HP’s new ‘all-in-one’ PC to come pre-installed with Alexa

San Francisco, May 15 (IANS): With the rising popularity of Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa, HP Inc’s new 34-inch curved all-in-one (AiO) PC is expected to come with the built-in digital assistant app.

An Alexa app, pre-installed on the computer will let the users call up the assistant and see any information like weather forecasts, music albums and more on display.

“The computer does not launch until later this year, and so far HP does not have a specific release date or price,” The Verge reported late on Monday.

“HP does not include a mute button, so there is no quick way to turn the assistant on and off, unlike every other major Alexa-enabled device,” the report added.

Along with HP, Acer and Asus debuted personal computers that are designed to work with Alexa during the International Consumer Electronics Show 2018 (CES) that was held earlier this year in Las Vegas as part of a push by Amazon to spread its voice assistant to more third-party devices.

Previously, HP’s “Pavilion Wave” was launched with a special LED wired to light up indicating that Alexa is listening.

However, Alexa’s integration into PCs poses a challenge to Microsoft which is trying to push its voice-activated assistant Cortana as the preferred way for people to talk to their Windows-powered computers for performing simple tasks.