Category: Google Home

If you have been wanting to pick up a Google Home, tomorrow is the day to do it.  Tomorrow, November 23rd, you will be able to pick the Google Assistant powered smart speaker for just $99 at Google’s Store as well as Best Buy.  The sale is going to be limited to tomorrow and Google is indicating there will be limited quantities.  If you are wanting to get one, you need to jump on it quickly as at that price, they will sell pretty fast.

Home has been doing well by all indicates and while it certainly has some limitation on what it can do currently, you can see where Google wants to go with it as a centerpiece of the “AI first” movement.  Having had a Home in my office for a few weeks now (review coming later this week), I’ve found it be very handy and helpful with things but equally, I’ve bumped into some limitations that I hope are addressed soon.

Google Home has some impressive microphones built into it and can hear you for a good distance away depending on the ambient noise level of your home. Sometimes, however, it would be nice to get some sort of acknowledgement that Home actually heard your command.  Sure you have the swirling lights at the top but what if you aren’t looking at it or are even out of sight of your Home?  Fortunately there is an easy way around this and it all comes down to a setting inside the Home app.

In this How To I’ll show you how to set up your Google Home to give you an audible tone when you start or end a request.

Having had a Google Home in my house for most of this week, there are some things that need improvement (I’ll cover that in more detail in my review coming up next week).  One of those areas is app integration.  There are just a handful of apps that work with the help of Google Assistant and Google Home.  For it to be successful, this has to change and it likely will starting next month.  Google has announced that the Google Assistant Actions API will be opening up to developers starting next month.  That means developers will be able to enhance their apps to work with Assistant and, in turn, Home, through three different action models.  First, there is the Direct Actions.  This is designed for straightforward requests for things like home automation, etc.  As the name suggests, it is something you direct your app to do as it interacts with Assistant.

Read on for more details

It appears that shipments for the new Google Home device have started for readers.  Multiple readers have either emailed or commented on Google+ of receiving shipment notifications of the $129 Google Assistant-powered device.  I too have received a shipment notification with it expected to arrive at the end of the week.

Aimed at competing with the Amazon Echo, Google Home brings the power of Google Artificial Intelligence to give you detailed information about your day, upcoming events, search information, travel information and the like.   While it is for everyone in the family, it tied to a single primary Google account.  Like Google OnHub, Home is aimed at sitting out in the open and doesn’t look like a piece of techno-kit sitting on a shelf.

Earlier this week when Google Home was announced, we got a small sample of the apps and services that it will support in the event. It was pretty clear from the demos that Google Calendar, YouTube and Google Play Music would be supported, as well as some smart home solutions, but it wasn’t fully outlined.  Now that has been solved thanks to a posting in the Google Support pages.  The page outlines everything that is going to be supported by the Google Assistant-driven smart speaker when it starts shipping next month but you can bet this list is going to be changing as time goes on.

As for music, here is what is supported:

• Google Play Music
• YouTube Music
• Spotify
• Pandora
• TuneIn

Google has begun accepting pre-orders for the new Google Home device.  The smart speaker-meets-smart home device is aimed at being the center of the home with Google Assistant being a voice command away.

Aimed at competing with the Amazon Echo, Google Home brings the power of Google Artificial Intelligence to give you detailed information about your day, upcoming events, search information, travel information and the like.   And it is for everyone in the family.  Like Google OnHub and Google Wi-Fi, Home is aimed at sitting out in the open and doesn’t look like a piece of techno-kit sitting on a shelf.