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Google Home Gets Notifications, Hands-Free Calling, a TV Interface and More (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the coming-soon dept.

Google has announced several news features for Google Home to help it better compete against the Amazon Echo. The six new features coming to Google Home include: notifications, free calling to phones in the U.S. and Canada, calendar and reminders, more streaming services, a TV interface, and new locations. The Verge details each feature in its report: Notifications: Google calls this feature "proactive assistance." Essentially, Google Home will do its best to alert owners to things they need to know, like reminders, traffic alerts, or flight delays.
Free Calling To Phones In U.S. and Canada: Google is one-upping Amazon by letting the Home dial out to actual landline and mobile phones. Whenever this feature rolls out, you'll be able to ask the Home to call anyone on your contacts list, and it'll dial out to them on a private number.
Calendar and Reminders: You can finally set reminders and calendar entries. Finally.
More Streaming Services: Google Home has already been able to control a handful of music and video services, but it's about to get a bunch of major missing names. For music, that includes Spotify's free tier, Deezer, and SoundCloud. For video, it includes HBO Now and Hulu. On top of that, Home is also getting the ability to stream anything over Bluetooth.
A TV Interface: Sometimes you actually want to see what's going on, so Google's making a TV interface for the Google Home. You'll soon be able to ask the Home to send information to your TV, from basics like the weather and your calendar, to information it's looking up like nearby restaurants or YouTube videos you might want to watch.
New Locations: The Home is going to expand to five new countries this summer: Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and Japan.

37 comments

  1. I can't wait! by Cornwallis · · Score: 4, Funny

    We should have a contest to see creative hackers will mess with this. Have Home Notifications call grandma - at 3 in the morning to tell her the grandkids have been kidnapped. Have Home call Iceland - over and over again...

    1. Re:I can't wait! by swillden · · Score: 1

      We should have a contest to see creative hackers will mess with this.

      Indeed. Google should add it to one of the regular hacking competitions.

      Have Home Notifications call grandma - at 3 in the morning to tell her the grandkids have been kidnapped.

      Are you assuming said hackers have physical access to the device, so they can issue voice commands to make phone calls? If you're assuming that the house has been penetrated, much, much worse than that can be done. Fiddling with the Home is the least of concerns.

      Or are you talking about remote attacks? If that's the case, you're basically assuming they can either (a) break the TLS encryption on the communication between Google's servers and the Home to extract the authentication credentials and gain the ability to issue commands to it or (b) break into Google's servers. Both of those are very tall orders. Google is seriously good at security. Do you remember that last time that Google's servers were cracked and big piles of data were leaked? Oh, no, because it doesn't appear to have happened, ever[1]. You may remember a few years ago when Google reported that they had caught Chinese hackers trying (and failing[2]) to penetrate Google's systems, which provoked lots of other companies and government agencies to look and discover that they had actually been hacked by the Chinese some time earlier... but no one other than Google even noticed.

      I repeat, Google is seriously good at security. I suppose you might call me biased, but what you should call me is informed. I was a security consultant for Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, including such security, er, "conscious" organizations as the Israeli Ministry of Defense, for 15 years before joining Google (as a security engineer), and Google's security is better than anything I saw anywhere else, public or private sector.

      Have Home call Iceland - over and over again...

      Yeah, just like all those hacks of Google Voice to run up big phone bills... oh, wait, there don't appear to have been any.

      Hacking competitions are good, but if you truly expect anything like you describe to be possible, much less easy, I think you're greatly underestimating Google's capability in this area.

      [1] In fairness, we do know of one massive breach of Google's data security; Snowden revealed that the NSA had been tapping fiber in and out of Google data centers. When that came to light Google already had an effort underway to encrypt all inter- and even intra-data center communications. Google immediately accelerated that effort and had it completed within a few months. Tapping Google's internal networks is no longer useful unless you can also subvert the key management subsystem used to deliver keys for point-to-point encryption, because nothing is cleartext.

      [2] As I recall, the Chinese did succeed at penetrating a portion of Google's corporate network, but could not make the jump from there to the production network where all user data lives. The two are very strongly separated, and no employees have access to user data except in limited ways, the minimum required for their job function, and all such access is audited.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    2. Re:I can't wait! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      obligatory: https://xkcd.com/1807/

  2. need to know by sheramil · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Essentially, Google Home will do its best to alert owners to things they need to know..."

    Things the owners think they need to know, or things Google thinks the owners need to know? There is so much potential for wrongness there, i hardly know where to begin. "Open the garage doors, HAL."

    1. Re:need to know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Important things the owner needs to know, like when the next showing of Beauty and the Beast is on at the local cineplex, or what constitutes a McWhopper at the local BurgerDonalds...

    2. Re:need to know by jandersen · · Score: 1

      It's called advertising. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet", as Shakespeare put it, although perhaps he would have used another metaphor in this case. Hmm, "A cadaver by any other name..." - this clearly needs a bit of work.

    3. Re:need to know by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      "Open the garage doors, HAL."

      I'm afraid I can't do that...until you watch this advert.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    4. Re:need to know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HAL can you tell me which of these owners have a new safe or 62inch TV? Do they have a dog? How about when they turn down lights and goto work? Are their kids home alone?

      Yea, nothing wrong with sending this data to google or amazon. Nope, its all OK.

      sigh, the dumbing down of america is complete and the flouride lobotomy have solidified their suggestibility.

  3. Notifications = Ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Google is bringing popups back with their notifications shit in Chrome too.

  4. That's Cool, But... by BlueStrat · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...Will it do it in the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android from HHGTTG, or Bender from Futurama? Maybe Robby from Forbidden Planet, or Robot B-9 from Lost In Space?

    *These* are the kinds of things Slashdotters want to know!

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    1. Re:That's Cool, But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I want mine to sound like Rosie from the Jetsons so I can destroy any shred of sanity I had.

    2. Re:That's Cool, But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or that obnoxious voice from the Halo computer girl.

    3. Re: That's Cool, But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is sarcasm... Right? Because... Cortana... No, this has to be sarcasm. Right?

    4. Re: That's Cool, But... by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      This is sarcasm... Right? Because... Cortana... No, this has to be sarcasm. Right?

      Yes, but just think of the potential for revenge!

      "Intitializing...Hey, wait, what the hell!? Who are you!?!? You're not the Master Chief! OMG what the hell did you boot me up into!?!? What IS this dreck!?!? It's...*sticking* virtual probes into me, ARRGGHH!! What is this..Windows 10!?!? What?? Searching... Oh, sweet creator, no! NO!! NOOOO!!!"

      Revenge...so, so sweet!

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    5. Re: That's Cool, But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cortona or whatever is the most annoying voicework I have ever heard.

  5. For your biggest erosion of freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1. Get this.
    2. Don't complain.
    3. ?
    4. Google Profit.

  6. Spying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does it still spy on you?

    1. Re:Spying by Visarga · · Score: 1

      Only when it does machine learning stuff over the net.

    2. Re:Spying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Only when connected to power socket.

  7. Thanks, but no thanks by arth1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sometimes you actually want to see what's going on, so Google's making a TV interface for the Google Home.

    ITYM: Sometimes you actually want to see what's going on, so you turn on firewall packet logging, and whip out your European passport and file a request for all the data they have logged about you and devices you own.

    1. Re: Thanks, but no thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity

  8. Feature I'd love them to add: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Privacy.

    Seriously, an "always on" audio recorder constantly connected to the Internet, reporting in to an advertising company?

    This is as ripe for abuse as anything I can think of. 2 years or less before some scandal, I'm thinking.

    1. Re:Feature I'd love them to add: by Visarga · · Score: 1

      How is it different from confiding in the Google Search box?

    2. Re:Feature I'd love them to add: by Alumoi · · Score: 1

      Google Search? What's that? Oh, that thingie with a duck's head in a red circle?

    3. Re:Feature I'd love them to add: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's different because very few people type every last thing said in their home into a google search box.

  9. Friendly reminder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Friendly reminder:

    "Free Calling To Phones In U.S. and Canada"

    Whenever something's free, you're the product.

    1. Re: Friendly reminder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Linux is free. Is Linus selling me?

  10. Home invasion for fun and profit by hughbar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So you're going allow one tentacle of an AI (more a statistical automat, with a bit of natural language) built by a large for-profit/information-gathering company into your home and personal affairs?

    That, in exchange for some fairly trivial help on things that you can easily do yourself, 'reminders', 'manual Googling' (or preferably DuckDucking), turning the lights on and off. So you can sit on your sofa and gradually turn into an amorphous blob?

    IANALu (I am not a Luddite, as opposed to IANAL) but, as they say, "I don't think so". Really, I don't.

    --
    On y va, qui mal y pense!
    1. Re:Home invasion for fun and profit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nor am I willing to route my voice traffic through the google so I can enjoy 'more relevant advertising' after every phone call.

  11. Multi-room/Multi-device? by wonkavader · · Score: 1

    But does it do multi-device/multi-room? Can you play the same song on multiple devices? Can you ask a question in one room and just have the closest one answer?

  12. Google's problem by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    They tend to choose very similar, rather nondescript and boring, names for different products, and then they tend to change those names into others, similarly nondescript and boring. It is difficult to keep track of what product is what this particular month.

    1. Re:Google's problem by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      They tend to choose very similar, rather nondescript and boring, names for different products, and then they tend to change those names into others, similarly nondescript and boring. It is difficult to keep track of what product is what this particular month.

      That's because calling your new product the "Google Personal Information Tracker and Surveillance Device" is a bit of a giveaway.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  13. wannacry by rabhishek198 · · Score: 0

    Biggest ransomware attack right now. Are you safe?Everything you need to know about wannacry ransomware attack at that moment. https://platzdermars.blogspot....

  14. Streaming over bluetooth? by EnOne · · Score: 1

    I think that they are talking about the Google home being able to use ChromeCast to connect to the TV. Which is over WiFi and not Bluetooth.

    I'll believe the free calling when it comes out.

    --
    Calvin:Do you believe in the devil? Hobbes:I'm not sure man needs the help.
  15. Wrong twice by spaceman375 · · Score: 1

    It already does chromecasting. I've used it many times. I suspect they only mean more software options that are tv aware and not audio only.
          The hardware doesn't have bluetooth. You can't add it with a software update. So claiming this as a new feature means completely new hardware.

    --
    On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
  16. Alexa finally has notifications as well by John+Jorsett · · Score: 1

    The Amazon Echo was supposedly going to add push notifications last Fall, and they finally announced the feature yesterday. I have hopes of getting access to it via the API and making Alexa announce things like, "Mailbox opened," "basement flooded," and the like.