is a senior reviewer focused on smart home and connected tech, with over twenty years of experience. She has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
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Hi! I’m Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (aka Jen), The Verge’s smart home reviewer. I just spent the last week in New York City checking out the new smart displays, smart speakers, smart voice assistants, and smart security cameras launched by Amazon and Google. I haven’t tested any of them yet, but I’ve had some hands-on time with the new gadgets and spoken with folks at both companies about the new features.
I’m hosting a subscriber-only AMA on the site today, Friday, October 3rd. Just ask your questions in the comments on this post, and my editor, Nathan Edwards, and I will join you here at 1 PM to answer as many as we can.
To catch you up: on Tuesday, Amazon launched new Echo Show smart displays and Echo smart speakers that come with its new AI-powered Alexa Plus voice assistant, which is more conversational, smarter, and (mostly) better able to manage your smart home.
The company also revealed a bunch of new Ring smart security cameras, including a 4K-capable video doorbell, plus a new AI-powered feature that uses Ring cameras to help find missing dogs.
Then, on Wednesday, Google announced a huge overhaul of its smart home efforts. The headline is that it’s finally bringing its Gemini AI fully into Google Home with Gemini for Home, a new, smarter LLM-powered voice assistant for Google Home speakers that replaces Google Assistant.
This new breed of smarter AI is finally coming to the smart home. I know you have questions, and I hope I have the answers!