Google Home

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.

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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.

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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 …

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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?

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Ahead of CES 2018, which happens to be just a few weeks away, LG today has unveiled an entire lineup of new speakers. Included is a speaker bar, portable Bluetooth speakers, and much more. What’s exciting, though, is that one of them, the ThinQ Speaker, is powered by the Google Assistant…

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The Home Max is now available for purchase which means Google now sells three different smart speakers, all serving separate purposes. The Max, being the largest of the three, is intended to be a premium quality speaker which just happens to have Google Assistant built-in.

But at $400, the Home Max can be a difficult purchase to make. Are you buying one for your house?

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I got the Google Home Max yesterday. I bought the white one from Verizon in the minutes after it went on sale. I got the free shipping option which was about as fast as the 1 day shipping from Best Buy. It comes packaged nicely in a very Googley box pictured above.

Here we go:

Earlier this year, Samsung was rumored to be developing a smart speaker to compete with likes of Google Home. Today, a new report provides the first concrete details on the device, as well as a possible launch date. Meanwhile, another report notes a possible launch for the rumored Google Home with a display.

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Following the launch of the Home Max this month, Google’s smart speaker lineup for the year will be complete. However, rumors already point to the company working on a device with a touchscreen, while a new report today suggests multi-touch input for future devices.

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Google Assistant is a very powerful tool, but its real power will be unlocked by developers working with the platform. Recently, eBay has jumped on board the Assistant bandwagon, bringing some welcome functionality to Assistant on your phone and smart speakers.

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Google has publicly said that its new high-end Google Home Max speaker will be released in December, but until now we didn’t have any idea at what point within that month you might be able to trot down to a store and actually pick one up. According to Best Buy at least, that day will be December 11th, 2017.

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Have you ever given Google Home a command and then immediately turned around to give it another? I do this on a pretty regular basis for things like controlling lights and playing media on Chromecast. Now, Google is making this easier by accepting multiple commands at once.

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Google I/O 2017 happened over half a year ago at this point, and a ton was announced at the company’s annual developer conference. A lot of that surrounded Google Assistant, and Google Home in particular. However, most of the things announced at I/O still haven’t arrived, so what gives?

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Google Assistant is capable of a lot of cool tricks, but it’s still limited in some areas. Now, as Android Police points out, Google is adding some welcome functionality to Assistant speakers.

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For the past few teardowns of the Google app, we’ve spotted a Calendar setting among Google Assistant’s list of services. This control is now beginning to rollout and allows users to manage Google Calendar, but only on Google Home speakers.

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This morning Google announced several new features for the Home app, including improved search and advanced audio controls like bass and treble. These changes are rolling out with version 1.26 of the app, with a teardown also revealing the addition of support for the Google Home Max launching next month. It also details upcoming features and possibly a new device.

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