The Google Home has been due for an update given its original reveal over a year ago at I/O 2016 and that its main competitor has launched devices at every price range. Announced at the October 4th event this morning, the Google Home Mini brings all the same Assistant smart speaker features to a smaller and cheaper form factor.
We’re just under an hour away from Google’s big hardware event to unveil the Pixel 2 family, and the leaks are in full swing. This morning, the images on Google Home’s Play Store app listing have been swapped out for the Pixel 2 XL.
Google has made quite a few moves with smart speaker devices in the past few weeks, and that’s undoubtedly because the company is preparing to bring a lot of new hardware to the table on its own and with partners. To help users better manage their various Assistant speakers, Google is now allowing the ability to assign those devices to specific rooms.
Have you ever used your Google Home at the dead of night and have it scream back at you because you forgot to lower its volume? Well, this should be a thing of the past as Google is now rolling out a feature called Night Mode allowing users to dim the Home’s lights and volume during set days and times. Here’s how it works…
Google Home Mini is one of the several products we expect to see announced by Google at its event tomorrow, and now (via Android Police) it seems someone who lives a couple blocks away from the Google campus has spotted the device available for set up in the Google Home app.
It’s been almost exactly one year since Google held its first “Made by Google” event, featuring the first wave of products out of Google’s newly-found seriousness about hardware. This year we’re expecting refreshes for lots of products that debuted for the first time last year, and perhaps a few exciting surprises as well…
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Earlier today we received a pair of juicy tips via email that we couldn’t yet verify, and they mentioned a potentially important forthcoming Google product that we’d only heard whispers about once before: a competitor to the Amazon Echo Show.
Now, thanks to TechCrunch’s apparent quick corroboration, we know that this information likely paints an accurate picture of Google’s plans for such a device. Apparently Google has an Echo Show competitor in the works with a 7-inch display and support for lots of its own services.
As we approach the holiday season, we expect to hear about new products that will hit the market in time for buyers to snatch them for themselves or loved ones. Before today, we knew for sure that Google had plans to introduce the Home Mini at next week’s event. What we didn’t expect was for Amazon to announced an entire line of new Echo products. And on top of that, we exclusively reported that Google had plans to introduce a premium Home called the ‘Max’ (although we don’t know if that’s coming before the end of the year).
This holiday season, do you plan to buy any new Google Home or Amazon Echo products?
A week out from Google’s upcoming 10/4 event, Amazon hosted a surprise hardware event in Seattle. Alexa speakers and accessories took center stage with a new smaller and cheaper Echo, as well as an Echo Plus that doubles as a smart home hub.
Google is developing a larger, higher-quality, and assumably higher-priced Google Home that would take on the likes of the Sonos Play:3, according to two sources familiar with the project. Both sources say that the device has stereo speakers, while one shared an internal name: Google Home “Max”.
Google Assistant’s smart home controls started off slow, but it’s quickly become a solid hub for controlling your home full of smart devices. Today, LG has announced that its portfolio of smart appliances are now compatible with Google’s AI.
Since launch, Google Home has been missing one seemingly straightforward feature: reminders. Fortunately, the functionality appears to be launching soon according to a new Google support document.
Announced late last month, Google’s recent partnership with retail giant Walmart has finally launched over the weekend, making the company’s massive collection of products available for purchase through Google Express. While many aren’t too familiar with Google Express, this partnership is notable because it allows users to order from Walmart through Google Home units.
A Google filing for a “media streaming device” has just passed the FCC and taken in conjunction with yesterday’s leak is likely the upcoming Google Home “Mini.” Documents filed with the regulatory agency reveal a circular base that lines up with the renders of the smaller Assistant speaker.
Smart speakers have been around for a while, but this fall they’re going to see a lot of expansion. With Google Assistant, that includes the first portable option in the TicHome Mini. However, if you’re looking to add a battery to your current Google Home unit, the “LOFT” does just that…
Besides the Pixel 2, Google has also been rumored to be working on a smaller Google Home for its upcoming October 4th event. The first images of that smart speaker have leaked today and suggest Google is going after the cheap Echo Dot from Amazon.
The Google Assistant has seen a host of new features and capabilities added since launch, and as demoed at Google Developer Days earlier this week, there are a lot more new goodies to look forward to in the near future. Along with the announced upgrades, Google is also alerting users to prepare for new Assistant features regarding its integration with smart home devices.
Back in April, Google released an SDK that allowed third-party hardware manufacturers to integrate Assistant into its products. Now, months later, we’re starting to see Assistant integration come to new products. This includes new smart speakers that have the same capabilities as the Google Home.
What Google Assistant-powered smart speaker would you purchase?
If you’re in the market for a music streaming service, your options are far from limited. The likes of Spotify, Pandora, and Google Play Music might be the obvious choices, but if you live in and surround yourself with Google’s ecosystem, Deezer has recently been turning into one of your better options — and this point is reinforced even more with the company’s latest announcement.
One of the best features of Google Home is its ability to throw content to a nearby screen or speaker from a selection of different services. Back at I/O, Google revealed that more services would pick up this functionality, and that’s starting today with CBS All Access.
Following the addition of Netflix earlier this year, Google Home now has the ability to cast shows from CBS All Access to nearby Chromecast devices. To make this new feature work, follow the walkthrough below to connect Google Assistant to your CBS account…
Google’s next generation Pixel and Pixel XL have been thoroughly leaked feature and design-wise over the past few weeks. A new rumor now suggests that Google will also launch a new Chromebook Pixel and smaller Google Home alongside its new phones later this fall.
Google Home has come a long way since it launched back in October of last year. The air freshener-shaped Assistant speaker was initially criticized for being a little lacking in features compared to Amazon’s competing Echo collection. However, ten months of software updates have made it a much more capable product than ever before.
This week has been big for Google Home. The device received a big update a couple days ago with the official rollout of hands-free calling, support for free Spotify streaming was just added this morning, and now you can now check out exclusive content from Vogue’s 125th anniversary September issue.
