Google Home and various Assistant speakers are incredibly handy devices, and they offer a lot of incredibly cool features. Everyone has a favorite, so this week, I sat down with the rest of the team at 9to5Google to find out what their favorite features are…
Over the last week, Google has announced a number of new updates to Assistant for both consumers and developers. Third-party smart home appliance makers continue to invest in Google’s platform, with August Home today expanding its integration.
In addition to multilingual support, more languages, and deeper device integrations throughout 2018, Google Assistant is adding several features in the coming weeks. First announced at last year’s October 4th event, Routines will be available in the coming weeks, as well as setting location-based reminders from Google Home.
One of the features we were excited to see following Google I/O last year was Google Home visualizations on Chromecast. While it took a while to debut, Google finally launched that functionality in recent weeks, and now, it’s expanding even further.
The latest update to the Google Home companion app is rolling out and hints at a number of in-development features, including the possible ability to pair regular Bluetooth speakers to Home devices. Meanwhile, version 1.27 adds some new codenames, ability to reverse Home Mini controls, and some slight interface tweaks.
Last week, customers who purchased Apple’s HomePod were rightfully upset to find out that the speaker’s silicone feet left white marks on wood surfaces. Now, it looks like there’s at least one case of the Home Max’s silicone pad leaving a similar mark…
CNET set out to keep Apple’s HomePod, Amazon Echo and Google Home in continuous conversation for at least 48 hours …
As Google Home devices and Assistant-powered speakers don’t have displays, it has been impossible up until this point to see information delivered by the smart devices. Thanks to a new feature first introduced at I/O 17, you can now ask your Home to show search results on your television with a Chromecast plugged in. Here’s how…
Back at I/O 2017, Google showed off a lot of new features that would eventually be heading to speakers powered by the Assistant. However, as of late last year, a lot of those still weren’t enabled. Now, though, they seem to be slowly rolling out, and the latest is visual responses on connected TVs.
Sometimes it’s hard to fall asleep in a silent room. Thankfully, if you have a Google Home nearby, you can ask it to play white noise. Here’s how to not only have your Home play background noise but also a list of all of the different types of white noise you can fall to sleep to…
Last week, Play Books added audiobooks with a new store, as well as integration with Google Cast and Assistant. To advertise the latter’s capabilities, some Google Home users can now redeem a complimentary audiobook of their choice.
A few weeks ago it was discovered that Google’s popular Chromecast and Google Home devices were causing outages with wireless routers due to a bug. While router makers tried to fix the problem, it came down to Google to get a proper fix out, and now, that fix is rolling out to all users.
Do you use your Google Home as a bedside alarm clock? Do you wish you could be woken up by a specific song instead of an annoying alarm? Well, it’s possible and here’s how…
Google Home, and Assistant speakers in general, have only been on the scene a fraction of the time that the Amazon Echo family has. However, Google’s devices are starting to pick up steam, and they’ve really made themselves known in the market…
As promised yesterday, Google has begun rolling out a Google Play services update to users that should fix the reported Wi-Fi slowdowns and outages cause by Chromecast built-in devices (Google Homes, Android TVs, Chromecasts, etc.). In case it hasn’t reached your device yet, you can download the update below…
When reports came out that Home and Chromecast devices were slowing down or even causing temporarily Wi-Fi outages, Google gave us a statement that basically read that the company was looking into it. Now, the company has published an entire support page detailing the problem and what its plan is to fix it…
If you happen to own a router from ASUS, Linksys, Netgear, TP-Link, or Synology, there’s a chance that you’ve been experiencing Wi-Fi issues after setting up a Google Home and or a Chromecast in your house. While a fix is in works, there’s no quick or temporary solution for users having problems.
Have you experienced any Wi-Fi issues since installing a Google Home or Chromecast?
The Google Home Mini is a fantastic piece of hardware. It’s small, has a decent enough speaker for talking to Google Assistant or listening to music, and it’s inexpensive. The Home Mini’s biggest issue is just the fact that you must have it laying on a surface with a long cable trailing behind it.
While Google and Incipio have partnered together to create a wall mount for the Mini, it just isn’t ideal for those who don’t want to or can’t put holes in their walls. Thankfully, a third-party company has created the perfect solution, mounting the Home Mini to your electrical outlet.
Google’s suite of products in the past few years have been pretty awesome overall, with Chromecast and Home devices among the best. However, there’s now a confirmed issue with multiple routers where Google’s devices are the cause of temporary outages.
Back in November, we learned that for the first time in several years, Google would have an official presence at CES. The company today has taken wraps off its large booth and unsurprisingly it is mostly focused on the Google Assistant.
When Google Home launched, it was disappointing how few smart home devices it could control. However, a year later, the list has grown tremendously, and now, it’s expanded to over 1,500 different devices.
When I first heard that Google was working on a larger, Sonos-like Google Home, I couldn’t have been more excited. I’d never owned a nice home speaker until the Google Home Max, because I never really had the need — much less the desire — for a “fancy home speaker”. That changed when I saw the initial ad reel for the Home Max at Google’s event last year in San Francisco, and now I’ve had the joy of using the Max as my primary Home for a few weeks. It’s good.
Google and Amazon discounted their smart speakers so deeply in the holiday sales that they likely lost money on each unit, say analysts. Amazon discounted its Echo Dot to $29.99 in the run-up to the holidays, with the Google Home Mini also seen for the same price in various sales.
The two companies’ willingness to lose money on the hardware reveals their very different strategy to Apple with its upcoming HomePod speaker …
If you got your first Google Home for the holidays this year, chances are you had to make the tough decision of which room in your home it will be used the most. Those of us that have several Google Homes don’t have to think about that because, well, we have a Google Home in pretty much every room. But if you have just one Google Home, where do you like to keep it?
