GoKawiil
Tech News
The Gemini-powered Google Home Speaker, which launched in June as Google's first new smart speaker in years, is now discounted by about $20 to roughly $79 in all four colors across Best Buy, Walmart, and Target. The sale marks the lowest price yet for the device, which supports Matter, includes a Thread border router, and can serve as audio output for the Google TV Streamer 4K.
Several Canadian provinces and territories, including Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba, recently ended seasonal clock changes and permanently adopted daylight saving time. Following the switch, owners of the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential report on Reddit that the device's LED display is off by an hour, even though asking Google Assistant for the time returns the correct answer. Other Google Home devices, such as the TV Streamer and smart displays, reportedly updated correctly.
Google published release notes detailing 42 fixes across its Home ecosystem, covering Gemini for Home, the Google Home app, Nest cameras and doorbells, Nest Wi-Fi, and Google TV Streamers. Updates include improved Gemini spatial awareness so voice commands to move music between rooms work correctly, fixed volume-command mix-ups between speakers, and resolved connectivity and live-view bugs on cameras and doorbells.
A long-time Google Home user reports that most of Google's smart home devices have gone years without updates, including Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell battery models (none since 2021), the Nest Hub display (over five years old), and Nest Wifi Pro (from 2022). The company's only recent release, the Google Home Speaker, arrived this year after a six-year gap since the Nest Audio and reportedly discontinued both the Nest Audio and Nest Mini.
Google published a changelog detailing a wave of fixes to its Home app and Gemini assistant, addressing issues like Gemini falsely claiming it misunderstood unspoken commands, incorrect alarm volume settings, and confusion between timers and sleep timers. The update also includes improvements for YouTube TV voice commands on smart displays and better handling of Matter-connected smart plugs.
Google has released a broad batch of software updates for its smart home hardware lineup, including Nest Wifi and Wifi Pro routers, HD and 4K Chromecast with Google TV, and its smart speaker range (Google Home Speaker, Nest Audio, Nest Mini). The updates mostly focus on bug fixes and stability, with specific improvements like better DNS handling and mesh performance on Wifi devices, an August 2026 security patch for Chromecast, and fixes for Wi-Fi 7 and WPA3 issues plus smoother playback on speakers.
Amazon announced the Alexa Home Map, a new interface that renders a home as an interactive 3D blueprint with animated icons for connected devices like lights and speakers placed where they physically sit. The map also integrates with outdoor security cameras to depict vehicles, pedestrians and weather conditions like rain or snow in real time, using stylized visualizations rather than photorealistic imagery.
Amazon is selling the 4th-gen Google Nest Learning Thermostat bundled with a 2nd-gen Nest Temperature Sensor for $219.99, down from its $279.99 list price. The $60 discount marks the lowest price the bundle has reached. The thermostat supports most 24V HVAC systems plus heat pumps, humidifiers and ventilation, and is Matter-certified for use with other smart home platforms.
Google Home Speaker owners reported their devices consuming unusually large amounts of Wi-Fi data, with one user citing three terabytes over two weeks and a WIRED writer finding her own speaker had used 487 GB in ten days. Google told WIRED a server misconfiguration caused some speakers to repeatedly re-download a software update, and said the issue has now been fixed.
Some Google Home Speaker owners report their devices continuously downloading massive amounts of data in the background, with one user seeing over 200GB consumed in a single day. The issue, flagged by 9to5Google and Reddit users, appears linked to a failed firmware update and mostly affects the newer Home Speaker model. Google has confirmed the bug and says a fix is already rolling out.
Android Auto, the Google interface normally projected onto a car's dashboard display, can be run on an old Android tablet using third-party receiver apps instead of an actual vehicle. The phone handles all the processing, so even an aging tablet that struggles with regular apps can display Android Auto's simplified maps, music and messaging layout.
Reolink has released the Home Hub 2, a device that lets users monitor and search footage from up to eight cameras simultaneously. The hub includes AI-powered object search capabilities that function even without an internet connection, and does not require an ongoing subscription fee to use.