Yandex.Station: A Smart Speaker by the Google of Russia
Yandex is often considered to be the Google of Russia. Both Yandex and Google were founded around the same time- Yandex in 1997 and Google in 1998. Also, both the companies are said to be the most popular search engines in their respective regions. Yandex is not just a widely used search engine, but also the largest tech company in the whole of Russia. Yandex is basically a technology company that offers intelligent products and services that are powered by machine learning.
The Google of Russia
Yandex and Google are about to have more things in common. Just this week, Yandex announced that it would be launching a smart speaker named the Yandex.Station. Yandex.Station will be the first smart speaker designed specifically for the Russian market. It is also Yandex’s first hardware product.
Helps with everyday things
The Yandex.Station is designed for basic needs like setting alarms and playing music hands-free. But you can also connect it to your TV in order to play movies or shows. You can also adjust the volume, using just your voice. Yandex.Station helps you in your basic everyday affairs.
Alice
The Yandex.Station is powered by Yandex’s AI Alice. The company recently unveiled Alice in 2017. Alice can perform a number of tasks for you. It can set up an alarm and also remind you of a meeting. Alice can check the weather and the situations on the road. It can read out the latest news to you. Alice can set a timer for you at the right time. Also, it can work as a companion for your kids by telling them a fairytale of singing a song for them.
Yandex.Dialogues
Alice was designed with advanced conversational skills and an understanding of context. This allows it to chat with its users and to manage a variety of tasks like finding a restaurant or checking the weather conditions. It is combined with the recent public release of Yandex.Dialogues. It is a skilled platform for third-party developers. Alice provides assistance with 4,000 skills with a range of services. The skills on Alice can incorporate both chatbots along with living human customer service operators.
Home multimedia entertainment
Yandex.Station offers you a complete home multimedia entertainment experience. It is probably the first smart home speaker with both audio and video capabilities. It will not only play music, but also stream movies and shows for you, with the help of the HDMI cable to any connected display. Access to KinoPoisk, the video streaming service of Yandex is also offered by the station. Along with that, you can also access other content including premium local video service providers.
Adaptive crossfade technology
The Yandex.Station gives out an honest 50 watts. Inside the station is a woofer and two radiators for deep, volumetric bass and two tweeters for high frequencies. It offers stereo with Adaptive Crossfade Technology. You can also remove the cover of the station and listen without any distortion. You can also listen to music from different devices via Bluetooth.
The Yandex.Station features an array of seven microphones. This allows the device to hear voice commands from anywhere in the room. The sound quality delivered by the station is great and exceeds the quality offered by most other audio systems in the same class. The station also includes a lot of music in high quality and without advertising. There are collections, new albums, and playlists especially for you. There will also be other additional features of Yandex services.
Let Alice find shows and movies for you
The station offers excellent sound while watching shows and movies, better than conventional TV. You can also control the voice. Alice will herself find movies and shows with good quality. You can also ask Alice, and she can advice you on what to watch. It includes three months of free serials on Amediateka. You can watch the premier simultaneously with the world. You can watch it in Russian sound or the original language with subtitles. There will also be 2 months of subscription for ivi as a gift. It shows movies, programs, and cartoons for the whole family. The Yandex.Station will cost somewhere around 10,000 rubles or $160. It will be made available in summer and will only be available in Russia for now.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joined in December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.