Tag Archive for: google assistant

Nest Aware

/in /by

 

 

Google are looking to making it easier to let their customers know what is going on in their homes. They do this via their Nest Aware service. Combined with the Nest Cams you can get intelligent alerts and camera history. Nest Aware will give you more home awareness from your Nest devices at one affordable monthly rate.

One price for your entire home

Nest Aware’s new pricing model covers every single camera, speakers and displays in your home for one low price. Now with even more video and event history.

There’s also event based recording. Nest Aware will record this information only when your camera detects motion or sounds. Such as a dog barking or a person seen on camera. It will send you an alert so you can take action or watch clips later. This new service is alongside Nest’s existing 24/7 continuous video recording. You are able to scan through your entire history to see everything before during and after an event.

Two simple plans for Nest Aware:

30 days of event video history – $6 p/m (or $60 per year)

60 days event history and 10 days 24/7 video history – $12 p/m (or $120 per year)

More helpful alerts that matter from Nest Aware

Nest Aware coverage is expanding to include Nest and Google Home speakers and displays. Now you can enable these devices to be your ears when you’re away. They’ll listen for critical sounds, like smoke or carbon monoxide alarms, and send an alert to your phone. You then have the option to hear the audio clip or listen live to confirm the alarm.

Expanded sound detection is a big step forward in the kind of help we can provide, and it’s designed from the ground up to respect your privacy in your home. Sound detection happens entirely on your device, and your Nest devices will light up to provide a visual indicator when an event is being recorded and sent to Google so you can review it. You can also review and delete audio clips at any time in your Home app.

Emergency  fingertips

If a speaker or display picks up a smoke alarm sound, it will send an alert on your phone, with the new Nest Aware on the Home app you can call emergency services to your home. Even if your away from the house. If you happen to be home and can’t get the the phone you can even ask Google to call them with any Google Nest or Home speaker or display covered by your Nest Aware subscription.

Everything you need to know, in one place

The Home Feed will exist in the Google Home app from early next year. You’ll be able to see all events and notifications from your devices and get a general recap of the day. Scroll through prioritized events, watch full video clips or listen to audio clips.

When and where

The new Nest Aware will be available to 19 countries where Nest Aware is currently available. You are able to switch over your existing plans too. Expanded coverage to Nest speakers and displays with sound detection and emergency calling will initially be available in the US only.

___

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

Follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

Nest Mini

/in /by

 

 

The Google Home Mini has brought Google’s Google Assistant to millions of homes, now the second generation, the Nest Mini, is bringing some major improvements.

A new speaker with powerful sound

With the Nest Mini, the hardware and software have been updated to make it sound even better. The Nest Mini provides bass that is twice as strong as it’s predecessor.  The expert audio engineers at Google have developed propriety audio tuning software to get the most out of the hardware. Helping to provide full clear and natural sound at every volume level. Google didn’t want to suppress any auditory details so expect clear audio from the Nest Mini.

The Nest Mini’s LED lights will alight as your hands get close to the device to indicate where you can tap to adjust volume. It’s also been improved to hear you better in noisy environments. Furthermore the Nest Mini will dynamically adjust the volume of the assistant whilst playing media. So if you have a noisy washing machine, the assistant’s response will be played back at a louder volume.

Whole home audio

Connect the Nest Mini to other Nest speakers to build a sound system for the whole home. Even create different groups in the Google home app and enjoy music, podcasts and more all throughout your home.

You can also stream transfer your music from one speaker to another, even in another room! Plus you can transfer music from your phone to a speaker as soon as you walk through the door.

For example you can say, “Hey Google, move the music to the living room speaker” to keep the party going.

Now you can call your devices from the Google Home app, use the intercom feature to talk from device to device, or call someone on the other side of the world – for free! Just need a Duo account and/or a Google Home/Nest Smart Speaker or display!

Making the best Assistant better

Nest Mini is smarter and faster than it’s original. As Google has embedded a dedicated machine learning chip into it, with up to 1 TeraOPS of processing power (basically very very fast). Thus moving some Google Assistant experiences from the data centers straight on the device.

If you are in the US Nest Mini will now learn the most common commands that you give it and process them locally for an even faster response time!

12345678910111213

Nest Mini is available for $49,  you can pre-order from the Google Store. Simply click here to order!

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

Follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

Pixel Buds New and Improved!

/in /by

 

 

On average people check their smartphones around 100 times a day, mainly for playing a song, or to set a reminder or getting directions. Which takes up roughly 30 seconds of our time. Well the Google Pixel Buds are here to help make those tasks a little easier and a little, quicker. With instant access to Google Assistant. Not only are they helpful they’re also very clear, comfortable, have high quality sound and have a looooong battery life.

Pixel Buds in your ear

Everyone’s ears are shaped differently, so the folks over at Google have made  design that is comfortable for as many people as possible. They sit flush in your ear and have a low profile, making them extremely stylish! The stabilizer arc gently tucks in and working alongside the interchangeable eartip, Pixel Buds won’t ever leave your ears!

Sound Quality

Pixel Buds not only stay secure in your ear, they also let enough sound from the world around you to keep you aware of what’s going on. Making this a hugely important safety feature! While also delivering powerful sound. The eartios gently seal the ear to isolate the loud outside noise and to give you high quality audio. Yet the spatial vent underneath reduces that plugged ear feeling. While also letting through just the right amount of environmental sound to make sure you don’t get run over! However, there’s also a fantastic feature that the Pixel Buds have. Adaptive Sound! They will automatically adjust the volume as you walk around. For example if you move from a quiet environment to a noisy one you won’t have to constantly raise or lower the volume, they do it for you!

Calling!

Pixel Buds when making a call make sure your voice is at the forefront. The two microphones in each bud focuses on the sound of your voice. While suppressing other sounds in the background. Furthermore, Pixel Buds have a voice accelerometer that will detect speech through the vibrations of your jawbone. So you can be heard even in the most windy of conditions!

Connection

Pixel Buds have long range Bluetooth connectivity so you can use them even when your phone isn’t nearby. You can stay connected indoors up to 3 rooms away and outside up to 100m! They can also connect to Bluetooth 4.0 enabled laptops, tablets and iOS devices. Pixel Buds work with other Andriod 6.0+ devices with just a single tap.

They’ll also be able to detect when they’re in your ear, tap to play/pause, swipe to adjust volume. Get 5hrs of listening time on a single charge and up to 24hrs with the wireless charging case. They’re also sweat and water resistant!

Pixel Buds Are Helpful!

Pixel Buds also give you hands-free access to Google Assistant! Just say “Hey Google” and the assistant will ask you what you need. For example you can play music, send a text or translate a foreign language!

123456789101112

Google Pixel Buds will be available in 2020 in the U.S. at $179, and will come in four colors: Clearly White, Oh So Orange, Quite Mint and Almost Black.

Simply click here to order!

For those outside of the US sign up for Google’s waitlist to be notified.

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

Follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

Pixel 4

/in /by

 

 

The Google Pixel 4 has a camera that captures details that many others can’t, you can even use your phone without touching it, has a brand new Google Assistant and has a fast, responsive display! So, you could argue that the Pixel 4 has packed a ton of new tech into it!

Get the perfect photo with Pixel 4

It has the largest upgrade to a Pixel phone to date, there are now a total of 2 cameras on the back of the phone, including a telephoto lens. The software upgrade? A brand new Super Res Zoom feature, giving you exceptional image quality from a distance!

12345
Super Res Zoom (1x)
Super Res Zoom (2x)
Super Res Zoom (3.1x)
Super Res Zoom (5.7x)
Super Res Zoom (8x)

Night Sight has been upgraded and can be used for shots of the night sky, the stars and even the Milky way! Pixel 3/3a users will also get a version of this upgrade with a camera app update.

123456

All Pixel’s have HDR+ capabilities but with the Pixel 4 you can fine the the brightness and amount of details in the shadows. Pixel 4 also has a Live HDR+ in the viewfinder so you know exactly what the photo will look like, even when you’re using the new controls.

A new Google Assistant

The Pixel 4 has a deeper integration of  Google Assistant. Speech processing has improved and more requests can happen right on the phone without having to go to the cloud first.

The assistant also doesn’t take up as much space on the screen anymore, letting you better multi task across other apps. Google Assistant will quickly open apps, search your phone, share what’s on screen and more. The context of the queries will also do a better job answering.

For example, you can ask the Assistant to “show my photos from New York” and then say “the ones in Central Park.” Then, you can share a picture by saying “send it to Mum.”

A phone that senses what you want it to do

Pixel 4 has a Motion Sense feature that uses miniature radar sensors to detect when you’re about to reach for your phone and it will initiate face unlock or turn off your screen when you aren’t around. Also, new quick gestures let you skip songs when you don’t want to pick up the phone. Simply wave your hand to snooze alarms, dismiss timers or silence the ringer.

New built-in apps

The new Recorder app will record meetings, lectures and anything you want to listen to later, it will even simulatneously transcribe speech. It can also identify sounds such as music and applause. Plus search from within recordings to find a specific word or sound! However, English translation is up first with more languages coming soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new personal safety app will automatically call emergency services if you have been in a car accident. The Car Crash detection however,will be available in English in the US.

Built for performance and security

Pixel 4 comes with 6GB’s of RAM, a 90hz display and the Pixel Neural core. Pixel Neural Core is the engine for all the on device processing that goes on on the phone. Therefore more tasks are done directly on the phone increasing performance and privacy.

Also, the Titan M chip from Google provides protection for your most sensitive data and ensure the integrity of the operating system. While all this is combined with the latest version of Android 10, monthly security updates for 3 years, plus access to Google’s advanced security services, the Pixel 4 is designed to keep data secure.

Pricing and availability

For customers in the US the Pixel 4 is available through all the major U.S. carriers for the first time, including AT&T, C Spire, Cellcom, Google Fi, Spectrum Mobile (Charter), Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, Visible and Xfinity Mobile (Comcast).

You can pre-order a Pixel 4 for $799 and Pixel 4 XL for $899, and phones will ship on October 24, globally. Pixel 4 comes in three colors, including Clearly White, Just Black, and a limited edition, Oh So Orange.

So, what are you waiting for? Simply click here to order!

1234567891011121314151617

So, keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Also, let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Furthermore, Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

While you’re there follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

Google Home Hub

Google Home Hub: Incredible Home Assistant

/in /by

The Google Home Hub brings all the cool stuff about Google Home and repackages it into a small yet very powerful device with a 7″ display to help you get even more from Google Home. The Google Home Hub brings visual help to all the questions that you ask it. Use your voice to help set reminders and control a vast array of smart devices. However, with this particular device you get a visual aid, for example, see asking Google “How to tie a bow tie’ will present you with a helpful YouTube video, alongside a plethora of other YouTube videos available. YouTube you see on any other device is the same YouTube on Google Home Hub!

The device is incredibly well built, it is compact and can fit anywhere in the house and does not look out of place. Either in the kitchen, the bedroom or the living room! Google Home Hub has an inbuilt Ambient EQ Light Sensor too, so will adjust the screen to the colours and lighting in it’s environment. Therefore photos on the Google Home Hub will blend into the home decor!

Features

The device will show you a whole range of things, such as YouTube videos, Google Calendar so you can see what you have planned or Google Maps so you can see what your commute is like! Ask Google what the weather is like and get a visual aid, ask Google for recipes and be shown a step by step guide in either text or video form!

 

 

Photos

Google photos look beautiful on the Home Hub and you can use your voice to pull down the images from Google photos to be displayed on the gorgeous screen. Even set the screen to display your most favoured images when the Home Hub is not in use as a screen saver! Machine Learning will pull down the best photos too, therefore avoiding any duplicates or blurry images.Google Home Hub can also show shared Google Photo albums automatically on the device of the person you’re sharing them with, therefore avoiding any upload hassles!

Smart Home

The device is also a very powerful smart home hub, consequently easily connecting to the hundreds of smart devices already available. Such as lights, thermostats or security cameras. Control it all via the Google Home App on your smart device, no need to be next to the Google Home Hub to manage all of your devices. Even manage them away from the home! So you can monitor and manage devices easily—including compatible lights, cameras, TVs, speakers you are always in control of your home! (Android / iOS)

Kitchen

One popular feature is the that the Google Home Hub can help you in the Kitchen! As Google Assistant can understand conversational speech, simply ask the device to convert various measurements and it will tell you! Completely hands free and at a glance! If you’re not too sure when reading a step by step guide on how to cook a particular recipe, simply ask! For example, “Hey Google, show me how to dice an onion” will show you a video on how to dice an onion!

 

 

Google Home Hub works with other ‘Made by Google’ devices too, such as Chromecast, Nest Doorbells, Nest Thermostats, Google Home Speakers. Furthermore Spotify works on Google Home Hub too!

(Google Press Release)

For more information on how Google’s Home Hub can help you at Christmas please click here!

Available in four colours from the Google Store—Chalk, Charcoal, Aqua, and Sand, Google Home Hub is £139 and available from the ​​Google Store​​!

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Furthermore, click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

Also, follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

Can Google’s Home Hub Make Christmas Less Stressful?

/in /by

Christmas is right around the corner! Wrapping, presents, parties, lots of organisation and STRESS?!? But, Can Google’s Home Hub Make Christmas Less Stressful? Some new research has been commissioned by Google which found how stressed Brits get at Christmas time.With nearly 2/3 of Brits finding Christmas at home and 1/3 of Brits wanting to hide in the bathroom to get some away from it all, furthermore 1 in 10 of us would rather swim naked with sharks than spend Christmas with the in-laws. It can be said that Brits find Christmas very stressful indeed!

Stress at Christmas

Google’s findings were very interesting indeed with wrapping weirdly shaped presents making up 20% of those surveyed worries. Putting on weight made up another 20%, while financial worries made up the most of peoples worries with 24% of those surveyed.  Furthermore Google even found that people would do their best to get away from people at Christmas time, for a bit of alone time. 45% of those surveyed would go to their bedroom and 8% would head to the pub! What Google found whilst undertaking this survey that a crazy amount of Brits do find it stressful over the festive period, a whopping 65%! The survey was conducted to find how people will be using Google’s home Hub to ease the stress. With Google’s Laurian Clemence stating:

“Google Home Hub was made for times like Christmas. Having family round over the festive season can be overwhelming, and this device is designed to fit in with your life by being your personal little helper when you really need it; from using recipes for sprouts while managing not to burn the turkey, to videos for wrapping oddly shaped gifts, to setting timers, entertaining the family and controlling the heating. As it’s powered by the Google Assistant, it works with a simple voice command – meaning that you can juggle all the different elements of Christmas at the same time, easily and seamlessly.”

The Stress Table

Below is a table of all the things that Google found were the most stressful around Christmas time, however, there was some that missed out! Finding things for the kids to do made up 7%, running out of alcohol 5% and having to play games with the family 10%.

Top Ten Reasons for a Festive Freak-Out

1

Finances

24%

2

Not having any time for yourself

22%

3

Cooking the Christmas dinner

22%

4

Wrapping weirdly shaped presents

20%

5

Putting on weight

20%

6

Spending time with the in-laws

16%

7

Pretending to like a present that you really don’t

14%

8

Buying presents for people you rarely see

11%

9

Decorating the house

10%

10

Untangling the Christmas lights

10%

BONUS:

The table above shows that Christmas dinner is third on the Stressmas list, the Home Hub can actually give you some help, (well we all know that!) but, there’s something special that you may not! Google have teamed up with Gordon Ramsay to create a hidden feature, you can find out what he likes to eat at home by saying ‘OK Google what does Gordon Ramsey eat at home?’ That’s not all either! Hidden content is also provided to you if you ask Google about prima ballerina Misty Copeland, famed for her performances in the festive ballet The Nutcracker, answering ‘OK Google, when did Misty Copeland start dancing?’ If you like to sing Christmas songs, you can ask Google for help with that too! Asking Google, ‘OK Google, how to sing like Nick Jonas?” will get you tips from the pop star himself!

(Google Press Release)

For more information on Google Home please click here!

Google Home Hub is £139 and available from the ​​Google Store​​!

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Furthermore, click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

Also, follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

Smart Speaker

Alexa Vs Siri Vs Google Home

/in /by

Google Home Vs Apple Homepod Vs Amazon Alexa

#Siri Vs #Alexa Vs #GoogleAssistantWho has the best personality?…..only one way to find out… take it away Marcus Bronzy…For more sick stuff like this sign up to our mailing list here howtokillanhour.com/news

Posted by How To Kill an Hour on Wednesday, 11 April 2018

 

With the release of Apple’s Homepod, we set out to find out the best smart speaker available to you today. However, we didn’t just want to know which speaker was the best in terms of features. We wanted to do know which one had the best personality! Can they give us the information we want, in the speed that we want it and in the way that doesn’t bore us?! We pitted them against one another. Check out the video above to learn more!

So, we took all 3 of the speakers from the big tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Google) and pitted Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant against one another. It was a fair test, we sat all three in front of us and asked them a range of questions. Each of them asked the same question, one after each other, to gauge the best response.

However, we weren’t just looking for if the speaker as actually able to answer the question. That’s just one part of the test. The main thing we’re looking for is, can the speaker answer our question with the most amount of information. While remaining concise?

Alexa Vs Siri Vs Google Home: Comedy

Furthermore we aren’t boring here at How To Kill An Hour, so we also decided to throw in some funny questions to see how much fun the AI’s can be on these smart speakers! Plus we asked some of the AI’s easter egg questions. Can you guess which ones they were?

Do you have a smart speaker? What’s your preference and why?! Let us know by getting in touch via our socials: @howtokillanhour across all social media platforms! (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)

Purchase:

Amazon Echo
Google Home
Apple Homepod: 

To subscribe to our YouTube channel please click here!

To listen to the latest podcast (EP274) please click here!

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by sigining up to our newsletter, simply click here!

Siri

Apple looking to make Siri better!

/in /by

As we have discussed on the show previously, the most impressive AI helpers are those from Amazon and Google. With Alexa and Google Assistant respectively. However, if you may recall that it was Apple who first introduced us to an AI that can help you in your day to day lives. Siri, was the first out of the gate. Yet, she is lagging behind her rivals when it comes to intelligence. Both Alexa and Google Assisstant can recall a lot more information and specific information. Siri on the other hand, sometimes can’t even answer basic questions. Only answering what you want if you ask her something in a very specific manner. She’s just not as good as her counterparts. With the release of Homepod, the lack of intelligence in Siri is even more obvious. Yet it’s vitally important to get this correctly, now more than ever, because of Homepod’s battle with Alexa and Google Home. That’s not to say that Siri isn’t intelligent, she can answer questions, she just isn’t good enough.

Siri Hiring

So to battle this, the guys over at Thinknum have noticed that Apple have been on a Siri hiring spree. Hiring as much as 161 different positions to help improve Siri. There’s been a steady increase in Siri related job positions since the summer of 2016, however, there’s been a surge, since February of 2018. The positions are for engineers. Engineers that are geared towards helping Siri answer her weaknesses in answering simple general questions. Other positions that are available are for Siri’s Proactive Intelligence. This is basically Siri’s ability to anticipate the type of info that you may need. A further two other positions are for SiriKit developer framework and speech generation. While it may be some time before we see any improvement on a consumer level, this definitely shows Apple’s intent when it comes to AI.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

google assist

Google Assist on iPhone

/in , /by

When you compare it to Siri, Google Assist is said to be a more powerful voice assistant. It allows you to ask more complicated questions and it has third-party integrations. Also, it allows you to control your connected devices due to the company having new partnerships with third-party companies.

Also, you can now type your questions as well as speaking out loud, this can be useful when you’re out in public, or you do not want to disturb anyone around you!

 

To hear the guys chatting about this please click here!