With voice control being the latest craze, Google has entered the market. Google Home consists of a voice-activated speaker powered by the Google Assistant. It is very similar in function to its competition from Amazon, The Echo and the Echo Dot which are powered by Amazon Alexa. ISP1 reviewed the Echo Dot, Alexa and integration with home automation devices here.
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At around $130, Google home is priced well above Amazon’s $50 Echo Dot.
However, Google Home with its integrated high-excursion speaker is more comparable to the $180 Amazon Echo with dual downward-firing speakers which produce much better sound than the Echo Dot. All three devices have multiple far-field microphones which do an excellent job of picking up voice commands even with a moderate level of ambient noise.
Amazon’s smart speaker products have been in the market longer and thus have more compatibility with smart home automation devices. Google home is better at answering questions due to the vast Google search network.
Other than the recently fixed Fake News problem where the home was giving some answers from dubious sources, several common problems have been reported with the home smart speaker. Fortunately most common problems have easy solutions. Here is a good blog post from joyofandroid.com on how to fix common problems with Google Home which addresses some common issues with the product and provides simple solutions to resolve the issues.
Here are a few Easter eggs and other cool responses.
There are many more, this is just a sampling.
Supported Audio Formats:
HE-AAC, LC-AAC+, MP3, Vorbis, WAV (LPCM), FLAC with support for high-resolution streams
Wireless:
802.11ac (2.4GHz/5Ghz) Wi-Fi for high-performance streaming
Speaker:
High excursion speaker with 2″ driver + dual 2″ passive radiators
Far-field voice recognition supports hands-free use
Power:
Required 16.5V, 2A included
Ports & Connectors:
DC power jack
Micro-USB port (for service only)
Supported Operating Systems:
Android 4.1 and higher
iOS 8.0 and higher
Mac OS X 10.9 and higher
Windows 7 and higher
The app is used to set up, manage, and control your Google Home device(s).
The Google Home App is available for Android and Apple devices
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