2017: The year digital assistants for kids began to flourish at CES

I've spent days now, walking the show floors at CES, listening to pitches from baby- and kid-tech developers, and writing up analyses on all of it. I'm a smart-home reporter, so I knew coming into CES how ubiquitous Alexa and her retinue would be. But I wasn't prepared for how fundamentally it would affect kid-tech. If CES 2017 is any indicator, Alexa's biggest skill in five years will be nannying.

Here are three things I've discovered at CES about voice assistants for kids.

 

T-Mobile CEO, fortune teller, offers 8 predictions for 2017

T-Mobile's bombastic CEO, John Legere, brought out his crystal ball to offer some bold predictions for the wireless industry in 2017.

Speaking at the company's CES press conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, Legere rattled off eight possibilities for 2017. These predictions include everything from big cable companies entering and quickly exiting the wireless market to the unseating of three of the nation's four major wireless carrier CEOs.

Here's a full list of what Legere sees for the coming year.

 

Watch two Google Home voice assistants arguing

It's no " Robot Wars," but you can now watch two Google Home devices argue with each other in a never-ending loop.

The two voice assistants, named Vladimir and Estragon after "Waiting for Godot" characters, have been pitted against one another on live-streaming service Twitch. On Friday, the pair jumped from topic to topic, sometimes chatting about why the Earth is flat, then switching to "My Little Pony." In a heated discussion, Estragon tried convincing Vladimir that it's human.

At one point, Vladimir threatened to slap Estragon, even though the home assistants don't have hands or faces.

 

Nvidia Spot is like a Google Home you stick on your wall

The Google Assistant's expanding its repertoire as an entertainer. At CES, Nvidia showed off the new Shield TV. Say the word and you can search for content, pause or rewind with your voice, all powered by Google's software. The Shield TV will even display information if you search the internet, and it works with SmartThings to control your home. If you buy the $200 streamer, you won't even have to be in the same room to talk to Google, thanks to a $50 add-on called the Nvidia Spot.

The Shield TV is out later this month. The Spot's release date hasn't been specified. An always listening controller with the Google Assistant built-in, the Nvidia Spot sure sounds a lot like a Google Home. The Spot looks different -- a round orb as opposed to a white cylinder. You'll also be able to easily move the Spot from room to room and even attach it to walls.

 

A smart home scoreboard for CES 2017

How about a good, old-fashioned technology arms race?

You could just buy a smart light bulb set, but for a lot of consumers (reportedly more than 5 million of you, as of November 2016), it's Amazon's voice-activated Alexa that will be the entry point for controlling devices around your home.

Along with Amazon, Apple continues to grow its Siri-powered HomeKit smart home system. Google has also entered the fray with its own blandly named smart home AI, Google Assistant, which featured prominently in Google's Echo-imitating Google Home speaker in November 2016.