyst at Bloomberg , echoed other plans for this product, which included a new updated model with a screen.

The list of malicious applications that would be stealing personal data

Drone pilot: what does it consist of and how much do you earn in this

WhatsApp fixes a bug in notifications of deleted conversations

Instagram tests a big change in posts, what is it about?

Google Robot Hires a Lawyer to Prove She's Alive

In his latest newsletter, Gurman detailed these plans. Specifically, he pointed out that Apple is working on a new updated HomePod model, both with a screen on top , which would enable multi-touch functions, and a more advanced processor, the S8 chip, the same one that Apple Watch 8 watches will carry.

Alexa will recover the voice of deceased people

Amazon is developing a technology based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that recovers the voice of deceased people and reproduces them through its virtual assistant, Alexa.

The company unveiled this work at the re:MARS conference , an event focused on machine learning and automation, where it demoed it.

The person in charge of making this novelty known was the senior engineer Rohit Prasad, who assured that “one of the most surprising things about Alexa is the relationship of fellowship that we have with her.”

Prasad insisted that “in this relationship of companionship, the human attributes of empathy and affection are key to building trust” and these have become relevant as a result of the pandemic.

“Many of us have lost a loved one, and while AI can’t take away the pain of loss, it can make their memories live on ,” he said.

So, he laid out a case where a child asking Alexa if her grandmother can finish reading The Wizard of Oz to her . After receiving the ‘Okay’ from the assistant, you can hear the narration of a part of this book with a different female voice.

The manager stated that this invention has required Amazon developers to learn to “produce a high-quality voice with less than a minute of recording versus hours of recording in the studio .” He announced that, in order to work on it, they have focused on this skill as a voice conversion task instead of generating that voice.

Prasad did not say when this technology will be available, although he has insisted that the company is working on it for now.

This is not the first time that a large company has worked on a system of these characteristics so that users can chat with deceased people. Microsoft, for example, registered a patent last year designed to create chatbots that would allow these conversations to be established, based on content consisting of images, voice recordings or posts on social networks.

After being involved in a controversy and after receiving criticism that this system was “disruptive”, Microsoft confirmed that it had no plans to produce this product.

*With information from Europa Press.