Harman Kardon’s Cortana-powered speaker leaks ahead of launch

Microsoft wants in on the Google Home and Amazon Echo party. Harman Kardon makes this Echo-lookalike is made by Harman Kardon and it’s powered by Microsoft’s Cortana voice platform. The device apparently launches this fall and could be officially revealed later this week.

Called the Invoke, the product page for the unannounced product was discovered by Thurrott.com^[1] before it was pulled. According to Thurrott’s report the cylinder speaker has a light ring on top, 360 degree sound and supports Skype calling and the ability to ask Cortana questions.

If the device launches as advertised, Skype calling could be Microsoft’s big ticket. Neither the Google Home or Amazon Echo currently supports voice calls in any fashion though there have been rumors that the Echo would eventually gain the ability.

It’s highly likely that Microsoft will reveal the full feature set of this platform later this week at its developer’s conference, Build. There’s also a good chance that other hardware partners are on board and the Invoke will launch alongside other Cortana-powered speakers later this year.

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