If Amazon Echo makes you uncomfortable, here's a new smart speaker made by 'The Google of Russia'
Like most smart speakers, the Yandex Station is designed for basic proletarian needs like creating alarms and playing music hands-free — but you can also hook it up to your TV to play movies and shows, or adjust the volume, using only your voice.
The Yandex Station is powered by Yandex's AI, named Alice, which the company unveiled in 2017. You can ask Alice to create alarms and reminders, read the news, get the weather, and more. For kids, you can even ask Alice to sing songs or read fairy tales.
Yandex also says the Station comes with seven microphones that can pick up your voice even if it's noisy in the room, and can respond "almost instantly — within a second."
In terms of sound quality, Yandex says the Station is "just right for a small house party." The speaker itself features two tweeters for high frequencies, plus two radiators and a woofer for deep bass.
The Station can play music as a standalone speaker, but you can also hook it up your TV to play shows and movies. You can control the volume and playback with your voice, and an "Ask Alice" feature can help you figure out which movie or TV show to watch next.
To emphasize its role as a TV set-top box, Yandex will give you free three months of access to Amedia, the exclusive home for all HBO content in Russia.
Buying the Yandex Station also comes with a free year's worth of access to Yandex.Music, the company's music streaming service. The music service is free with Yandex's new Amazon Prime-like "Plus" subscription service, which the company also announced alongside the Station speaker this week.
Buying a Yandex Station also gives you two free months to ivi, one of the top subscription streaming services in Russia for movies, TV shows, cartoons, and other video content.
Yandex doesn't have any word on an exact release date for the Station, but you can sign up on their website to be alerted when that information becomes available.
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