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The Google Home Mini Is Google’s $49 Answer to the Echo Dot

arstechnica.com

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Re: The Google Home Mini Is Google’s $49 Answer to the Echo Dot

#41

Post by colecut »

r00fus wrote: post #38
mikeash wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference between having something like Google Home in your home and carrying a cell phone in your pocket, other than the fact that the cell phone can listen in on you even when you're away from home? I really don't get why everyone carries listening devices 24/7 and then freaks out about these smart speakers.

One is designed to be listening at all times, the other one may not even have the explicit capability (I turn off voice-activated Google/Siri on all my devices). Trigger words can be accidentally spoken, they can be spoken by other devices, etc. Hidden trigger words can exist. I think it's logical fallacy of extremes to say that carrying an e.g. iPhone is an equivalent security exposure to having GoogleHome/HomePod/E…

Saying that phones "could" be hacked/backdoored is no more of a fallacy than saying Hidden trigger words "can" exist.

Re: The Google Home Mini Is Google’s $49 Answer to the Echo Dot

#42

Post by mikeash »

r00fus wrote: post #38
mikeash wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference between having something like Google Home in your home and carrying a cell phone in your pocket, other than the fact that the cell phone can listen in on you even when you're away from home? I really don't get why everyone carries listening devices 24/7 and then freaks out about these smart speakers.

One is designed to be listening at all times, the other one may not even have the explicit capability (I turn off voice-activated Google/Siri on all my devices). Trigger words can be accidentally spoken, they can be spoken by other devices, etc. Hidden trigger words can exist. I think it's logical fallacy of extremes to say that carrying an e.g. iPhone is an equivalent security exposure to having GoogleHome/HomePod/E…

Many (most? all?) modern smartphones are designed to be listening at all times too.

You turn this off on all your devices. Do you trust the manufacturer to actually stop listening when you do?

I don’t see how it’s a logical fallacy to point out that there’s another device with the same capablilities that most of the complainers don’t give a second thought to. I really don’t understand how the risk from something like Google Home is any higher than the risk from a smartphone.

Re: The Google Home Mini Is Google’s $49 Answer to the Echo Dot

#43

Post by CobrastanJorji »

Klathmon wrote: post #34
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you tell me more about this "ensure garage door is closed" thing? Is there something I can buy to make that happen, or do you have some sort of home brewed thing?

Well there is at least one "off the shelf-ish" solution from Chamberlain's "MY-Q" system. But i'm using a z-wave garage door opener (there are tons of them that hook into most garage door openers) running off a system called "Home Assistant" which is an open-source python-3 based hub for home automation stuff. The google home can then send commands to home assistant which can do whatever i want there. So I just have…

Neat, thanks!

Re: The Google Home Mini Is Google’s $49 Answer to the Echo Dot

#44

Post by tmzt »

Nilef wrote: post #13
tmzt wrote: post #2

I choose Amazon for this because they are dedicated to it, it's a contributor to thei e-commerce business, and there is plenty of reason to believe they will still work a few years from now. I have no such belief with Google in this case, it's one hobby among many disconnected from their main business. It is search but not web search. I'm also building a snips.co device and am very interested in offline speach recogn…

What hardware are you using with Snips?

Pi 3 and a USB mic, I'd like to do the full build but am focused on other projects.

Re: The Google Home Mini Is Google’s $49 Answer to the Echo Dot

#46

Post by tmzt »

tmzt wrote: post #2

I choose Amazon for this because they are dedicated to it, it's a contributor to thei e-commerce business, and there is plenty of reason to believe they will still work a few years from now. I have no such belief with Google in this case, it's one hobby among many disconnected from their main business. It is search but not web search. I'm also building a snips.co device and am very interested in offline speach recogn…

Well, first, this is my opinion.

I do agree that they are dedicated to AI and voice and will make that central to their search offerings.

What I haven't seen from them is dedication to one particular version or variation of anything for more than a few years. It was Google Talk, then what Hangouts, and now Hello, which is also how you talk to bots, but if you want to talk to the Assistant, that's OK, Google.

I don't want hardware were the API is just shutdown because they 'retired' this and went on to something new.

The YouTube use-case sounds useful, particularly with Chromecast, and I wish I could do that with Alexa, but then giants must always butt heads.

As far as snips, I prefer to have more control of this type of solution, but building-your-own-airplane takes time that $50 on an Echo Dot does not. (Google had no similarly priced offering at that time.)

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