Infinite Dial 2018: Smart speaker ownership nearly tripled in the past year

The Infinite Dial kicked off with a look at ownership trends in technology and media. Most telling, the research from Edison and Triton focused on the growth in smart speakers. Awareness of the device segment was 71% for Amazon Alexa, up from 57% last year, while Google Home awareness rose from 45% in 2017 to 56% in 2018. Considering the recent ad blitzes for the segment, John Rosso joked that those who haven’t heard of them are “probably living in caves and staring at their tablets.” Continue Reading

Gimlet Media sets its sights on kids and smart speakers with new audio project

Gimlet Media has released a new show that targets two recent trends in the podcast space: children and voice systems. Chompers is a twice-daily podcast designed to encourage good dental hygiene in kids. It is sponsored by Oral B and Crest Kids, both dental health companies, and will have new episodes twice a day for all of March. Continue Reading

Research finds Siri falling short among voice systems, but more domain support could change that

Apple HomePod is still making headlines as the newest contender in the smart speaker space. Loup Ventures conducted some insightful research comparing Siri on the HomePod with rival voice AI systems. Although Siri fell short, there are some quick ways for Apple to improve the score for its voice system. Continue Reading