Smart Speakers - Google Home
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I got one of the free google home minis with spotify. I have been using it for a while, and love how I can control hive and listen to my pod casts. etc

I have been looking at the google home about £55 from CEX, are they worth the step up from the mini, is it just a bigger speaker?

I have noticed LG and Sony also go a google assist version, how do they compare to the google home.
Just better sound quality I think.

I did the same and got the free mini from spotify. So far I use it as a timer for cooking, to cast podcasts to, and to tell me the weather and if my commute is fucked up as I get my breakfast.
It's convenient, but I could definitely live without it :D
also its jokes are terrible :)
They are great for adding baked beans to shopping lists and telling children off in different parts of the house.
My mother cooks for any number of people over a three storey house, so she uses it to announce that dinner is ready :D
I can get one for Mini Kov's room, he uses it mainly for finding drop points on Fortnite :)
Trooper wrote:
Just better sound quality I think.

You are correct. The software is the same.

Trooper wrote:
So far I use it as a timer for cooking

You'll be pleased to hear you can now just say "stop" to silence an alarm, without having to "OK Google" it first.

Mr Chonks wrote:
They are great for adding baked beans to shopping lists

The shopping list is pretty much universally-hated. There's not even a companion app! Fucking idiots.

Mr Chonks wrote:
telling children off in different parts of the house.

Again, it's not great for that either, because you can't specify where things are announced. It comes out of every Google Home you have (but, rubbishly, not your Chromecast Audio devices).

Protip for new users! Go into the app, find the accessibility options and turn on the noise when it starts to listen, it's a far nicer experience.
Protip #2! If you use the right accent you can activate it with "hey girl".
Protip #3! If you don't like your Mini's shitty sound quality you can pair it with a bluetooth speaker.
Oooooh!

Stop for stopping alarm, super useful thanks.
Listen sound, again, super useful.
Pairing with a bluetooth speaker. Interesting, hadn't considered that, I think I have an old BOSE one kicking around, I shall experiment.

Thanks dude!
I have just turned on my listen sound... cheers
Sorry, I was talking about voluntary surveillance devices in general.
Educate me, does audio cast from your phone get classed as music when it comes to playback on google home?
I see that I can set a bluetooth speaker to be used for music, but is that only direct from the mini?

i.e. I cast my podcasts from my phone to the mini, I want that to come out the bluetooth speaker, will it?

I could try it myself, but that involves leaving the house to go buy a power supply, as i've lost the one for my bluetooth speaker.
You're all fools. All your data are belong to them.
Trooper wrote:
Educate me, does audio cast from your phone get classed as music when it comes to playback on google home?
I see that I can set a bluetooth speaker to be used for music, but is that only direct from the mini?

i.e. I cast my podcasts from my phone to the mini, I want that to come out the bluetooth speaker, will it?

I could try it myself, but that involves leaving the house to go buy a power supply, as i've lost the one for my bluetooth speaker.


The answer to this is yes, casting to the mini gets treated as music and comes out the bluetooth speaker.
Grim... wrote:

Mr Chonks wrote:
telling children off in different parts of the house.

Again, it's not great for that either, because you can't specify where things are announced. It comes out of every Google Home you have.

I thought you could? I'm pretty sure we use it to "broadcast kitchen" etc. But I'll get Joans to clarify as I haven't used the feature for ages.
Goddess Jasmine wrote:
Grim... wrote:

Mr Chonks wrote:
telling children off in different parts of the house.

Again, it's not great for that either, because you can't specify where things are announced. It comes out of every Google Home you have.

I thought you could? I'm pretty sure we use it to "broadcast kitchen" etc. But I'll get Joans to clarify as I haven't used the feature for ages.

Me neither, sorry. Although I thought you had to say "broadcast message..."?
Can you change ‘hi google’ to something else?
KovacsC wrote:
Can you change ‘hi google’ to something else?

Yes you can change it to “ok google”
I have both those.

Shall I take that as a no...
You can say "hey google"
Depending on your accent and tone, you can say "cocaine noodle"
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Depending on your accent and tone, you can say "cocaine noodle"

When I was on Android I said all sorts of things like “flokay boodle” and it worked.
Mr Chonks wrote:
When I was on Android I said all sorts of things like “flokay boodle” and it worked.

Sure. It's just fuzzy phoneme matching.
Siri seems to activate whenever I say anything though. Like it just wants to be involved all the time.
Mr Chonks wrote:
Siri seems to activate whenever I say anything though. Like it just wants to be involved all the time.

Mop And Siri, sitting in a tree...
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Depending on your accent and tone, you can say "cocaine noodle"

"Hey gurrrl".
Grim... wrote:
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Depending on your accent and tone, you can say "cocaine noodle"

"Hey gurrrl".


Yup that works.

Also found you can control the volume of Spotify by using the volume controls on your phone.
KovacsC wrote:
Grim... wrote:
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Depending on your accent and tone, you can say "cocaine noodle"

"Hey gurrrl".


Yup that works.

Also found you can control the volume of Spotify by using the volume controls on your phone.


I found the same thing, on calls you can move the phone further from your ear
MaliA wrote:
KovacsC wrote:
Grim... wrote:
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Depending on your accent and tone, you can say "cocaine noodle"

"Hey gurrrl".


Yup that works.

Also found you can control the volume of Spotify by using the volume controls on your phone.


I found the same thing, on calls you can move the phone further from your ear


I meant the smart speaker.... oh wait. You doing a funny?
Mr Chonks wrote:
Siri seems to activate whenever I say anything though. Like it just wants to be involved all the time.


There is a Sarah in my team (two, in fact) and whenever I answer the phone with a cheery 'Hi, Sarah' the ipad starts babbling away.
Google sent me an email saying I could have a free Google Home Mini because I'm a Google One member so I said alright then send me a free one and now it says I will be getting a free one shortly.

I think I will put it in the kitchen.
Cool story, bro!
I'm taking pointers from some of the recent quality of debate in the World of Warcraft thread.
Hearthly wrote:
I'm taking pointers from some of the recent quality of debate in the World of Warcraft thread.


oh fuck off :)
Is there a recommendation on smart plugs or ones to avoid?
Do Echo Dots die like Tamagotchis if you don’t feed them with commands.
I'm glad I got a free Google Home instead of buying one. All I do, once per morning, is ask it what the weather will be in Douglas today, which isn't much of an improvement at just looking at the forecast on my phone.

Also, sometimes when I'm watching a YouTube video, which clearly doesn't contain my voice, it sort of wakes up and then professes not to understand what I'm talking about, even though it's someone who's totally not me in a random YouTube video.

It's not crossed the barrier into 'turn the creepy thing off' yet, but I wouldn't miss it if it set on fire.
Send it to Grim... then
I will give you £10 as my lad is after one for his room
I need two more, but I want the shiny new ones, not the shitty old ones.
Our main usage case is listening to the radio in the kitchen, so I'm probably going to get a Nest Mini for there and move the shitty old one into the living room so Google doesn't miss any secret conversations in there.
We have the Alexa ones and they are 95% used by Darwin for commands to play Merry Christmas Everyone, every day.
Actually, I also use them to read audiobooks, feed the fish and play Question Of The Day.
Mimi wrote:
We have the Alexa ones and they are 95% used by Darwin for commands to play Merry Christmas Everyone, every day.


Is he trying to make Wizzard's wish a reality? That's an awful lot of pannetone.
Kern wrote:
Mimi wrote:
We have the Alexa ones and they are 95% used by Darwin for commands to play Merry Christmas Everyone, every day.


Is he trying to make Wizzard's wish a reality? That's an awful lot of pannetone.


Noooo, it’s straight from Shaky himself:
“How I wish that every day was Christmas,
What a nice way to spend the year.”
https://twitter.com/MimiCodd/status/1188405627162259458


I use mine loads.. Radio, spotify, alarms, timers and audio books.

Just got to work out how to link the hive to it.
Watch that it doesn’t make your speaker start buzzing.
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