HARMAN International, subsidiary of Samsung unveiled
Invoke voice-activated speaker powered by Microsoft’s Cortana back in May. It
detailed the features of the speaker earlier this month. Now both Harman and
Microsoft have announced the pricing and availability of the smart speaker with
360-degree sound.
Built-in Cortana assistant let you play your
favorite music, manage calendars and activities, set reminders, check traffic,
deliver the latest news and much more. It also has Skype integration so you can
make calls to cellphones, landlines and other Skype-enabled devices. You can
also control your smart home devices such as SmartThings, Nest, Philips Hue,
Wink, and Insteon.
It has HARMAN’s SONIQUE far-field voice recognition,
360-degree adaptive technology that uses its 7 microphones to recognize all
details of voice commands even in environments with high ambient noise. It uses
HARMAN’s beam forming, echo cancellation, and noise reduction algorithms so
that Cortana can hear you, even in challenging environments.
The Harman Kardon Invoke comes in Graphite and
Pearl Silver colors, is priced at US$ 199.95 and will be available in the U.S. at Best
Buy, Microsoft stores and other retail locations, as well as online at
HarmanKardon.com and Microsoft.com from October 22nd.
