GoKawiilis a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience. She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
All the smart home news, reviews, and gadgets you need to know about
Google’s first new smart speaker in six years starts shipping on June 29th, narrowly missing its promised spring launch window. Preorders for the Google Home Speaker open today, June 17th.
Nothing has changed hardware-wise in the nine months since the $99 speaker was announced. It has the same slightly squished round design, with touch-capacitive buttons on top and a light ring at the bottom to indicate status. And it still comes in four colors: porcelain (white), hazel (black), jade (green), and berry (red). The last two are US-only.
Google Home Speaker $ 100 $ 100 Google’s first smart home speaker in six years, built for Gemini for Home. It has 360-degree sound; two can be paired for stereo, or used with a Google TV Streamer for spatial surround sound. It’s also a Matter controller and Thread Border Router. It requires a Google Home Premium subscription for some features. Read More $100 at Google$100 at Best Buy
The Home Speaker is Google’s first audio device designed specifically for Gemini for Home. You can use Gemini for Home on other Google Nest speakers and smart displays, but Anish Kattukaran, chief product officer for Google Home, said this device delivers the experience best. In a briefing earlier this month, he said the speaker runs local models for noise cancellation, echo suppression, and sound separation to ensure Gemini can hear commands despite background noise.
Gemini for Home has been available on Nest speakers for several months through an early access program. Compared to Google Assistant, Gemini is a more natural conversational assistant. It can understand natural language commands, handle more complex questions, and follow along if you, um, err, or change your thought mid-sentence. It can also talk back and forth in a limited capacity without you needing to repeat the wake word.
Previous Next
... continue reading