Week in Tech: 5 must-know things
Jefferson Graham runs down the tech headlines for the week, including new voice search tools for Microsoft and Amazon, a new website to watch TV shows and app highlights.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella walks in front of the new Cortana logo as he delivers a keynote address during the 2014 Microsoft Build developer conference.(Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)
Another big week for tech as voice-activated search breakthroughs kick off the headlines. Amazon and Microsoft introduced products that made heavy use of voice search technology. Here's a look at what you need to know:
1) CALLING CORTANA
Microsoft's Cortana [1]is the company's answer to Apple's Siri and the Android Google Now voice search. Scheduled to debut next month for Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, Cortana, named after a character from the Halo video game[2], will out-Siri Siri, the company says, by doing a better job of setting appointments, offering reminders and taking notes.
2) FIRE UP AMAZON'S FIRE TV
Microsoft's Washington state neighbor Amazon introduced a $99 set-top box, Fire TV, to bring digital entertainment into the living room. Among other things, it will use voice search to compete with similar fare from Google, Roku and Apple[3]. "No more typing on an alphabet grid," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, which, as any Roku or Apple TV owner knows, can be quite time-consuming and frustrating. Instead, just hold the microphone on the remote down, and say, "George Clooney movies."
(In the Talking Tech review of Fire TV,[4] we note that the search is great — when it works. The Clooney query worked flawlessly, but a search for season 2 episodes of the Veronica Mars TV series resulted in the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls.)
3) FIND IT ON PLUTO.TV
In other tech news, a way to find all the Internet programming without buying a set-top box debuted this week. Pluto.TV [5]is a website that tries to pull together everything that's out there into one place, in a display like a cable TV program guide, promising to make it easier to find stuff. No simple task.
4) BAIER REELS IN VIEWERS
Speaking of TV, there's probably no news anchor as tech-savvy as Fox News' Bret Baier[6]. He does a weekly Web show, Google Hangouts, a daily blog, and he's all over Twitter and Facebook. Why so active?
"Sometimes we don't get outside the Beltway enough to hear enough," he says. "This enables us to hear people in other places and their concerns."
5) APP HITS
Finally, the top free iPhone app of the week, for the second week in a row, is the addictive numbers puzzle 2048, while Microsoft Word, available for tablet, is the top free app for iPad. The top new Android app is the action game Smash Hit.
That's your tech news highlights for the week. Look for the latest updates on my Twitter feed, where I'm @jeffersongraham.[7]
References
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/04/02/microsoft-build-developers-conference/7201697/ (www.usatoday.com)
- ^ http://www.kare11.com/story/tech/2014/04/02/voice-of-cortana-jen-taylor/7223357/ (www.kare11.com)
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/personal/2014/04/03/amazon-fire-tv-comparison/7250067/ (www.usatoday.com)
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2014/04/04/amazon-fire-tv-review/7275901/ (www.usatoday.com)
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2014/03/31/online-entertainment-under-one-roof--plutotv-launches/7030497/ (www.usatoday.com)
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2014/04/01/tech-bret-baier-fox-news/7137529/ (www.usatoday.com)
- ^ http://twitter.com/jeffersongraham (twitter.com)