Harman Kardon Invoke Cortana Speaker

Anonymous
2020-03-04T03:48:09+00:00

Okay, I made the mistake of buying 4 Invokes for $50 at the Microsoft Store. I first bought two and really like them and then bought two more.  I have two of them set up.

I love the sound quality (it's better than the Echo Dots and Google Homes that I also have) and I've been pretty happy with them. I use them for listening to the radio (via TuneIn), setting timers, and as my alarm clock.

I have also set up reminders and they showed up in my Windows PC as a notification. That's something that I don't think Alexa or Google Home can do.  Really neat!  I also like Cortana's personality.

But I made the mistake of waiting too long before setting the other two up. I have been trying since December 2019 to set them up using both my Windows 10 PC and an Android phone. The setup app can connect to the speakers and then have the speakers connect to my WiFi network. Everything seems to be going well but the set up process never finishes.

After connecting to WiFi, the speaker tells me it needs to update the system software/firmware and to please wait. Eventually, the speakers tells me that something went wrong and that I should start the setup process over again.

I keep repeating the setup process and the same thing happens. It seems like it is trying to update the software/firmware to the latest version but a server is down or something so it can never finish the set up process.

Can someone from Microsoft please tell me if it is still possible to setup my two remaining Harmon Kardon Invoke speakers?  Is the server responsible for setting up and updating the Invoke still operating?

If not, is there any way I can manually update the firmware on the Invokes to the latest? There is a USB port on the Invoke that is supposed to be used for "service". Can this be used to update the firmware?  Is there a firmware file available for download?

If the server is down, can Microsoft put the server back up again so I can set up my remaining two Invokes?  I received no warning that this would happen.  Perhaps you host the server on your Azure Cloud services?  That would seem like the perfect place to do it.  It shouldn't take up too much resources as it would just spin up when needed.  Please restore the server even if it's only for a limited time.  Just give us a warning when it will go down so we would have time to set up our speakers before its too late.

I tried emailing Harman Kardon but I can tell they won't be of much help.  Any help or information would be greatly appreciated.  These are brand new speakers and I would just hate for them to be useless right out of the box.  And I wish that Microsoft wouldn't give up on Cortana like this.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Cortana and search

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-03-11T03:04:17+00:00

    Hi!

    Like many here...I am frustrated that yet another, ahead-of-it's-time Ms product is being sacked by way of Band, Zune, Groove, Phone, etc..

    However, I found a small bright spot to my Invoke as a small work around. First let me say that my connection was ALWAYS ify with Invoke. I would be listening to Spotify through it and then it would just stop. Mid song, mid transmission, mid Bluetooth...just stop. As 'dead weight', Bluetooth seems a bit stronger. So...I connected my phone's Google Assistant to Invoke and though I am talking through the phone...it comes out clear and brilliant via Invoke. Don't get me wrong...this is BS and I loathe that this speaker is ATTACHED 'dead weight' (still has to be plugged into a wall to be used)...but I can assign it to my phone for alarms, weather, Spotify, Calendar, text, etc. And I can change the voice (Cortana is a guy now🤣).

    Doing my best to make a very bad situation, work, because honestly...now that is known that Invoke holds no value...it's gonna cost me more to ship to a nostalgic MS fan than to sell it😑.

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