Ready for another summer sale? Google has kicked off one of its own over at the Google Store, dropping prices on a number of devices. It hasn't quite discounted everything, but there are some decent deals to be found nevertheless, especially if you've been thinking of picking up one of the company's various Home smart speakers or the Pixel 2 XL.
There's an easy way for the Google Assistant to overshadow Amazon's Alexa, one analyst has suggested: simply give every home in America a free Google Home Mini. The coast-to-coast giveaway might cost Google a pretty penny to achieve, or so the idea goes, but it could more than make up for it with search profits.
As we reported earlier today, many Google Home and Chromecast users experienced an outage today that left them unable to use their devices. Google Home smart speakers warned impacted users that "there was a glitch," advising them to try again. When the user tried again, though, the same issue surfaced. Chromecast devices, meanwhile, failed to stream content to displays.
Google Home and Chromecast are both down, with widespread reports from users that their smart speakers won't work and their streaming adapters won't stream. Saying "Ok Google" to a Google Home speaker, for instance, gets the response that "there was a glitch, try again in a few seconds."
Google has updated its Google Home smart speaker with a new major ability: Spanish. With this, Assistant via the Google Home device can understand voice requests made in Spanish, rather than just English, greatly expanding the device's appeal for many families. The speaker doesn't jump straight to Spanish when it hears a command in that language, though. Here's how to enable the feature.
Conversations with the Google Assistant will involve less "Hey Google" and more chat moving forward, with one of the big features previewed at I/O 2018 arriving on smart speakers today. Continued Conversation allows users to have multi-part interactions with the voice-driven AI, without having to say the "Hey Google" or "Ok Google" trigger each time.
Alexa isn't eavesdropping on your every conversation, secretly sharing them with whoever it likes, but even if it was there's an easy way to avoid that. The latest controversy over smart speakers and the Internet of Things comes down to privacy, as is so often the way, with Amazon's Echo accused of playing impromptu postwoman with a private chat recorded and shared.
Google Home has overtaken Amazon's Echo in smart speaker shipments for the first time, it's claimed, with the Google Assistant edging out Alexa in sales. Although there have been several contenders in the smart speaker wars, two rival platforms currently lead the market.
Google Home, the maker's smart speaker device, finally supports Google's own Play Movies & TV platform. The support has been notably absent despite the slow addition of support for other video platforms. With this arrival, Google Home users can use voice commands with the device to launch, access, and control Google Play Movies & TV content.
Formally, Google I/O is the company annual event to connect with developers as well as partners spanning its entire platform and product range. It is also a time for Google to share its direction not just for specific products but for the company as a whole as well. So while the schedule and topics of talks are public, its grand vision, expressed in keynotes, is still under wraps. Given Google's focus these past months, however, we can pretty much predict what it will be delivering on stage in a few hours.
Google is launching a Google Assistant Investment program, offering financial and technical support to companies wanting to build on its AI platform and in its cloud. Unveiled along with four initial recipients, the new program is part of Google's attempt to encourage more Assistant-powered hardware and Actions, and preferably lure people away from Alexa in the process.
Starz, the network you turn to after depleting HBO's and Showtime's libraries, is now supported by Google Home. Thanks to this new support, Google Home owners can use Assistant to control the app, eliminating the need to manually launch the service and then navigate to the desired show. This makes Starz the seventh video service supported by Google's home speaker, but its own video platform remains neglected.