Google's AI-powered 'Home' hub ships next month for $129
The company's answer to the Amazon Echo finally gets a price and release date.
During its announcement-filled keynote today, Google revealed that its voice-powered assistant/Bluetooth speaker Google Home will cost $129 and is slated to go on sale November 4th. It's the stationary piece of Google's plans to make the platform all about you. As CEO Sundar Pichai said: "The goal is to build a personal Google for each and every user."
Like Amazon's Alexa platform, the voice-activated Google Home assistant will control connected home devices. Right now it'll work with Nest Thermostat, SmartThings, Philips and IFTTT. But it also acts as a Chromecast that can stream and be used to control other Google casting devices with your voice. Users can ask for YouTube videos and music. Netflix will soon support voice control so eventually you'll be able to say, "OK Google. Watch Luke Cage on my TV" and it'll start playing the show on Netflix.
The voice assistant also supports music streaming from YouTube Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora, Tunein and IHeart Radio. Because it's powered by Google's powerful search engine you can also ask for songs using specific queries like, "Play that Shakira song from Zootopia."
Additionally, the device accesses Google Assistant and your Google account for information about your daily schedule with a feature called My Day. It also uses to share details about your day with you before you head out the door including weather, schedule and traffic. Basically, it's like having the Google search bar talking to you in your home.
If you happen to have more than one Google Home speaker in your house, you can avoid inadvertently waking all of them up at once with "OK Google": The company clarified today that the devices are context aware and that the speaker that hears your voice best will be the one to wake up.
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