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Devices Supporting Google Assistant Have More Than Tripled In Last Four Months
In a blog post on Thursday, Google announced that their smart assistant is now compatible with more than 5,000 devices. That's up from the 1,500 devices it worked with back in January. The Verge reports: According to Google, it's a list made up of a huge variety of products, including "cameras, dishwashers, doorbells, dryers, lights, plugs, thermostats, security systems, switches, vacuums, washers, fans, locks, sensors, heaters, AC units, air purifiers, refrigerators, and ovens." It's a big jump -- at least, numerically speaking -- and if nothing else, it's a sign that the full court press that Google started at the beginning of the year with its massive Google Assistant-themed booth at CES is starting to show some results. For comparison, Apple's Homekit is compatible with 195 products while Amazon's Alexa assistant currently supports over 12,000 devices.
Still far behind the leading spyware brand.
Something like a Raspberry Pi image that you install in your home, and it provides remote 'assistant' support for devices outside your home, with all the data stored within your LAN. Like, plug a USB HD into the Pi, and call it a home server. Then using that as the base for home automation.
That would actually not feel as crappy as all these "we want to suck your data" toys.
. . . that people would want this.
And all the recordings from your home become public?
Those who assist others assist themselves? It certainly does assist google at positioning itself as the gatekeeper. And it assists other companies that want to piggyback on the spy ware platform. But yes you can tell your dishwasher to start itself from across the room. You still need to load it yourself.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
There's already lots of voice assitants for Raspi. Additionally the $49 kits also come rolled up with Google AI goodness too if you want them to take advantage of that. The tricky part of this is that the array based microphone technology is pretty important for being able work reliably in a noisey enviroment. So the single microphone raspi hats won't work so well as the array based ones. That's the secret sauce to make it non-frustrating and more of an appliance than just a demo.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
... the festering infection of spyware as a service in the home is spreading. yay for techbros!
And what does it do? I have no idea what that is, and I even have an android phone.
Devices can't triple because they aren't numbers or numeric quantities. The number of devices can triple. Devices can only do things that devices do, like ring, play music, break, or reboot.
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For comparison, Apple's Homekit is compatible with 195 products...
Which is exactly how apple wants it. I bet 100% of those products are made or licensed by Apple.
Google already collects far too much data on everyone. Why would you want them to know where you are at all times, everything about who you are with, what you say and what you watch and listen to?
James Damore made the mistake of trusting them and they treated him like a heretic. Others have similar stories. They've treated YouTube content authors terribly in many cases. The list of Google misdeeds (or at least questionable actions) grows longer all the time.
It seems dumb to increase your engagement with a company that treats people like Google treats people.
supported by Google, Amazon and the others? That way I'll know exactly what to avoid.
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Why is this story on apple.slashdot.org? It’s about a Google blog post regarding a Google device.
#DeleteChrome
What possible use is having a feature for this for applications like dishwashers, dryers, vacuums, washers, and at least some of the others?
Even for most of the rest, I'd personally rather wish for a more modular approach (rather than a connected 'refrigerator', how about a camera to put inside my refrigerator that doesn't drag down a thousand dollar appliance when it fails)?
I could see things like security systems, doorbells (really just more security system), oven (was it left on?), but a lot of this seems useless.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Its looking more like the two dominate AI will be Google and Amazon. Microsoft is falling flat with Cortana very predictable and Apple isn't much better with Siri because Apple is so closed end ecosystem protective of their services. Let's not forget that Chrome OS in classrooms and Alexa making strides in enterprise is two big advantages over everyone else.
If you can load the dishwasher, you can also press a button to start it.
But, the next logical question is "what if you don't want to start it now, but in the morning" (because you don't want to noise to wake anyone up in you tiny apartment, nor your neighbors across the thin walls).
So most company put a "delay before start" setting (which by itself isn't a stupid idea).
But that the exact point where things start to roll down hill, because the "delay" implementation might not be that good. /.er)
- It's not intuitive user/friendly (requires weird button completion)
- It requires the time being set (cue in "Blinking 12:00" for anyone who isn't the typical
etc.
Which usually end ups with a company having a "brilliant !" (ahem...) idea :
Let's make an App for it (because for 99% of normal population outthere, smartphone is something that they are used with and which is intuitive for them).
Which immediately jumps to the last horrible point :
Let's make the app web-enabled/cloud-hosted/whatever, so the user can start the dish washer from outside home if they forgot to put the delay timer for the morning.
Cue in all Asian no-name cheap companies seeing a new selling point on the feature bullet list and deciding to clone this feature. Poorly. (But extremely cheaply).
And that's how you end up with internet enabled dishwashers and fridges with pointless cloud-feature that barely anyone actually needs, but which are a giant security nightmare.
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