- Hi there, I'm Cortana.
I'm here to help.
- Better late than never.
Microsoft has teamed up with Harman Kardon
to make the Invoke Cortana Speaker.
Today we're gonna review it,
and show you whether it's worth the $200.
Stay tuned.
(techno music)
Okay, before we get to the full review
of the Invoke, let's do a quick unboxing here.
Now we should point out, this is $199,
it'll be on sale from Microsoft
both physical, and online stores,
as well as Best Buy,
or you can order it directly from Harman Kardon.
Of course, it is U.S. only,
so you can pretty much stop watching this,
if you're outside of the U.S. or,
you know, we'd appreciate it if you do watch it.
Check it out, we have a little brochure here
that basically just explains to you what this device is,
and highlights some of its features,
including making Skype calls.
I don't wanna say that's its killer feature,
but obviously it marks off as promoting that fact.
You do get six months of free calls through this,
meaning not just to other Skype people,
but you can call anyone on a cell phone or a landline
through this, for six months for free,
which is kind of neat.
You can also do all this other stuff with Cortana,
controlling Smart Home Devices,
we'll talk about that a little bit later.
There's quite a lot there already.
Much more coming later on,
and of course it works with all your devices,
including iOS, Android, and Windows 10,
and even Windows 10 Mobile, yes it stills works there.
Returning to the device itself,
it is a solid work of wonder here.
Now, you see it is basically
a giant speaker grill all around.
It does have a cylindrical shape.
This is the top of it,
which is also a volume dial,
and it does light up,
we'll show you that in few moments as well,
and it does look like Cortana, which is very cool.
Coming to the bottom here,
you do have a microphone mute button,
so if you are really paranoid,
and do not want the speaker listening to you,
you could hit that button and it will mute.
Anyways, there's a bluetooth button.
You can pair any device up to this through bluetooth,
so you can a phone up to it,
and stream media directly to this device,
or your laptop, PC, whatever you want.
There is a reset button there as well.
And coming to the bottom here,
there is a micro USB plug.
Then there is also the barrel plug for the AC connector.
Speaking of the AC connector,
that is this portion right here.
Now there is a (mumbles) and ah,
this is something I do not really like.
Amazon doesn't do this with their Echos
as far as I know but,
there will be this thing, which you have to hide.
And finally there is the setup guide,
warranty information, and little bits in here
about the Kardon speaker.
In terms of hardware,
the Invoke is doing pretty well.
It's got three Woofers at 45 mm each,
three Tweeters at 13 mm, that's a lot of speaker
in one device.
It has Bluetooth version 4.1.
It weighs 2.3 pounds, or one kilograms,
and it supports all the major audio formats
that are used today.
- Hi there, I'm Cortana.
I'm here to help.
Let's get your Harman Kardon Invoke ready to use.
We'll set it up from the Cortana App
on your phone or PC,
so go grab that first.
Then type Setup My Invoke.
- Alright, so for setting up the Harman Kardon,
it is pretty simple.
You can do it from many devices,
whether it's your Windows 10 PC,
your Android phone, Windows 10 mobile, or iPhone.
Simply type in Setup My Invoke,
and there's a nice little app here,
that is available now in the store, we'll install that.
Setting up the Invoke is very simple.
It took us just under three minutes,
and we never had a problem with it,
even multiple times in trying so.
Now, when you set it up,
it'll walk you through the process
by connecting up to your WiFi.
You will need a Microsoft account though,
to make this all work.
Once it's nearly completed,
it'll ask you then,
to connect to your favorite music service,
which right now includes Spotify Radio,
you will need a premium account,
TuneIn Radio, or iHeartRadio.
There is no longer any Groove support.
I say no longer, because initially this device
did support Groove, but they have since pulled it
once the Groove Music Pass went away.
There are a few ways to interact with the Invoke speaker.
- Here's something interesting.
Kintsugi is the Japanese technique
of repairing broken pottery with powdered gold lacquer.
Breakage and repair are treated
as part of the history of an object,
rather than something to disguise.
- Just tapping the top of it will give you
facts or trivia about the world.
Sometimes Cortana will also volunteer some information.
Now if you do a long press for more than three seconds,
it'll activate the speaker and you can ask a command.
What is the weather for tomorrow?
- The forecast for tomorrow
shows sun with a high of 72, and a low of 51.
- Most people won't be actually near the speaker physically,
so you use a voice command.
Hey Cortana, where can I get some pizza?
- I found a few places matching pizza near you.
The closest is Domino's Pizza,
less than one mile away at 54 Main Street in Marlborough.
It's opened until 12:00 a.m.
Other options are Kindle's Pizzeria, rated 4.5 stars,
and Papa Gino's, rated 3.5 stars.
- Since there is no screen with the Invoke speaker,
your Cortana app becomes that,
so when you do things with the speaker,
your history shows up here,
including results, so when I ask about pizza,
those will show up here,
and I can actually click those now,
and it'll take me to that information
so I can do things like map it, call it,
or find out more about the location.
Now one of the main features of this being a speaker
is gonna be playing music for people,
and it's very simple to do.
Hey Cortana, play Rise Against on Spotify.
- Alright.
Here's some music by Rise Against on Spotify.
(rock music)
- Invoke can help you with a lot of other things too,
by accessing Cortana's Notebook and Other Feature Set.
You can do things like setting a timer,
alarm, or a reminder like
remind me to get the laundry at 7:00 p.m. tonight.
Or even a location-based reminder like
remind me to pick up milk when I get to Safeway.
You can do things in Spotify,
like ask what song is playing, or what album is this?
You can add the track to your playlist,
or even follow a playlist.
You can do things like access your calendar,
and ask when is the next meeting?
Or add an appointment to that calendar.
You can do things like finding out the weather
for today or next week.
You can even ask things like
what is the latest news headlines,
or facts about the world like,
hey Cortana, what events are happening in Boston
this weekend?
- Boston Bruins will be at TD Garden
in Boston, on October 21st at 7:00 p.m.
- One of the real big features with
the Invoke Cortana Speaker,
we'll be able to connect it up to your Smart Home.
So there are a lot of features here,
including support for Philips Hue's with their Smart Bulbs,
Nest, Wink, Insteon, and SmartThings.
Plus, they are working on additional services,
including Ecobee, Honeywell,
TP-Link, IFTT, Genie, and more.
So stayed tuned for that.
Once connected up, it worked pretty well.
You could do things like ask Cortana
to turn off your kitchen lights,
dim your bedroom lights,
or even set your temperature to 72 degrees.
So besides those connected home features in Spotify,
there are also what's called Cortana Skills.
So you can browse at Microsoft's website,
and connect up many third-party services,
including things like Domino's, or Fitbit,
or any other one like Skyscanner,
to get your weather information, or track a package.
And they work pretty well.
Ordering Domino's pizza right through the speaker
is certainly very convenient.
Hey Cortana, call Zach Bowden on mobile.
- Which one do you wanna call,
Bowden, Zach, or Zach Bowden?
- [Dan] Zach Bowden, mobile.
(ringing)
- [Zach] Hello.
- [Dan] Hey Zach, it's Dan, I'm calling from the office
on a Cortana Speaker.
How does it sound?
- [Zach] It sounds really good,
I'm really impressed.
- Oh there you go, it's pretty impressive.
I guess I can talk to you now
while I'm in my living room or my kitchen.
Invoke speaker is convenient for making phone calls,
whether it's Skype to Skype, or Skype to mobile,
Skype to landline, you can do it all.
However, a lot of that will depend on your phone book,
and your contact lists.
If you have multiple contacts or they're not merged,
well, let's just say it can be
a little bit frustrating at times.
So there's a lot going for this speaker.
The audio quality is fantastic,
I really enjoyed using Cortana.
But I'm not really sure there's a killer feature here,
especially for $200.
Sure you can make Skype calls,
and if that's something you're gonna do a lot,
by all means, go get it.
But there's really no unique features here,
compared to say, what Amazon is doing, or Google.
They're all kinda the same.
You can ask random trivia,
you can do things like set an alarm.
But other than that, they don't do that much.
So whether or not that $200 is worth it,
will depend on you.
So there's our video review of the Harman Kardon
Invoke Cortana Speaker.
Now if you want more information about this device,
make sure you go to Windows 10 to read my full review,
which has many more details.
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Thanks for watching, take care everybody.