‘Smart speakers’ are angling to colonize your living room

Google Home is now a US-only release but Google says broader availability is on the roadmap.

Let’s start with the basic design element. Google Home is officially a thing, and it is a direct competitor to the popular Amazon Echo.

Its bottom half is a speaker component that comes in a range of different colours, as well as metal and fabric finishes. It can also interact with smart home devices like the Nest thermostats or Philips Hue lightbulbs.

Google today also unveiled its new Google Wifi router. Developers need Amazon only when they’re ready for the company to certify them as Echo compatible.

Google Home was thoughtfully crafted to deliver unbelievable sound in a compact form factor. The speaker can also be given other commands such as sending a message to friends or providing directions. Both the Home and the Echo connect to Wi-Fi, but only the Echo offers Bluetooth connectivity.

At $129 it’s slightly cheaper than Echo, and has fewer microphones and a more basic speaker.

Then, there’s the software. And, of course, as the Google Assistant adds functionality over time, Google Home will automatically update its software so you don’t have to lift a finger while it keeps getting better and better.

The speaker even has a bit of fun worked in, with examples like being able to virtually flip a coin using the speaker, or get a daily briefing of your planned activities for the day when you wake up.

Like Siri, Google Home also works with Chromecast and Android TV devices. The company said people use internet differently now, with games, video chatting and more on various devices throughout the home. You have probably already felt the improvement if you use Google Now’s voice recognition or the Google Photos search and with the accelerating speed of technological breakthroughs, expect AI on every smartphone to overtake humans in many tasks. “But if you’re Google, you can’t afford to stop placing bets”. In the two years since Amazon.com Inc. released its Echo speaker, the household device has become a surprise hit – and a surprise threat to Google, as users turn to the Echo for information from the web. The list of Google Home launch partners is much smaller than the big offering of Echo friends. Intelligent voice-response systems are already the norm for many customer-service applications, and it’s only logical that similar applications would migrate to consumer products, especially when they’re fueled by companies like Google and Amazon, which have massive amounts of data at their disposal, and have invested billions in artificial intelligence. Chromecast Ultra will cost US$69, more than twice the price of the regular Chromecast device.

Yesterday, Google announced that its voice activated speaker, aptly called Google Home, has launched and ready to take on the big boys.

Thanks to Amazon’s Alexa Skills Kit, it’s very easy for just about any third-party developer to enable the Echo to control their devices. But the Home sure looks better, and it looks like better value.

The phone is sold exclusively through Verizon in the USA, but will also be available for sale on Google’s website unlocked, meaning it can be used with other networks.