On June 6 Apple Inc officially unveiled HomePod, a smart speaker to challenge the likes of Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home. With the Homepod, Apple is not just looking to get a slice of the lucrative smart speaker market pie, currently dominated by Amazon. The company is also pinning its hopes on the HomePod becoming the device which helps Apple to achieve its ambitious aim to double revenue from its services business by 2021.
The HomePod, which comes with Apple’s digital assistant Siri built-in, is expected to go on sale in the US, UK and Australia from December for US$349 (approx. NTS$10,564) — nearly twice the price of devices sold by its market competitors.
According to reporting by Bloomberg, the HomePod is the first all-new hardware product to be released by Apple since the Apple Watch in 2015 and comes at an important time for the US tech giant, which is seeking out new revenue streams having become heavily reliant on the iPhone in recent years.
Photo courtesy of Apple
照片:蘋果提供
The lucrative market for Internet-connected speakers and other smart home technology may just be large enough to help Apple achieve its aim of diversifying its business lines. According to market consultancy firm Strategy Analytics, shipments of smart speakers have jumped nearly 600 percent year-on-year, increasing by 4.2 million units in the fourth quarter of last year, with Amazon and Google taking 88 and 10 percent of market share, respectively.
(CNA, translated by Edward Jones)
蘋果公司六月六日正式推出迎戰亞馬遜Echo與谷歌Home的智慧揚聲器HomePod,不但要瓜分這個當前由亞馬遜獨大,有利可圖的市場,更是蘋果邁向二○二一年服務事業營收倍增的一大利器。
內建Siri擔任數位助理的HomePod擬訂價三百四十九美元(約新台幣一萬零五百六十四元),比市場競爭者的價格高約一倍,將於十二月起開始於美國、澳洲與英國出貨。
彭博報導,HomePod是蘋果二○一五年推出智慧型手錶Apple Watch後,第一款全新硬體產品,且推出時機對蘋果來說相當重要,這家營收目前高度仰賴iPhone表現的美國科技巨擘,亟需開闢新財源。
連接網路的揚聲器與其他智慧型居家科技市場,規模可能足以協助蘋果業績擴張。根據市場顧問機構Strategy Analytics,第四季智慧居家揚聲器出貨年增高達四百二十萬台,增幅將近百分之六百,其中亞馬遜占百分之八十八,谷歌占百分之十。
(中央社)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110