Microsoft offering 6 months subscription to Groove service if you pay for one

This might be the best time to subscribe to Microsoft's Groove music streaming service as a new Labor Day promo According to Microsoft, "Buy 1 month for $9.99, get 2 FREE 3-month promo codes. Give a code a to a friend or keep for yourself and start listening to your favorite end of summer hits. The promo is ongoing but will expire on September 5. Hit jump for details.

Click to read more ...

Sonos might be looking into supporting ‘multiple voice platforms’ for future smart speakers

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has once sent an internal memo to his team stating that he was willing to work with “global leaders like Amazon, Google, and (likely) Apple… [to bring] all the services that matter to every home.” And it looks like they’re at least trying to make that happen. A recent FCC filing that references “Product model S13,” Sonos might bring different voice assistants to its smart speaker. The filing describes the S13 has having “integrated voice control functionality” and supports “multiple voice platforms and music services.” If Sonos will be able to integrate the likes of Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and even Microsoft’s Cortana, that should give them an advantage over their competitors.

Aside from that, the FCC filing shows off the possible UI look (as you see above). It shows a microphone, pause/play, as well as two unspecified icons to each side of the pause and play button. There’s also a line above the pause/play button. The S13 indicated also comes with far-field microphones, which can be seen in the likes of the Echo devices and Google Home.

Source: Android Authority

Android Oreo might introduce better app integration for Google Assistant

You can do a lot of things with Google Assistant. A simple Google search will bring up all you can do with it. One thing it needs to get better at though is third-party app integration. But it looks like Google is working on that one with its newest operating system iteration, Android 8.0 Oreo. A new string found within the Android Developers website code shows a possibility of interaction by voice as long as the app supports Android 8.0. This means, Google might be opening the ability for other apps to interact with its Google Assistant without the user having to leave the app. On top of that, it looks like Google wants to do the same for other digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa app and Microsoft’s Cortana app.

Not much is known yet about when this might be coming to users or what sort of activities can be executed. But it does show us what we could expect. But as you might have noticed there are caveats to this, you’ll need to have an Android Oreo powered device and it’ll depend on the developer if they want to start working on the integration.

Source: Android Headlines

MasterCard brings contactless payment support to Fitbit Ionic

Fitbit just unveiled its newest smartwatch, the Fitbit Ionic, and brings with it a slew of new features. With that, MasterCard just announced that the new wearable will get contactless payment support, which it says is available at over 6.6 million merchants around the world. You just have to add your eligible cards to the fitness watch. The payment feature will first come to the US with participating issuer banks and will come to other markets soon after.