Last July, Microsoft announced that it was killing off Cortana integration with the Harman Kardon Invoke smart speaker. Now, it"s finally happening, as Harman Kardon has published an FAQ (via Windows Central) for an update that should be rolling out this week to remove Cortana and essentially turn the Invoke into a Bluetooth speaker.
The update is going to be released on March 10, and apparently, you need to have your Invoke connected to the internet between 2am and 5am local time. Also, the update won"t be available after June 30. The company says that to know that you received the update, the device won"t respond to its wake word or when you tap on the top of the speaker.
What"s also interesting is that this doesn"t mark the end of support for the Harman Kardon Invoke. Apparently, there"s a known issue where there might be a popping noise when playing music from your phone, and there"s going to be a future update to fix that.
The Harman Kardon Invoke was the first in what was originally planned to be a long line of Cortana-powered smart speakers. Indeed, Microsoft even showed off a few from other OEMs in showcase events at conferences like CES. Unfortunately, the Invoke ended up being the only one to ever hit store shelves. It launched in October 2017, and a month later, it was already receiving 50% off discounts.