Smart speakers have no idea how to give us news
One of the most exciting things about a new kind of device is how little we know about what it’s good for. At this point, we basically know what a smartphone can do, but the possibilities for a voice-activated, internet-enabled speaker are still more or less untested. There are lots of ideas, some good and some bad, and we’re still figuring out which is which.
A new report from the Reuters Institute suggests that the current round of news apps may be one of the bad ideas. The institute’s survey finds that users simply aren’t enjoying the news briefings, and they’re taking a backseat to more concrete functions like information searches and immediate tasks. 46 percent of UK users listened to the briefings regularly, but only one percent...