Review: Google Home

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Google Home is Google’s smart speaker which connects via WiFi (or, even better, via Google WiFi) to Google’s smart assistant in the cloud. Designed to be connected at home, Google home uses voice as the primary means of control. It is available in Canada from Best Buy and online from Google.

For $ 179.00, Canadians can get their hands on Google Home, a voice-activated smart speaker, powered by the Google Assistant in English and French.

This diminutive speaker has a rather charming zen-like design. Some say it looks like an aromatherapy gadget, which is fine since it is created to sort of blend in to your home. I Installed Google Home in my kitchen/breakfast nook area and it is ideal for query and control situations when I have my hands full from preparing food or washing dishes.

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Google Home and Assistant gets French Canadian language support

Ahead of Monday’s launch for Google Home, Google adds French Canadian as a language option for Assistant and by extension Google Home. You can select the option on the control app or try telling Assistant to switch. According to The Android Soul, you can just say “Ok Google, speak to me in French Canadian.” Some of the other languages that will be supported in the future include Brazilian-Portuguese, Japanese, German, Italian, Korean, and Spanish.

Source: Engadget

Google releases new ads for Home smart speaker

Google seems to be reaching out to a younger crowd with the new pair of ads for Home, which come just in time for its launch later this month here. The clip we embedded here definitely feels like it's trying to appeal to younger users as it shows off its TV casting and music streaming capabilities. As for the second ad, which you can find in this link, it shows off more of what Home can do as a personal assistant. 

Source: Android Authority 

Thoughts on Apple's HomePod

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

San Jose, California - Apple's newest product category since the Apple Watch in 2015 (or, it can be argued, since the EarPods last year) is their HomePod speaker revealed here a few days ago and which is coming to the US in December (with mid-2018 availability in Canada likely).

In typical Apple fashion, the company comes rather late into a market that's already quite mature. Amazon's Echo can be credited for creating the connected speaker/voice assistant space, and it's a huge seller in the US, Amazon's even expanded their product line to smaller Dot speakers as well as licensing Echo across various OEMs, including high-end speaker brands.

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