The voice-activated speaker is impressively smart – and a great way to set up wireless, multi-room audio on the cheap.
BuzzFeed News; Google
It’s hard to think about Google’s new speaker without thinking of the Echo and Echo Dot first. Amazon’s sleeper hit (over 3 million Echo devices have been sold since 2014) made home-based bots mainstream and set the stage for its rival, Google Home, which hits shelves tomorrow, Nov. 4, for $129.
Both Google’s and Amazon’s voice-activated speakers are powerful, artificially intelligent personal assistants that listen for a special keyword, send your voice query to the cloud, and then spit back a response via a computerized female voice. Both want to answer your questions, play your music, and control your smart home.
The main difference? Amazon released the Echo two years ago, while Google’s hardware is just coming to market now. Google’s also had a four-year lead on a consumer artificial intelligence product (Google Now was first demo’d at Google I/O 2012), but it's been working on the technology for much longer.
Now, both companies are competing for a place in your living room or your kitchen or your bathroom or your bedroom — or all of the above.
I’ve talked to Google Home every day since I peeled it out of its box and found that while there are some quirks, Google’s new gadget is a contender. It’s smarter and works better in multiple rooms than the Amazon Echo does. Its biggest flaw is that you have to say “Google” so damn much.
Where Google really shows its intelligence is its ability to understand contextual questions.
When you ask Home a question like “Where’s the nearest gas station?” and then “When does it close?,” Google understands “it.” You could ask “What’s the capital of Nepal?” followed by “How do you spell that?” and Google would spell “K-a-t-h-m-a-n-d-u” (the Echo, on the other hand, spells “t-h-a-t”).
Quelle: <a href="Google Home Could Replace Your Echo, Sonos, And Siri“>BuzzFeed
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