Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Announces 'Home Hub' Smart Display With 7-Inch Screen, No Camera (phonedog.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-and-improved dept.

At its Pixel 3 launch event, Google announced a smart speaker called the Google Home Hub, featuring a 7-inch display to give you visual information, making it easier to control smart home devices and view photos and the weather. Interestingly, Google decided not to include a camera in this device for privacy reasons, as they want you to feel comfortable placing it in an intimate location, such as a bedroom. PhoneDog reports: Google explains that Home Hub will be able to recognize who is speaking to it using Voice Match to provide info for that specific person, which should help to make the device more useful in homes with multiple people. And when you're not using Home Hub, a feature called Live Albums will let you select certain people and have Google Photos create albums with images of these people. Another feature of Google's Home Hub is the Home View. With it, you can easily see and control your smart home devices. And then there's Ambient EQ, which uses a sensor that'll adjust the color and brightness of the Home Hub screen based on the ambient lighting. That includes dimming the screen at night when it's time for bed. Google Home Hub will be available for $149 in four colors -- Chalk, Charcoal, Aqua, and Sand. It will launch on October 22nd and each purchase will come with six months of YouTube Premium.

35 comments

  1. No camera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But no word on if there is a way to disable the microphone that can uniquely identify users.

    1. Re:No camera by bob4u2c · · Score: 1

      It usually takes a screw driver and a pair or wire cutters. In more difficult cases you might need a rigid plastic spreader and some heat. Typically if I plan on turning the microphone back on I'll pick up a small switch and wire the microphone in series with it.

      Right to repair, or right to "modify", same thing in my book.

    2. Re:No camera by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      It usually takes a screw driver and a pair or wire cutters.

      I take it you've never tried to open up a Nexus phone.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    3. Re: No camera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, they actually make it fairly easy. You just don't order it. It's like an Echo: if you don't plan on using the mic, then you don't plan on using the device.

    4. Re:No camera by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

      Yes, there's a Mic Mute switch that disables the mic, like most smart speakers.

      Of course, if you don't trust that switch to actually disable the mic, then maybe you don't want to buy one in the first place.

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  2. We can locate you and ID via microphone by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    It's actually not that hard to identify the person by voice and walk, as well as typical patterns (time of day, route, breath), so the lack of a camera still permits everyone in the world to know exactly who was where and what they were doing.

    Don't ever keep it in a bedroom, unless it's for an older person who needs assistance and who agrees to it. Or a child with breathing problems.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:We can locate you and ID via microphone by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      It's actually not that hard to identify the person by voice and walk, as well as typical patterns (time of day, route, breath), so the lack of a camera still permits everyone in the world to know exactly who was where and what they were doing.

      . . . but does it really lack a camera . . . ?

      I guess we'll have to wait for a device teardown to be sure.

      Pro Hint: It's in the expensive looking Ethernet connector.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:We can locate you and ID via microphone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the lack of a camera still permits everyone in the world to know exactly who was where and what they were doing.

      Seems a bit dramatic. As a person in this world, how can I find this information out from the home hub devices?

  3. what now? by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    I wonder how they're getting around the camera? Maybe a 3D laser scanner instead?

    1. Re:what now? by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      I recall reading about displays with embedded light-sensing pixels, with some processing they can act like a camera. It helps that Google knows how your lighting is set up.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  4. This or Facebook's? by mentil · · Score: 1

    Hmm do I want the Facebook version with a camera for $50 more, or do I trust Google more with my private info? Decisions, decisions.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:This or Facebook's? by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

      It looks like your are playing their game, you have already lost.

    2. Re:This or Facebook's? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It looks like your are playing their game, you have already lost.

      There just "might" be some sarcasm in that quote.

    3. Re:This or Facebook's? by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      You caught one! Kudos.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  5. Strange placement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's strange that they would put the little reset button hole on the front...

  6. First Command by Charcharodon · · Score: 1

    "Ok Google"........."go fuck a goat".

    1. Re:First Command by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      "Hello Default User Name, I have found three suppliers of goats in your area, one which asserts that it's goats are virgins. Please complete your account set-up for us to order you a goat and have it delivered to your home. Please specify 'virgin' or 'experienced' in your order."

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    2. Re:First Command by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      More strange is the little hole has a protective lens inside of it.

      By the way, what's this pinout for CAM?

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  7. It's a tablet with a stand... by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

    How innovative.

  8. Already out there by dyfet · · Score: 1

    https://www.hackster.io/darian...

    I guess Google is simply catching up to Pi....

  9. I hope Google isn't your safe word ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google decided not to include a camera in this device for privacy reasons, as they want you to feel comfortable placing it in an intimate location, such as a bedroom.

    Where is can still hear everything you say ... in bed.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:I hope Google isn't your safe word ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where is can still hear everything you say ... in bed.

      typical nerd thinks that talking is the dirty stuff that happens in bed

    2. Re:I hope Google isn't your safe word ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope that you don't think that engaging in sick, perverted practices is 'okay' because the Jewish media has been telling you that constantly for the past twenty years...

      Oh wait, you DO think that engaging in sick sexual practices is okay, because you use the phrase "safe word".
      Gullible idiot.

    3. Re: I hope Google isn't your safe word ... by TimMD909 · · Score: 1

      So it'll record a lot of, 'not now; I have a headache'?

  10. Oh yes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's it. Unf!

    Don't forget to upload your mating sounds to Zuck so that he may screen and censor any undesired online postings of them.

    Captcha: chutzpah

  11. Remote recording device by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The thing everyone wants to know is -- Can you disable the 7x24 remote recording microphone in the device?

    1. Re:Remote recording device by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Got a hammer?

    2. Re: Remote recording device by TimMD909 · · Score: 1

      I'd feel safer throwing it into the fire of Mordor.

  12. mite not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not likely. That dude's mentil...

  13. Nest by bekeleven · · Score: 1

    Who would buy into a Google "smart home" after the Nest Hub?

  14. Nothing. MS helps bank require your biometrics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/driving-identity-security-in-banking-using-biometric-identification/

    Microsoft announces they are helping your bank track you via your biometrics. Forsee the bank requiring your fingerprint and face photo every time you interact with the bank.

    Now, financial firms are ask if it's OK to record your voice print to use instead of a password.

    So the big 3 banks could have biometric infomration on 75% of all adults in the USA and resell it or sell a service to others to confirm identiy via face recognition.

  15. Mission Accomplished: 1984 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's a verbatim telescreen, even without the camera, and FB had the guts to present the actual thing. Doublethink and newspeak have been spreading via the SJW movement for some time now and memory hole is well and prosper (see recent politics). Thoughtcrime is essentially punishable already, see stuff that happens to people on twitter and facebook with accounts blocked and all.

    Turns out Room 101 is actually the Senate's Judiciary Committee.

  16. No G Suite support... still! by SilentTristero · · Score: 1

    ...and of course it still doesn't work for people with G suite accounts (no calendar access).

    1. Re:No G Suite support... still! by coofercat · · Score: 1

      But you get a year of youtube, so you can watch ads on a 7 inch screen from across the room. You won't need g-suite with entertainment options like that!

  17. Let the customer decide? by Eloking · · Score: 1

    Google decided not to include a camera in this device for privacy reasons, as they want you to feel comfortable placing it in an intimate location, such as a bedroom.

    When in doubt, let the customer choose. For instance, sell one device with (Pro?) and one without. Or you can add some little door to hide the camera.

    As for the piracy concern, I baffle me how anyone could fell threatened by some Google Home with or without camera but don't mind a cellphone with the same assistant. I mean, that one "really" follow you everywhere and if Google really wanted a HD livestream of your meaningless lives (and pay for it), they would have done it a loooong time ago.

    --
    Elok