Google Home

Orcvader · 9 Mar 2018 at 12:43

Tried it last night and I'm surprised how simple it is. When the Home app popped up with linking a number it just made me realise... does that mean the number you're linking can be in any phone? Even an old style feature phone? Of course as long as it can get the SMS to receive the verification code.

mark43 · 9 Mar 2018 at 16:30

What I'd really like is the ability to answer calls from the Google home, if they could do that then it would be perfect. Though still great as it is.

rG-tom · 11 Mar 2018 at 14:35

How do I change the device for currently playing? Ie if I'm listening to music on "main" Chromecast audio, or the inbuilt speaker, and want to listen to it on the "home" group instead, what command do I use other than telling it the artist etc again and it starting from the beginning again?

rG-tom · 13 Mar 2018 at 21:08

Nobody?

mark43 · 13 Mar 2018 at 21:20

rG-tom said:
How do I change the device for currently playing? Ie if I'm listening to music on "main" Chromecast audio, or the inbuilt speaker, and want to listen to it on the "home" group instead, what command do I use other than telling it the artist etc again and it starting from the beginning again?

rG-tom said:
Nobody?

Pretty sure you can't, unless its been made possible recently. I'd love to be corrected. Seems quite an obvious omission to me, If I'm listening to something in one room I'd love to be able to ask it to continue playing in another room instead.

Scam · 13 Mar 2018 at 22:52

Can you maybe load the Google Home app and hit the cast button to give you options of where to cast to? Pretty sure you can't do it with a voice command.

Having said that sometimes if I tell my GH to play something (or maybe when it already is and I change services; eg from Play Music to radio) it's asked me "Do you want to play that on *chromecast name*?

sesevans · 21 Mar 2018 at 17:11

Google Home Mini give away in London

Google is promoting the Mini with some fun pop-up stores this weekend. The promotion says the Mini is about the size of a donut so you will have a chance to win either the Mini or the donut!

All you have to do is ask Google Home Mini a question. You can visit the Westfield Stratford City this weekend or the Angel Shopping Centre next weekend.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/934949/Google-Home-Mini-Free-Claim-UK

sesevans · 23 Mar 2018 at 23:41

Retailers everywhere are in an existential battle to survive the Amazon onslaught. Several have already turned to Google to assist them in this war, using Google Assistant and Google Home for shopping by voice. It has been previously reported that Google has signed a number of deals in the US with retailers such as WalMart and Target where shoppers can tap in to GA and GH for voice ordering/shopping. Google in the US operates Google Express for same day delivery of shopping.

Now the first European retailer has announced a partnership with GA and GH, namely the French group Carrefour, which had recently announced a $3.5 billion (Euro 2.8 billion) for digital commercd(6 times its current spend) in its battle with Amazon. With Google they have created a customised voice assistant called Lea, which I presume leans heavily on GA technology. How long will it be before we see a similar arrangement with a major retailer in the UK?

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-c...ice-boost-in-battle-with-amazon-idUKKBN1GZ299

Em3bbs · 25 Mar 2018 at 13:00

Well you can already order Morrisons, Booths and Whole Foods (obviously) goods including fresh perishables with Alexa, along with the other hundreds of third party sellers on amazon.co.uk if that answers your question? Need to be in an Amazon Fresh area for the perishable stuff.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=12630048031

For Google Home customers there is always the Tesco IFTTT Applet in the interim which adds items to your Tesco shopping list.

sesevans · 29 Mar 2018 at 17:39

IDC is out with a 5 year forecast for the smart home, with smart home speakers expected to grow by a CAGR of 32% between 2017-2022. By 2022, the entire smart home device market which includes speakers, thermostats, video entertainment (largest but slowest growing--think ROKU), lighting and home monitoring, is expected to reach $ 277 billion.

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS43701518

Em3bbs · 31 Mar 2018 at 20:29

Moses said:
^lol at the press release RSS feed.

I'm surprised it's allowed, given the account only posts (or has ever posted) in Google threads -it's clearly paid for posting which isn't usually allowed here. Although, it's interesting to see when sesevans stops posting about certain products and you know they are about to be end of line. Just a shame it ruins the thread for everything else though.

Moses said:
Might pull the trigger on one of the minis given the £35 price. Would probably be in the bedroom... as an alarm clock/radio/podcast player, and whatever else it can do.

Does it work well when doing the above?

Yes, it would be ideal for that.

Scam · 2 Apr 2018 at 02:32

Can you easily set (and check) repeat alarms? I'd be tempted to use one in the bedroom as a click radio but I'd want it to work like my phone with a 7am on weekdays and something different at the weekend.

Actually, last time I investigated I don't believe you can set the radio as an alarm right? It's just the horrible alarm sound?

Martini1991 · 3 Apr 2018 at 18:34

Scam said:
Can you easily set (and check) repeat alarms? I'd be tempted to use one in the bedroom as a click radio but I'd want it to work like my phone with a 7am on weekdays and something different at the weekend.

Actually, last time I investigated I don't believe you can set the radio as an alarm right? It's just the horrible alarm sound?

You can't change the alarm as far as I'm aware, which frankly is pathetic.

However settings alarms is very simple really, literally tell it lol.

Scam · 3 Apr 2018 at 23:08

Yeah, I can't believe you can't say "Hey Google, play 6 music at 7am tomorrow".

mark43 · 4 Apr 2018 at 21:06

Its odd that some very basic things like this are not possible.

mrgubby · 11 Apr 2018 at 14:31

Why does the Google assistant voice sound so robotic compared to Alexa, I want to move to Google from Amazon but my wife hates the voice.

mark43 · 11 Apr 2018 at 21:36

mrgubby said:
Why does the Google assistant voice sound so robotic compared to Alexa, I want to move to Google from Amazon but my wife hates the voice.

Because Amazon use real people for Alexa, there is a warehouse with several hundred thousand in there just waiting to reply to you, they pay them 10p an hour and don't feed them.

But umm, don't know, I don't think Alexa really sounds any less robotic.

mrgubby · 11 Apr 2018 at 22:34

mark43 said:
Because Amazon use real people for Alexa, there is a warehouse with several hundred thousand in there just waiting to reply to you, they pay them 10p an hour and don't feed them.

But umm, don't know, I don't think Alexa really sounds any less robotic.

Google sounds like a 32kbs MP3 file

mark43 · 12 Apr 2018 at 19:54

mrgubby said:
Google sounds like a 32kbs MP3 file

I'm not one of these people who religiously defends their products, but honestly no idea what you are on about. Just searched for a few videos on youtube to check what Alexa sounds like and definitely no less robotic, worse if anything.

mrgubby · 12 Apr 2018 at 21:33

mark43 said:
I'm not one of these people who religiously defends their products, but honestly no idea what you are on about. Just searched for a few videos on youtube to check what Alexa sounds like and definitely no less robotic, worse if anything.

I've got them sitting next to each other and MrsGubbies verdict is that Google sounds like a Cheap Robot