google home & wifi coming next month to uk

Ahh that's annoying

I'm thinking about picking one up over the weekend. Already got a Nest thermo but I'm thinking having auto lighting would make this more worth it. £££ those light bulbs aren't cheap.
 
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Got mine setup this morning. Not had much chance to play with it too much (although there's not actually much to play with which I guess is the point!). I have mine setup like so; VM Modem -> Google Wifi -> Switch -> Google Wifi. It claimed the signal was good when I did the initial wifi backhaul setup but the cable is there so I'd be aswell using it for now. Not had any issues...yet.

The one concern I did have was; "would I still be able to connect to my work VPN"? As I had read conflicting reports on this. Glad to report it appears I can connect just fine. When I did a scan of the channels it was using. The 2.4GHz band is using channel 11 with the 5GHz using channel 36. I found it odd that it was using 36 for the 5GHz band as I there's a nearby Sky wireless router with a good signal using the same channel, I thought the Google router would pick this up and switch channels?

EDIT: Just realised the nearby Sky device with the strong signal is my Sky Q box!!
 
Mine actually arrived on Saturday (maybe Google thinks Saturday is a next business day after Friday!). That was great as I had chance to set up Google WiFi two pucks in less than 20 minutes and worked great. Decided to tell Virgin Media by calling them to set Hub onto Modem only mode. All done.

Google Home was even easier to set up. Exploring all features and very impressed with all things Nest and Chromecast. I am exploring idea of setting up Philips Hue lighting next but need to read more forums concerning early issues. I saw Hue displayed and working perfectly at Google Store-within-a-Store on Tottenham Court Road/Currys on Thursday launch day but that was only with one working bulb.

So early verdict: very impressed. No issues yet.
 
Just set mine up - very impressed. Full wifi coverage over a medium semi detached. Can get 160 of my 200 virgin connection downstairs in my lounge from the router in the study upstairs - more than enough for streaming/games etc. Used to get about 100 using the virgin SH.

I spent some of yesterday messing around with the placement of the 2nd unit in the lounge (I moved it closer to the main unit in the room) and I'm now getting the maximum 200/200 from the virgin broadband. Terrific bit of kit.
 
It's a shame I don't have more stuff to use google home with. Only 3/4 chromecasts and no philips hue because we have well over 120 spotlights downstairs and no way is getting hue everywhere cost effective

Is hive supported?
 
It's a shame I don't have more stuff to use google home with. Only 3/4 chromecasts and no philips hue because we have well over 120 spotlights downstairs and no way is getting hue everywhere cost effective

Is hive supported?

This is my problem, my living room has too many bulbs to put in hue and a 3 way light switch, I need a smart 3 way switch that will work with this but can't seem to find anything.
 
It's a shame I don't have more stuff to use google home with. Only 3/4 chromecasts and no philips hue because we have well over 120 spotlights downstairs and no way is getting hue everywhere cost effective

Is hive supported?

As far as I understand, Nest Thermostat is directly supported but not Hive, unless you can connect using Samsung Smart Things or IFTTT.
 
Ive conneceted my honeywell evohome system to my home via ifttt. doest take long to setup commands once you have the wording that it understand correct.
 
Ive conneceted my honeywell evohome system to my home via ifttt. doest take long to setup commands once you have the wording that it understand correct.

I am impressed that you purchased the Honeywell evohome system and connected it to Home via IFTTT. My home heating needs are clearly less complex than yours and felt the cost of the Nest Learning Thermostat for me is quite competitive, esp compared to the evohome. Seems that the evohome does modular designs.
 
I am impressed that you purchased the Honeywell evohome system and connected it to Home via IFTTT. My home heating needs are clearly less complex than yours and felt the cost of the Nest Learning Thermostat for me is quite competitive, esp compared to the evohome. Seems that the evohome does modular designs.

I considered the nest system but preferred teh control on a room by room basis. I installed the honeywell system just over a year ago and it works really well. Would recommend it.
 
So I purchased the Google Wifi box, it's cool, but I also pick up an Apple AirPort Extreme 2TB for £145. Not sure which one to keep...
 
While I think support for multiple speakers is great news, I would like to see Google introduce further features into GH that I would find useful:

1. ability to create reminders, set calendar events and take notes.
2. send messages and make phone calls

Google needs to write additional data to support these activities and now that support for multiple speakers is on the way to the UK, it should be possible to achieve these additional command features. There is, it seems a conflict here because Google wants your GH to be a public device which others besides you can use. So it seems multiple speaker support is a good first step in adding features.

I would like to see GH achieve feature parity with my Pixel XL. Getting a digital assistant to work really well is a great idea that I am fully supporting. However it is really difficult to get right and expect a number of companies that are attempting this effort (LINE, Bixby, Djingo, etc) will soon discover how difficult and costly this is. It is one thing to interpret our speech. It is another to make sense of it and provide answers and services that are intuitive and really work. These speakers need data to improve but we won't give it data if the service is unable to provide us a useful service: a chicken and egg problem. Alexa and Siri are struggling with getting user data because the service is just not good enough to get more usage. Google should be able to get this right soonest as it has the world's leading AI developers and it has massive amounts of our data.

I grew up watching this digital assistant feature used on Star Trek and now I can do the same. I just want to be able to do more!
 
iRobot, step one complete :o

You jest but it is only just beginning! Just one of many examples, Mercedes Benz is connecting Google Home (and Amazon Echo) to all of their new cars.

“Mercedes-Benz’s goal is creating an intelligent ecosystem around cars and developing cutting-edge technology to make everyday life more convenient for our customers.” Mercedes seems to be a leader in smart home integration. Three years ago they added Nest support to their vehicles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLdS_eH5xOI
 
Ahh that's annoying

I'm thinking about picking one up over the weekend. Already got a Nest thermo but I'm thinking having auto lighting would make this more worth it. £££ those light bulbs aren't cheap.

I bought another Google Home for my kitchen yesterday at PCWorld Curry in Fulham at the Google Store and they were offering a free Chromecast (second gen) at the same time. Saved £ 25, the cost of the Chromecast. I thought I might need another WiFi puck but the two I have in home are doing such a great job that the WiFi signal is really strong in this room too.

Looked at the Philips Hue. Once you buy the Starter kit (£199 if I recall correctly), the three different light bulbs they were selling ranged from £ 15 to £ 20 each. The problem I have in my hallway is that each of two chandeliers have 6 bulbs so not worth doing. I have to think about this one some more.

Let us know what you decide to do.
 
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