Microsoft showed off HP's upcoming Cortana speaker at Computex today, giving the world its first look at the small device. Unfortunately for those that were hoping for a standalone device that would be similar to Harman Kardon's Invoke speaker, HP's will actually need to be tethered to a Windows 10 PC, according to a report from The Verge.
The device will include far-field voice technology, serving as an input for Cortana, and it appears that HP will market this as a companion to its lineup of PCs.
In fact, we still know very little about the device itself, as actual hardware wasn't even shown off at the event. We still don't know its name, pricing, or availability and while it seems likely, we can't confirm that this device will work with PCs that aren't made by HP.
On the flip-side, it's also possible that this is nothing more than a "dummy" device with far-field voice technology, which would mean that it could end up working with non-Windows PCs at some point. Naturally, we'll learn more about it as we get closer to this fall.
Source: The Verge | Image via CNET
Update: It appears that HP's Cortana-powered speaker won't need a Windows PC to function after all. In a statement to Windows Central, a Microsoft representative had the following to say:
The new HP speaker is a standalone device featuring the intelligence of Cortana, the personal digital assistant by Microsoft. The HP speaker has Cortana intelligence built in and does not need to connect to a Windows 10 PC. We're excited about our partnership with HP and have nothing else to share at this time.
33 Comments - Add comment