Invoke down to $39.99

For anyone looking…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Harman-Kardon-INVOKE-Voice-Activated-Wireless-Home-Speaker-w-Cortana/202432774614

EDIT: Looks like the price is back up now.

Conversation 7 comments

  • matsan

    27 November, 2018 - 1:01 am

    <p>Wow – a year ago this was a $199 device. Time flies.</p>

    • YouWereWarned

      27 November, 2018 - 4:31 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#373048"><em>In reply to matsan:</em></a><em> </em></blockquote><blockquote><span class="ql-cursor"></span>Never really sold for more than $99. Was worth that…</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • ggolcher

    Premium Member
    27 November, 2018 - 8:18 am

    <p>Displays as $99.95 for me</p>

  • Tony Barrett

    27 November, 2018 - 9:35 am

    <p>It's called a fire sale. I'm surprised there are any left out there, and I'd be even more surprised if HK were still making them.</p>

  • gregsedwards

    Premium Member
    27 November, 2018 - 10:59 am

    <p>I'm torn. I know a couple of people at Microsoft who work on this team, and I'm certain they're passionate about this product and improving the experience. On several occasions, they've worked with me directly to provide support and gather feedback. I also know the HK hardware is great, and there's no technical reason it couldn't match the best smart speakers on the market. I own two of them, and I'd really be glad to own another. </p><p>What it does, it does well. The audio is excellent. The design is clean, modern, and premium. The performance for playing music or interacting with Cortana in the traditional sense (queries, setting timers, etc.) is really good. The Skype calling integration brilliant. In short, it's a really nice speaker connected to Cortana.</p><p>And yet, I am disappointed by some of its shortcomings, which to be clear are 100% because of the software…specifically, the immaturity of the underlying platform. The Invoke doesn't support multiple user input, so it's impossible to use in a family with say, Spotify, unless you're willing to make some significant compromises. Where it could be an excellent family information hub, it's limited, because it can only read <em>my </em>calendar. And that's too bad, because there's no reason it needs to be this way.</p><p>Seriously, it's like Microsoft didn't think families would share this thing or ever buy more than one of them to use in a household. It can't be connected to other Invokes to create a stereo, multi-room, or whole-home audio solution. Other than Skype, it doesn't have an intercom feature, and unless you're comfortable setting up each of your Invokes under a different MSA, you can't call one from the other. </p><p>It's sometimes frustratingly unreliable for voice control of smart home gadgets, even when a nearby Echo or Google Home speaker has no trouble whatsoever understanding and working with the same device. </p><p>The Cortana app's support for the Invoke is pretty basic. It treats the Invoke as kind of a generic endpoint for Cortana services, but lacks the ability to manage a specific speaker's relationship with nearby devices, such as Microsoft's own Xbox console. Sure, they now support asking the Invoke to "pair my Xbox," but it's buggy and would be far easier to manage if they'd just give you a damn UI to link them up the way you want.</p><p>You get the sense that these are all completely solvable problems. The speaker itself only has firmware; everything else is processed on the backend. They've added and tweaked some features since its release, so if they wanted to address some of these features, you get the sense they could absolutely do it. But you also have to wonder why we're still dealing with them more than a year after its initial release. If there's a better device from Microsoft on the horizon, that's great, but c'mon, there's no reason the Invoke can't benefit as well. Let's hope they don't let the Invoke wither on the vine. Customers who went out on a limb and spent a lot of money on these devices frankly deserve better.</p>

  • wolters

    Premium Member
    27 November, 2018 - 4:48 pm

    <p>I picked up two when they were $49 from Microsoft Store. As a Microsoft fan, initially, it was a curiosity but these have worked out well as Bluetooth PC speakers for me. Sure, there is latency at times but for what I need them for, especially at work, it has been great. And I use Cortana secondary to Google Assistant. It handles location based reminders so much better than Google Assistant…in fact, location based reminders on my Google Assistant are non-existent these days…</p>

  • gregsedwards

    Premium Member
    27 November, 2018 - 4:58 pm

    <p>And it's back down to $39.99 now. I just bought another one. Cha-ching!</p>

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