Kohler Teams With Harman Kardon to Put an Alexa-Enabled Speaker in a Showerhead

Kohler and Harman Kardon, Samsung’s audio-focused subsidiary, have joined forces to create a showerhead with a built-in Alexa-enabled wireless speaker.

The smartly designed Moxie Showerhead debuted at Consumer Electronics Show 2020 in Las Vegas. Water flows from an outer circular ring, and a conical Kohler A.I. Speaker is secured in the middle by a magnet. 

Naturally, the electronic device has a fully IPX67 waterproof rating—meaning it can be immersed in water up to one meter—and is also tuned to compensate for the white noise generated while showering, according to Digital Trends

The Kohler A.I. speaker detached from the Moxie Showerhead. 

Each speaker comes with a wireless charging dock and offers five hours of playback at 70 percent volume. What makes it interesting—some might say unnecessary—is that you can command Amazon’s virtual assistant to pull up your favorite playlist, report on the weather, and even order soap, shampoo, or any other product sold by the e-commerce giant while washing. The speaker also pairs with Kohler’s Konnect mobile app for easy setup and setting adjustments. 

If you don’t want to bring Alexa into the bathroom, the platform is also available with a Kohler BT Speaker, which offers six to seven hours of playback, doesn’t have a built-in voice assistant, and retails for $99 on its own or $159 when bundled with the showerhead. 

Slated to arrive sometime in 2020, The Kohler Moxie Showerhead and A.I. Speaker will sell for $229 together, or you can pay $159 for the speaker only.

Samsung Reveals Stunning Bezel-Less 8K TV and Curved QLED Gaming Monitor

You could perhaps say that aside from troubled efforts like the Galaxy Fold, Samsung isn’t about turning the electronics industry on its head. They’re more about taking existing, recognizable tech and perfecting it. 

With their bezel-free QLED 8K TV and new 49-inch Odyssey G9 gaming monitor introduced at CES this week, they may have done just that.

We don’t yet know the pricing on the 8K TV, though it’s a fair assumption that it won’t be cheap. We do know since the Sunday CES reveal that the front of the QLED 8K is 99 percent display. Technically it does have a bezel but its practically microscopic—and at 15 millimeters the TV itself is remarkably thin.

The Verge has some critical details:

Samsung has on-device, AI-powered upscaling for making content appear closer to native 8K resolution. There was a dearth of 8K content at last year’s CES, and absolutely nothing about that situation has changed for 2020.

That’s what makes the idea of buying this TV so hard to recommend. Samsung is also attempting to make video streaming content look as good as it can, with new “AI ScaleNet” technology that prevents data loss in the journey from a streaming company’s server to your TV. The first partner for this will be Amazon Prime Video.

It’s no slouch when it comes to sound, either, according to the manufacturer—the 8K has something called OTS+ (object tracking sound) which Samsung claims can match onscreen moving images with motion between the speakers, creating an almost surround-sound like effect.

The strikingly curved Odyssey G9 gaming monitor jacks up all the specifications from previous Samsung game screens. 

It refreshes at double the rate of previous monitors and has an amazing 1 millisecond response time. It also supports AMD’s FreeSync 2 and is compatible with Nvidia’s G-Sync. 

All that, and it retains a rating of HDR1000 and 5120 x 1440 resolution. 

Here’s what is really different about the Odyssey G9: It is the first Samsung gaming-oriented screen with a 1000R curve. This means it pretty much equates to the human eye’s normal field of vision. That is, it’s basically one of the curviest such monitors ever. It’s safe to assume Samsung is aiming at making the desktop experience almost as immersive as VR goggles.

If the Odyssey G9 proves too rich for your blood or too big for your desk, Samsung will also offer the smaller 27-inch or 32-inch Odyssey G7, a 2560 x 1440 monitor with the same 1000R field-of-vision curve. 

Price isn’t available on the G9 or its smaller siblings yet, but recent new Samsung monitors have been around $1,300, so expect them to fall in that range when they are available for purchase later in 2020.

The headless robot cat company has made a headless robot kitten

Yukai Engineering

Three years after Yukai Engineering’s headless robotic cat first wagged its way into our hearts, the therapy pillow is getting a smaller, portable sibling called the Petit Qoobo. Like its predecessor, the Petit Qoobo is meant for seniors in nursing homes or people who can’t own pets because of allergies or apartment rules but still want the loving embrace of a soft, cuddly friend. The idea proved to be so comforting that Qoobo owners asked for a miniature version that they could carry with them at all times. Thus, Petit Qoobo was born.

In addition to vibrating softly to mimic purring and wagging its tail in reaction to a user’s touch, Petit Qoobo will also wag its stubby little tail in response to sounds. Its main selling point is that…

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