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What you need to know
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Google introduced the "Home Hub" speaker at $ 150 with screen in October
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Just in time for the holidays, Google has introduced new features that it adds to Google Assistant.
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Some new features have been designed for kids, but experts say parents should always use judgment
Just in time for Black Friday, Google has launched its latest coup in the fight against Alexa, hoping that families will exhaust and fill their baskets of Google Home products this holiday season.
The Google Assistant, which does not have the same name as its rivals Alexa, Siri and Cortana, is already present on many Android phones and devices from smart home companies such as Nest, a company owned by Google. In a house located in the picturesque area of Bernal Heights in San Francisco, Google has invited a small group of journalists to discover how the assistant can also live in every room of the house.
We asked a technical reviewer and a parenting editor to share their thoughts on Google's vision of a smart home.
"The way people refer to this dream is called" ambient computing, "said Dieter Bohn, editor of The Verge, citing longtime technology columnist Walt Mossberg. "It's the idea that you have an assistant with whom you can talk anywhere, it's always around."
Bohn has written extensively on the battle of intelligent assistants and admits that they have exceeded his skeptical expectations, although the dream is still far away.
"Compared to a few years ago, it's shocking to see how competitive and competitive these things are," he said. "They do a lot more than I expected."
Most of the latest features of the Google Assistant are designed for kids: characters from Nickelodeon shows can give a touch of variety and entertainment to the dreaded alarm clock, and the wizard can play music and sound effects with a growing selection of books while reading aloud. to your children.
"Some of the content available is really great," said Christine Elgersma, parenting editor of Common Sense Media.
But in the case of Google and Amazon products, Elgersma said that children had become the unintended beta testers of a very young technology and still far from perfect.
"I think a lot of parents face problems where speakers do not respond to children," she said. "This, of course, will probably improve over time – but we do not know the impact on the kids right now."
Elgersma said that one of the concerns was that of politeness: smart speakers always respond better to specific commands, and these commands rarely contain the words "please" or "thank you". Bohn said that Google had developed a mode that requires children to behave in a good manner when they talk to the assistant.
Another concern for Elgersma is privacy. Parents must decide whether or not to create online accounts for their children and may need to determine what data is stored in these accounts.
"I did not collect data about myself as a child, but our children collect data about them that can follow them for their entire lives," she said. "Are there videos of children, their voices are recorded, the questions they ask?" It's kind of an endless question in my mind: what is it? who is collected and how will it be used? "
For the moment, some of the most useful features of the smart assistants are for parents: the ability to "broadcast" a message through all the speakers in the house, even the car that comes home with a dinner in hand. Now, the Google Assistant allows a family member to respond to a broadcast message – either by text or voice – simply by addressing the nearest speaker.
For cooks on busy holidays, the Google Assistant can now give hands-free cooking instructions step by step, similar to the detailed navigation offered to drivers. The assistant can already perform "routines" – such as turning on the lights, starting the coffee maker and reading the latest morning titles. But for the lazy winter holiday mornings, you can now wait to start your routine until you turn off your alarm – after repeatedly pressing the repeat button.
For her part, Alexa has the vast resources of Amazon, which allows you to do "shopping by voice" when you walk in the kitchen and you find that you are running out of salt (or bags garbage). And Bohn said it's the connection with Amazon's shopping experience that has made Alexa the main player for so long: order dog food online and, with one click, you'll also be able to place a Echo Dot Smart Speaker $ 40 in your cart.
The entry-level smart speaker from Google is the Home Mini at $ 50, with the new Home Hub equipped with a billboard offering a whopping $ 150 USD. And that's where Bohn said that Apple had been cheated: the only smart speaker to offer Siri's Cupertino assistant is the Apple HomePod at $ 350.
"Apple … has to decide if it wants to sell a cheap speaker," Bohn said. "What really worked well for Alexa and the Google Assistant is that a speaker costs $ 30 to $ 40."
Of course, Siri is also present on Apple iPhones and Google Assistant is on Android devices – but Bohn said that do not count Amazon at the exit of your home.
"They are also trying very hard to get in your car," he said. "They can not win the phone in your pocket, but they might be able to win your dashboard."
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