Slashdot Mirror
Google Gets Serious About Home Automation: Unveils Google Home, Actions on Google and Google Wifi (techcrunch.com)
At its hardware launch event earlier today, Google launched Google Home, a voice-activated speaker that aims to give Amazon's Echo a run for its money. The speaker is always-listening and uses Google's Assistant to deliver sports scores, weather information, commute times, and much more. Tech Crunch reports: So like the Echo, Google Home combines a wireless speaker with a set of microphones that listen for your voice commands. There is a mute button on the Home and four LEDs on top of the device so you can know when it's listening to you; otherwise, you won't find any other physical buttons on it. As for music, Google Home will feature built-in support for Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora and others. You can set up a default music service, too, so you don't always have to tell Google that you want to play a song "on Spotify." Google also noted that Home's music search is powered by Google, so it can understand relatively complex queries. Music on Google Home will also support podcast listening and because it's a Cast device, you can stream music to it from any other Cast-enabled device. Home integrates with Google's Chromecasts and Cast-enabled TVs. For now, that mostly means watching YouTube videos, but Google says it will also support Netflix, too. Google Home will cost $129 (with a free six-month trial of YouTube Red) and go on sale on Google's online store today. It will ship on November 4. What's more is that developers will be able to integrate their third-party apps with Google Assistant via "Actions on Google." With Actions on Google, developers will be able to create two kinds of actions: Direct and Conversation. Direct is made for relatively simple requests like home automation, while Conversation is made for a back and forth interaction utilizing API.ai. Actions on Google will also allow third-party hardware to take advantage of Google Assistant. Those interested can sign-up for the service today. But Google didn't stop there. The company went on to reveal all-new, multi-point Wifi routers called Google Wifi. The Verge reports: The Wifi router can be purchased two ways: as a single unit or in a multipack, just like Eero. A single unit is $129, while the three-pack will cost $299. Google says Wifi will be available for preorder in the U.S. in November and will ship to customers in December. There was no mention of international availability. Google says it has developed a number of technologies to make the Wifi system work, including intelligent routing of traffic from your phone or device to the nearest Wifi unit in your home. It supports AC 1200 wireless speeds, as well as simultaneous dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. It also has beamforming technology and support for Bluetooth Smart. Google says the system will handle channel management and other traffic routing automatically.
always on and network connected microphones that sends what they capture to "the cloud" (and who knows who else) for analysis.. just what the world needed more of.
is a fucking moron. Yahoos emails were are routed through NSA's filters, so it's more than likely that this data would too at some point in time.
The very last things I would ever want in my house are either Google or Microsoft "internet of shit security" (IOSS) devices. Not only would they be as insecure as all the other crap that's been put out there so far they'd be 100% guaranteed to be spying on every single thing you do.
The way things are going you won't even be able to take a shit without Google & Microsoft knowing about it.
Fuck all this nonsense. I'm going back to pen and paper for notes and the dumbest phone I can find for the limited amount of time I'm prepared to actually talk to people on the phone (if I didn;t need one for work I'd not bother with one at all).
You can stick this fucking "techno" Panopticon right up your fucking arses !!!
... until you realize it's Google and they're going to steal all your personal information off the wire and send it to home base. sigh.
I know everybody says it is easy to set up with Android or iOS, but I miss the old days when a router was able to be set up with the web browser and you have full control over its features.
What % of slashdot posters actually trust google? Even the mildly paranoid ones rather than the full tinfoil nutters?
Even if you don't mind them having some information on you, if you like a service they offer, they'll /probably/ shut it down within 12 to 36 months, or they'll re-brand the product, adjust it heavily, integrate it with something else or redesign it so horrifically it's a shadow of its former self.
I regret to admit I use 4 google products pretty heavily, being Android, Gmail, Youtube and Chrome (in that order of use too) I could probably ditch Chrome if bloody firefox would up their game on performance, but sadly, if anything Firefox is getting slower and losing marketshare to Chrome.
Seriously, they have significant information on people over the years and they continue to gather and link more and more. Furthermore they are pretty incompetent at some things (look at the messaging systems for Android, they still STILL haven't come close to just plain old cloning imessage) they've just released a 3'rd chat application which is just a mess.
Would you really want MORE google stuff in the house? Routers, Wifi equipment, Chromecasts?
Thank god they aren't as amazing and competent as they used to be, back in the day we 'gave up' our stuff, willingly because god damn they simply had the best stuff, now, I'm not even sure it's worth doing for their diluted products.
In conclusion? Yeah, not a chance.
M$ has root, brah.
Not for me they don't.
A bit later than 1984, but we finally got there.
Who'd have thought it? Not content with letting pretty much anyone (including criminals) read their mail, track their movements with CCTV, spoofed phones and car license plate readers etc, the citizenry are actually buying them and installing this crap themselves!
That's right, apparently it's just too hard to stream music or adjust a thermostat by hand; you now have to install a device that is always on, always listening in order to whistle up a recipe or get the sports. They must be mad.
The existing standards are fragmented and primitive. Home automation now isn't that much less complex than industrial automation and no single vendor sells everything or has enough reach into unintelligent devices to offer a comprehensive solution that literally does everything and does it easily.
This leaves room for big vendors like Apple or Google to roll in with their own take on the entire stack, complete with walled implementations that ignore other existing standards because those standards they can't license and control.
Then there's the adoption problems associated with home automation in existing homes. I doubt there's more than 10% of the population willing to roll up their sleeves and dig into serious automation like temperature sensors, adding HVAC dampers, power controls, replacing outlets and light switches and so on. People still have 4 remote controls on the coffee table.
I get to pay a fortune so I bug my home, send any conversation I have to Google, and in return I get some gimmicks, which will work for as long as Google deems that service useful (and as we know, they have a really stellar record of long term support of their projects).
What I didn't read in the whole article is what kind of pressurizing medium they have on me that I would allow this to happen, but I guess at the very least they would be able to kill my firstborn if I don't.
In other words: Who in their sane mind would WANT something like this???
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.