Slashdot Mirror
Google, Lagging Amazon, Races Across the Threshold Into the Home (nytimes.com)
Google will unveil its answer to Amazon's Echo at an event on Tuesday, the New York Times reports. The Google Home device, which looks like an "air freshener," is expected to go on sale later this month (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternate source), the publication added. The Google Home is powered by what Google calls Assistant, which uses "artificial intelligence" to understand what users are saying and respond conversationally with the best answers. "Amazon is the accidental winner here," Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at the Stern School of Business at New York University, told the paper. "Amazon got there first, which is superimpressive, and it has been a huge hit." From the report: Google is a leader in natural language processing -- the ability to turn spoken words into terms that computers can digest -- and its search engine is the starting point for how most people get answers on the internet. In fact, the company says 20 percent of Google searches on mobile phones are done by voice. So why didn't Google create an Echo-like device before Amazon? In part, Google was hindered by a balkanized structure that prevented different groups within the company from working together, according to four current and former employees. Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., had a large team working on voice search but its focus was on an app for smartphones. The company had a separate team working on the Android operating system, which runs on smartphones, tablets and internet-connected home devices, and they were building virtual assistant technology into mobile devices.Google is also expected to launch two new smartphones, expected to be called Pixel and Pixel XL. Earlier today, both the phones showed up on a retailer's website, revealing their specifications. The Guardian reports: The leaked images show two sizes of the phone -- a regular and "XL" version, USB-C fast charging, a new interface, video calling and the Google Assistant, which first launched within the company's Allo messaging app. Both devices will have 32GB or 128GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, Qualcomm's latest 821 processor, AMOLED screens, fingerprint scanners on the back, an eight-megapixel selfie camera and a 12-megapixel camera on the back with optical image stabilisation, according to the smartphone retailers listings which have since been removed.
Android Police reported last week that it may sell for $129.99, which would make it extremely competitive with the $180 Echo.
Or almost three times as expensive as the Echo Dot and whose support may be dropped on a whim. Hard pass.
Yeah, but does it have a headphone jack?
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
Until there are serious assurances that my privacy will be respected.
Ideally my device would process all of the sounds, discarding anything that did not generate an inquiry.
Inquiries should be send to the best source of that information, not all to the company that made the device.
Nobody in my home will be buying such devices from any company.
PLEASE tell me you have a choice and don't have to summon it by saying "OK, Google". I refuse to use Google Now because of that. Seems such an egotistical launch phrase to pick.
Speaking of voice, I'm annoyed in Marshmallow google mutilated how TTS worked. I can't use my nice Ivona (Amazon owned company) Welsh chick voice for Google Now or Google Maps anymore. Ivona selection of voices were far superior to anything google has produced; I hate being stuck with google's selection.
Am I going to be stuck with robotic sounding voices with this google device, or will it let me install a superior competitor, like Android used to let me do.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
The echo was a disaster. These fake articles calling it a huge hit aren't going to change the facts. The echo didn't sell well at all and lost a ton of money.
...is a pair of 10 micron glass fibers coated in a reflective layer with a kevlar sleeve and a PVC outer jacket, with either 1310nm or 1550nm laser light shining down the center...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
This is why we only use products from the nest because from the nest we not only feel safe, we are safe. The nest protects us. The nest nourishes us. The nest loves us. We love the nest. Wouldn't you like to be in the nest, too!
Stella, dear...
1984 (Signet Classics)
But why read it, when you can live it?
Maybe Google will let you have fiber if you agree to have one of these surveillance devices installed too?
I work for Google so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.
Some of you are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about. But you don't. Trust me. I think some of you are just trying to make yourself sound clever.
This is how bad information gets passed around.
Don't try to make yourself sound like you know what you're talking about when you don't. Because some people believe anything they read.
Us greybeards know how to order things from Amazon the old fashioned way on their website. And sometimes, in the case of CME or EMP, using the post office and mail order. I pity younger generations. So impatent.
Google does a lot of things well, but staying around for the long haul on personal-focused stuff isn't one of them.
If I'm going to invest in hardware to manage my home, I expect a 10 year lifecycle at least.
I'm not saying everything should last for 10 years, but the lights I install in 2016 should still be able to be controlled in 2026.
With Google's tendency to cancel stuff with short notice, I'm not feeling like being one of the people burned by that.
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
Google can't decide what it's doing. It spins up and kills off products like its VM processes in the cloud.
Search, browser, operating system, phones, blogs, email, apps, driverless cars, artificial intelligence, home automation, media storage, drones, airships...
Why can't a cellphone app do the same? Why buy Yet Another Small Computer? Factor, people. Idontgettit
Table-ized A.I.
Us youngbeards have a full head of ungreying hair and the ability to use whichever service provides us with the best combination of speed, price, and ease of use. Because we're not the impatient airheads comments like yours make us out to be.
I wonder if Google could make money with some sort of a home server product? (capcha: interest -qzp)