From CES, TiVo has reaffirmed their intentions to bring voice control to the platform… this year. While cagey on details, and perhaps still contemplating their approach(es), some interesting nuggets have come to light:
In a briefing here at the show, Tivo SVP and GM Michael Hawkey hinted at the likelihood of a natural language interface for Tivo solutions that might come in the form of a brand new product, but might also be added to legacy products via a new remote, or, more likely, through integration with products like Amazon’s Echo hardware line.
TiVo management has been alluding to voice capabilities for a few years, with perhaps an original thought of bringing control to mobile applications… like Roku has done, rather than bundling a microphone-endowed remote as Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV do. In my households, I do appreciate some of the more basic Logitech Harmony Alexa skills (whereas the newer ones need work) and Mom enjoys calling up cable channels via her brand-spanking-new Xfinity voice remote (despite months of having to hammer Comcast).
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I know this seems to be a big deal (voice control) to the video companies, and acknowledging in advance that one doesn't preclude the other, but for gosh sake, can we work on getting guide problems fixed. Priorities people!
Yeah, Rovi guide has been inferior to Tribune and some fixes or updates have been slow to happen.
Well, the list of companies/devices choosing Echo (Alexa) keeps getting longer and longer. I think Dish announced voice control with Echo, as well, supposedly coming in months. While I and others find voice control to be a plus, there is no doubt that the voice control revolution will greatly aid the elderly (like you mom and mine) and those with almost any number of disabilities. This can offer greater independance and confidence to a population often forgotten. Although I have no "need" for voice control, I certainly welcome it for ease and greater efficiency or being able to find things asking a common English question rather than trying to figure out some devices overwhelming UI and menu structure. Agreed, TiVo does need to fix guide and the scandelous broken MRV between S3 and newer TiVo's, but I think the effort on voice control is wise given that TiVo has sometimes fallen behind in innovation. This helps TiVo to be part of the growing number of DVR's that will implement voice control. I look forward to it--after fixing guide data and MRV issues:).