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Google Home Max is now available

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Re: Google Home Max is now available

#21

Post by sundvor »

habosa wrote: post #4

Dislcaimer: I work at Google but not on this team. And I'm a Sonos owner, so I think my feedback is relatively unbiased. I got a demo of two of these in my friend's house the other day. The sound quality is exceptional. In a stereo pair the sound was loud and clear throughout the range with good bass as well. Very impressed, plus it's just a nice looking device imo.

I just got a couple of Minis on Black Friday sales (2 bundles; 1 Chromecast, 1 Chromecast Audio), and am extremely impressed even with those. The far field microphones are so sensitive, I can literally whisper and it'll pick it up. Also the speaker is very clear for its size.

Sure there are quirks but the ability to control Chromecast is great, and also the audio is impressive for listening to Podcasts such as DotNetRocks from my phone.

I hooked the bundled Chromecast Audio to the Line In on my Asus Sonar Deluxe 1.3 HDAV on the HTPC, which connects to a 20 year old Rotel Preamp + Amp combo (separation of concerns!), and equally old (but since then refurbished) Infinity Kappa speakers. Sound quality is great that way, so I didn't see the need for a Home or the Home Max which I knew was coming.

So I can say stuff like. "Hey Google, play {some album, artist or playlist} on the PC", and it'll cast to that if I want the big sound. It is way easier than navigating Spotify on my phone or using the Spotify software on the HTPC itself (which is limited to 1 account, with the hassle of logging out / in).

I wish Google could publish server software for Win10 so that I could cast to that as a Chromecast target rather than go via the Chromecast Audio. However I understand there's probably DRM reasons why efforts for this to happen were shut down.

As a PS, my 7 year old son absolutely loves talking to Google. It's pretty impressive to hear him figure her out.

Re: Google Home Max is now available

#22

Post by drngdds »

andy_ppp wrote: post #8

I don’t trust Google not to record every single thing I say and feed that into their advertising platform. For this reason I will probably wait and get a HomePod... Downvoters: I presume you have evidence that Google won’t use your interactions with Google Assistant to better advertise to you?

Well, do you have proof that Google/Apple/Nokia/etc. isn't already doing that with your phone?

If you're going to be super distrustful of closed source stuff by companies with an interest in gathering user data and assume guilt before innocence is proven, that's fine. But you can't do it selectively!

Re: Google Home Max is now available

#24

Post by andy_ppp »

drngdds wrote: post #22
andy_ppp wrote: post #8

I don’t trust Google not to record every single thing I say and feed that into their advertising platform. For this reason I will probably wait and get a HomePod... Downvoters: I presume you have evidence that Google won’t use your interactions with Google Assistant to better advertise to you?

Well, do you have proof that Google/Apple/Nokia/etc. isn't already doing that with your phone? If you're going to be super distrustful of closed source stuff by companies with an interest in gathering user data and assume guilt before innocence is proven, that's fine. But you can't do it selectively!

The incentives for Apple to do this are relatively minimal and Google has a track record of hoovering up information on you to target advertising.

Almost as if it’s their entire business...

Re: Google Home Max is now available

#25

Post by saagarjha »

drngdds wrote: post #22
andy_ppp wrote: post #8

I don’t trust Google not to record every single thing I say and feed that into their advertising platform. For this reason I will probably wait and get a HomePod... Downvoters: I presume you have evidence that Google won’t use your interactions with Google Assistant to better advertise to you?

Well, do you have proof that Google/Apple/Nokia/etc. isn't already doing that with your phone? If you're going to be super distrustful of closed source stuff by companies with an interest in gathering user data and assume guilt before innocence is proven, that's fine. But you can't do it selectively!

Well, Google’s their business model actively encourages using this data for advertising or analytics.

Re: Google Home Max is now available

#26

Post by Finch2193 »

Does anyone really find these home assistants to be all that useful? Echo, home, etc. All of them really seem to be designed to get you to buy them and then to sell you more stuff, not to actually be useful. It barely works for even simple queries. The music integration doesn't work well with Spotify on the home, and can't even add reminders. The echo has to ask "am or pm" when I tell it to 'wake me up tomorrow at 8'. It's really good at understanding the words that I say but this really illustrates the gap between natural language transcribing and understanding. The only reason I use it is that it's perfect as a handsfree music player and that has its uses in the shower, etc.

Re: Google Home Max is now available

#27

Post by shazow »

andy_ppp wrote: post #8

I don’t trust Google not to record every single thing I say and feed that into their advertising platform. For this reason I will probably wait and get a HomePod... Downvoters: I presume you have evidence that Google won’t use your interactions with Google Assistant to better advertise to you?

Google has been very open about everything they know about you and has done a great job at allowing you to control it:

https://myaccount.google.com/dashboard

https://adssettings.google.com/

This is more than what any other company does.

You can choose to trust another company. I choose to trust Google.

(Disclaimer: I worked at Google several years ago, and my trust in the company has only increased after my time there.)

Re: Google Home Max is now available

#28

Post by andy_ppp »

shazow wrote: post #27
andy_ppp wrote: post #8

I don’t trust Google not to record every single thing I say and feed that into their advertising platform. For this reason I will probably wait and get a HomePod... Downvoters: I presume you have evidence that Google won’t use your interactions with Google Assistant to better advertise to you?

Google has been very open about everything they know about you and has done a great job at allowing you to control it: https://myaccount.google.com/dashboard https://adssettings.google.com/ This is more than what any other company does. You can choose to trust another company. I choose to trust Google. (Disclaimer: I worked at Google several years ago, and my trust in the company has only increased after my time ther…

Wow, that’s awesome that I can turn off all the creepy features! They should put this button on the homepage ;-)

Re: Google Home Max is now available

#29

Post by mcintyre1994 »

drngdds wrote: post #22
andy_ppp wrote: post #8

I don’t trust Google not to record every single thing I say and feed that into their advertising platform. For this reason I will probably wait and get a HomePod... Downvoters: I presume you have evidence that Google won’t use your interactions with Google Assistant to better advertise to you?

Well, do you have proof that Google/Apple/Nokia/etc. isn't already doing that with your phone? If you're going to be super distrustful of closed source stuff by companies with an interest in gathering user data and assume guilt before innocence is proven, that's fine. But you can't do it selectively!

The difference is that these are powered by the mains and you wouldn’t see battery drain. With a phone they’d have to give up battery life - from my understanding more than any phone currently could give up and be usable - to be constantly listening. My phone is only really on power when I’m asleep, but this would always have power and be able to listen without me knowing.

Not making accusations but I do think there’s a real difference between a microphone I’m always using and see and care about the battery drain of, and one plugged into the mains with no battery concerns.

Re: Google Home Max is now available

#30

Post by thebiglebrewski »

Finch2193 wrote: post #26

Does anyone really find these home assistants to be all that useful? Echo, home, etc. All of them really seem to be designed to get you to buy them and then to sell you more stuff, not to actually be useful. It barely works for even simple queries. The music integration doesn't work well with Spotify on the home, and can't even add reminders. The echo has to ask "am or pm" when I tell it to 'wake me up tomorrow at 8'…

Yes, I do
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