Google Home Hub! (Google's Smart Display)

I AM BUYING THIS!!! :heart_eyes:

Glad I held off on buying the Lenovo one, this looks awesome. Hope the pricing is decent.

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Other sites have been reporting there’s no camera on the front which would be disappointing.

I don’t really get these home hubs. I can already do all this on my phone :woman_shrugging:

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TechCrunch is reporting a US price of $149, which I think is very reasonable!

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Same here. I’m not sold on the use case for needing this.

That aside it looks better than the amazon version

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I use my Google Home devices extensively - I have 8 dotted around the house :smiley: Looking forward to this.

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Until Siri gets better (not sure that’s ever gonna happen), I’m with you.

I get the feeling Google and Alexa are better by some margin, but I’m struggling to see a time I’d use it over my phone.

Plus, in a house with kids and other people, it’s just not practical.

What do people use their smart speakers/hubs for now?

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Setting alarms, reminding me of my calendar appts and to-do lists, playing music, changing the temperature on the thermostat, controlling my Hue bulbs, lamps and fans, broadcasting voice messages to different rooms, asking general questions to Google as it’s way faster than looking them up, listening to the news briefings, doing calculations, calling Ubers, and way more!

It’s amazing and life-changing. Why don’t you pick up a Home Mini and try it out? They are only about Ā£30 and they work perfectly with iOS.

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I have an Echo Dot, and struggle to find it does anything my phone doesn’t do. And the phone usually does it better.

The one thing it does better than my phone is shopping lists, but only in conjunction with ToDoist. Siri doesn’t repeat the item back, but the Echo Dot does. So I know whether it heard correctly.

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I get this question all the time (we have one in each room) and the most obvious answer is to play music!! What do people use their dumb speakers for? :wink:

I used to have a couple of Sonos speakers but I sold them after I got the smart speakers because convenience trumps sound quality.

The Dots / Home Minis are particularly awesome as very cheap internet radio players. No faffing around with tuning, literally just say what station you want to listen to.

There are other things I use them for too but I’d have them just for the music alone

  • Timers
  • Playing Netflix and YouTube on the tv (this is the best!)
  • Light control
  • Calling my Echo when I’m at work to chat to the wife and kids (turns out drop in is pretty great)
  • Adding stuff to my Ocado basket (very useful in the kitchen where you can do it as soon as you run out of something)
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Perhaps this is due to Siri (and my experience so far), but ā€œgenerallyā€, I find it quicker and more accurate to use my phone for pretty much everything you said there (and I’ve normally always got my phone on me).

But I also have a Series 0 Apple Watch (which is now verrrrry slow), so when I get the Series 4, this might make things a little snappier.

I’ve never bothered, for the reasons I gave above - Plus, I’d need to have them in multiple rooms to take advantage of it (I can’t think of 1 room I’d use it the most in) - Then we are back to the ā€œmight as well use your phoneā€ scenario.

I may pick one up anyway!

Doesn’t this highlight the lack of trust (due to the amount of times voice assistants have got things wrong in the past)? I don’t trust Siri to get things right half the time, but I also don’t want what I’ve just said, to be repeated back at me (it’s such a time waste).

Ha, appreciate the point, but if it was sound quality I was wanting, I’d buy a HomePod (based on reviews), or like you said, the Sonos speakers.

If I wanted to listen to radio (or any music), I’d want to do it on a bigger speaker - I’ve got plenty of ā€œdumbā€ speakers which sound great - I’m more interested in the voice assistant aspect, and how it can make life easier, not harder… I’m looking at you, Siri.

I think that some sort of confirmation is necessary.

If I add beans to my list, Siri repeats back that ā€˜it’ has been added to my shopping list. Alexa repeats back that beans has been added.

One time Alexa repeated back that girls had been added to my shopping list (I can’t recall what it should’ve been). Imaging my embarrassment if I’d had to ask a shop assistant which aisle they kept the girls in? :open_mouth:

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Yep. I’d forgotten this.

I’ve a Echo Dot that I use as a clock radio and to switch on and off my bedroom lights.

I like being able to do quick conversations on money and asking really random things like the Nibelheim safe code :stuck_out_tongue: (Final Fantasy VII) when gaming without looking at my phone.

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It’s bad enough I have to listen to my son talk about Fortnite to his friends through the PS4 - If he started asking for codes on a smart speaker I think I’d go mad!

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Guessing you’re not a fan of Siri.

To be fair I think that, with the addition of Shortcuts, Apple have pretty much leaped everyone in terms of abilities and personalisation. It’s a really big deal and an incredibly smart solution.

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So available 6 months after US launch for £149.

If it does launch for that price though I’m getting one.

For us it’d mostly get used as a bell for the nest hello, but having the video preview makes it a better fit than another google home mini.

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I think my negativity towards Siri stems from perceived lack of development and usability - Especially considering I really want to love it.

It really hasn’t improved in recent years, and is practically useless unless you have a really strong internet signal (not sure how well Google do with this when out and about).

I’m yet to find an Siri Shortcut I’d use - Hopefully in time it’ll become second nature.

What’s the source on that? And is there a date for a US launch?

No source, just history with other google products. They tend to look after the US first.

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