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I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

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Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#141

Post by GavinMcG »

marak830 wrote: post #42
cromka wrote: post #12

It is only a matter of time before a class action is filed against Google for reducing the functionality of products they previously sold. The Assistant in Mini speakers I use at home has become amusingly bad: not that it doesn’t understand what I want, but it will often just not execute my orders, despite understanding. For example, it recently ignores my “yes” to its “do you want to know more?” follow up questions.…

Against googles lawyers? It would require a massive amount of pissed off consumers, and a huge team to even drag them to court. End result would be google paying a pittance and no one getting anything. End of the day, a lot of lawyers would be paid well and google would shrug it off as a cost of business.

Class actions don't need a huge number of people to lead the charge. That's the point: most people can do nothing, while their interests are represented.

I think it would be best if wrongdoers had to make consumers whole and also pay the costs of holding them accountable. But our system currently doesn't work that way, and in that context, it's still worthwhile to have lawyers motivated to raising the cost of wrongdoing.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#142

Post by linsomniac »

Corrado wrote: post #2

I feel like this is just one more thing that Google leadership is failing at. I have some similar examples to the ones in the article. I recommended that my brother-in-law get a Google wifi AP some years ago. Recently, I got an email from Google saying that they are no longer supporting it and after a certain date you will no longer be able to make changes to it. WTF?!? My Apple Airport Extreme is older than the Goog…

That is the TP-Link router, right? I had one of those, recently replaced it with a used Ruckus R610, and oddly enough, the coverage of a single R610 seems to beat the coverage of 4 of the Google WiFi points.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#143

Post by rch »

Something about Google's incentive structure is eating them alive.

For instance, there's an alarm setting on Android (Pixel) for "Night Mode: Very dim display (for dark rooms)".

Which I interpret as a Googler's way of saying: "my bonus is tied to minutes of display visibility while charging, so F users there's no way to turn the display off."

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#144

Post by linsomniac »

My primary use of the Home speakers is playing music in the shower. That experience is actually pretty bad though, over the years between google music and spotify, getting it to play my music is just horribly obtuse. I can't reliably get it to start my music. "Playing a playlist called my favorites" or similar rather than playing my own playlist.

At one point after 3-4 failed attempts like this I said "F you" and the speaker said "Don't speak to me like that." So I unplugged it.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#145

Post by sshumaker »

burntalmonds wrote: post #134

I recently bought a Nest thermostat and regret it. Two months in and the wifi went bad. Apparently a common problem. Support agrees to send me a replacement, but they end up sending it to the wrong address.

I had the same issue, but support kept disconnecting me and I had to start all over again going through the entire “try all of the brain dead stuff like resetting” 3 times, before I finally gave up and just ordered a new Nest and ate the cost.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#147

Post by maxerickson »

rch wrote: post #143

Something about Google's incentive structure is eating them alive. For instance, there's an alarm setting on Android (Pixel) for "Night Mode: Very dim display (for dark rooms)". Which I interpret as a Googler's way of saying: "my bonus is tied to minutes of display visibility while charging, so F users there's no way to turn the display off."

On my Pixel, there's a "Keep the Screen Dark" in the digital well being settings. It's nested 4 screens in or whatever, but it's there.

Going from an older device to a Pixel 6, I would say that there is some additional complexity in the settings, but directionally, the changes make the device nicer to use.

So like the setting in the alarm isn't the overall device control, it's deep in the digital well being settings (complexity), but there is a way to set the phone to be less disruptive, with quite a bit of control (directionally correct).

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#149

Post by devoutsalsa »

linsomniac wrote: post #144

My primary use of the Home speakers is playing music in the shower. That experience is actually pretty bad though, over the years between google music and spotify, getting it to play my music is just horribly obtuse. I can't reliably get it to start my music. "Playing a playlist called my favorites" or similar rather than playing my own playlist. At one point after 3-4 failed attempts like this I said "F you" and the…

I still want profanity mode. Hurling insults at a Google Assistant and having to roast me in return would be amazing.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#150

Post by lawn »

gondaloof wrote: post #18
ilayn wrote: post #6

If only the author knew to what level Home Assistant reached, they would not even bother with google or alexa.

What can HA do that Google/Alexa can’t?

The amount of possible integrations and customization possible with Google isn't even the same playing field as what HA can do.

I've integrated monitoring my heatpump, solar palens, speakers, Ikea and Philips lights, Todoist, calendars, Garmin and much more. All controllable via Python scripting.

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