Ok, Google, call Santa
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.
Some Google Home Minis found to be secretly recording everything they hear
With the Google Home Mini, the search giant was hoping to get its smart speaker into more homes than ever before. But the latest privacy revelation about the device means that people may think twice about buying one.
Artem Russakovskii from Android Police was the first to -- publicly -- talk about the issue. He noticed that his Google Home Mini was active and recording sound throughout the day, not only when he uttered the "OK, Google" keyword. Google says that the privacy violation is down to a bug.
The $49 Home Mini is Google's answer to the Amazon Echo Dot
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.