Articles about Google Home

Today, TP-Link launches two new products: the Kasa KS205 and KS225 smart light switches. Both devices come with the distinction of being Matter-certified, a feature that sets them apart in the rapidly growing smart home market.

The Kasa KS205 Smart Wi-Fi Light Switch and Kasa KS225 Smart Wi-Fi Light Dimmer Switch give homeowners the ability to control their lights from anywhere via the Kasa App, using a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection. Thanks to their advanced scheduling and timer capabilities, these switches can automate light management, switching lights on and off based on user-defined settings, even simulating occupancy when homeowners are away.

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With more than one Nest device or Google Home speaker in the house, it can be a pain to manually switch music streaming from one speaker to another as you move from room to room.

But now Google has introduced a new feature that makes the process much, much easier. The "stream transfer" option can be accessed with your voice via Google Assistant, or using apps.

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Doubt disturbed my commitment to give up the Apple Way for the Google lifestyle two months ago. Preparing to pack up my wife's 64GB white iPhone X, I was taken aback by how pretty it was. She kept the thing in a case, which protected from damage but also obscured beauty. For fleeting seconds, I wondered why switch. Product design that generates joy is another benefit—and one transcending any, and every, feature.

But the moment passed, and I boxed up her smartphone along with my 256GB black iPhone X. Google gave great trade-in values, which dispatched the hassle of reselling the devices on Craigslist. Eight weeks later, writing this post on Pixelbook, I don't regret the decision. Confession: The transition isn't quite complete, but we're getting there. 

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Do you know what the official language of the United States is? The answer may surprise you. If you said "English," you'd be quite wrong. Actually, it's a trick question -- there is no official language of the USA. That's why it's particularly ignorant to get mad at immigrants for not speaking English. Hell, getting mad at people for speaking their native language would be abhorrent even if English was the official language.

With all of that said, a lot of technology -- such as voice assistants -- are designed for English speakers. Today, Google bucks that trend by announcing its Home assistant is leaning a new language -- Spanish.

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With there being a number of digital assistants to choose from, each is now focusing on becoming smarter than the competition. To this end, Google Home can now respond to strings of up to three commands at once.

The "multiple queries" feature is currently available in English for USA, UK, Canada and Australia, and  enables Google Home users to perform up to three functions with a single utterance. Users, however, seem a little confused about how it all works.

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If you live in the UK and have been looking for another reason to invest in a Google Home smart speaker, Google just gave you one. The company is going to give UK users the ability to place free calls to mobile and landline numbers.

An update rolling out this week will add the new feature to Google Home speakers around the country. The feature was announced last year, and it brings the UK in line with the US -- and, importantly, it does not require tethering to a mobile phone, thereby trumping Apple HomePod.

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Google support forums are filling up with complaints from Google Home and Chromecast users that they are experiencing problems with their Wi-Fi connections. With such devices connected to a network, many people are having issues with stability, or finding that their network collapses entirely.

Both TP-Link and Linksys have issued patches for their routers, but the problem ultimately lies with the Cast feature of Google Home and Chromecast devices.

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Christmas is now less than a month away, and if you have any kids in the house, it won't be long before excitement reaches fever pitch. Helping to keep the magic alive this year, Google is giving your children (or you) the chance to phone Santa.

If you have a Google Home, Google Home Mini, or an Android phone with Google Assistant, you can use a voice command to call the fat, festive fellow and have a chat and a sing-song with him.

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Amazon rolled out a selection of new Echo products a week ago, in a move designed to cement the company’s position as the leader of voice assistant technology.

At its hardware event today, Google announced its Echo Dot competitor, called the Home Mini. A companion to the Google Home, it will offer much the same functionality, but in a far smaller, cheaper package.

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If you're a Google Home user living in the US or Canada, Google is now rolling out the ability to make free phone calls.

The announcement sees the company making good on a promise from I/O 2017, and it extends the call-making capabilities of Google Assistant from smartphones to Google Home. There are, of course, a few limitations to keep in mind.

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Always-listening home virtual assistants can be absolute privacy nightmares, but they are oh so convenient too. Whether you select Amazon Echo or Google Home, you have to decide if you trust the company behind the assistant that is monitoring your home. Look, having a microphone or camera in your living room or bedroom can be scary, but if you are OK with it, you are rewarded with some great functionality, such as controlling IoT devices and getting instant answers to all of your questions. I am privacy-conscious, but I love Alexa too -- such a quandary!

If you live in Australia, and wanted Google Home, you have been out of luck. This is changing, however, as the standalone assistant hardware is coming to that country. If you want to ask questions about, say, The Perth Mint or the great actor Yahoo Serious, you will be able to buy the search-giant's hardware to do so. In addition, the Google Wifi router system is coming to the land down under too.

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What happens when a digital assistant decides it no longer wants to help you? In what is either a case of a sentient digital uprising, or just a software bug that Google is scrambling to fix, owners of a Google Home smart speaker may be waking up today to realize their daily dose of traffic conditions and weather updates are not being delivered to them on a cloud-based silver platter as usual.

First brought to attention by a user on the official Google Home Help Forum a few days ago, many users are discovering that every single "OK, Google" request they make to the digital speaker is being met with an automated error message.

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A new study analyzing the way users interact with their "smart speakers" shows that the most used feature of devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home isn't to stream music or even to get the latest weather.

The most commonly used feature of smart speakers is asking "general questions," proving that getting answers to life's daily queries and curiosities from a cloud-based computer voice is becoming an increasingly standard practice in today's society.

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Belkin's Wemo smart home devices are absolutely brilliant. Not only does the company offer power outlet and light switch adapters, but it recently introduced a dimmer switch too. The Wemo products are also compatible with both Amazon Alexa and Google Home, making them easy to control by voice.

Unfortunately, Wemo devices are not compatible with Apple HomeKit or Siri. There is good news, however -- Belkin is adding support. Starting this fall, consumers can buy a new product called "Wemo Bridge," which will enable HomeKit support for existing Wemo devices. It simply plugs into an Ethernet port on your router, thereby enabling support for Apple's smart home platform.

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Google Home is getting smarter. Today at Google I/O, Google revealed that the Amazon Echo rival will not only be spreading to more countries this summer (Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan specifically) but it will benefit from more new features than you can shake a stick at.

In all, there are more than 50 new features coming to the smart little device including Proactive Assistance, integration with the likes of Soundcloud and the free tier of Spotify, as well as hands-free voice calling. There's also expanded Bluetooth support to transform Google Home into a more useful speaker, and much more.

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