Google Home, the voice activated home assistant speaker powered by the Google Assistant, is now available. And the critics certainly have something to say about it.
The new device lets people have a virtual assistant in their own homes.
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Its like in the futuristic movies where people can talk to an artificial intelligence in their homes. Like in the Iron Man movies where Tony Stark talks with his virtual assistant Jarvis all the time.
So what exactly does it do? Lets say that you want to listen to music. Just say the name of the song or the band and it will immediately connect to your home system and find the music that you wish to listen to. You choose the service, whether it be Google Play Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora or TuneIn.
You can also have Google Home surf the web for you and get answers to your questions like “who won the World Series?” or “where is the nearest book store?”
So as they say the future is now. This is something out of Star Trek where the characters simply ask the computer questions and get immediate answers.
Users can also integrate Google Home with their smart devices and allow it access to their personal information such as contact lists and schedules.
And microphones can be placed throughout your home so that the device will be sure to hear you wherever you are.
Yahoo Tech calls it, “A promising but unfinished smart home device.”
Wired compares Google Home to Amazon’s Echo. “Virtually nothing about it is new; it’s like some Googler bought an Echo and wondered if, uh, maybe Google should make one, too. (I mean, the product development timeline does allow for this.) It’s not a knock-off, though. Google aspires to another level of power, personalization, and accuracy—not to mention a cuter package than the goth tennis ball can Amazon designed.”
But Wired also says that, “the good news is, you can’t go wrong here. You’ll like them both, though neither is perfect. The question is how much you’re willing to bet on what these devices could be, and which company you think can deliver on that promise.”
And Google home at $129 is $50 cheaper than the Echo.
The Verge also compares Google Home to the Echo. But its reviewers points out the new devices advantages over the competition too saying, “Home has something that the Echo doesn’t: a wealth of knowledge about the world, my personal preferences, and my habits. In other words, it has Google.”
“Google smartly designed the Home to blend in with the rest of the mundane products in your home. It’s roughly half as tall as the Echo and arguably much nicer to look at. Most people would say it looks like an air freshener, and I’d agree. That’s not a bad thing: it’s easy to put the speaker anywhere in your home — your kitchen, bedroom, living room, etc. — without having it stick out like an obvious piece of gadgetry.”
And Cnet says, “While the Google Home shows a ton of potential, it’s currently not as versatile or useful as Amazon’s Echo — though we expect it to improve in the days and months ahead.”
So overall it seems that the critics agree that as with all new devices Google Home is not yet living up to its potential. They feel that it has a way to go and hope that Google adds to its features really soon. It is no AI which will run our homes for us, but has the potential to be one some day.
If you already have a Google Home device please let us know what you think.
