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At its very early Unpacked 2021 event last week, Samsung didn't just announce a new Galaxy S21 smartphone, Galaxy Buds Pro earbuds, and Galaxy Smart Tag trackers. It also announced a collaboration that made sense but few probably expected would ever happen. Samsung revealed that it was nurturing a closer relationship with Google, even in areas where they have competing products, bridging the gap between Samsung's SmartThings IoT platform and Google's Nest-branded devices and Android Auto car platform.

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Some might question the need or use of a smart display, just as many have questioned the sense of a smart speaker in the first place. Given how we almost always have our smartphones stuck to our hands, it almost feels redundant to have another display in the house. There are, of course, some things that are better or are only possible using smart displays, like these new features that are landing on the Nest Hub and other Google Assistant smart displays.

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For all their usefulness, at least for a certain class of people, smart speakers and especially smart displays are often unwelcome in the sanctuary that is the bedroom. Despite assurances from companies, some people are still very wary of smart speakers accidentally picking up private conversations or smart displays with cameras seeing something very personal. It seems that Google will try to make its case again with a new Nest Hub that will feature sleep tracking courtesy of Project Soli.

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It looks like Google may be gearing up to launch another smart display, possibly a Nest Hub model joining its existing Hub and Hub Max offerings. The hints surfaced in some FCC documents, which don't reveal exactly what we can expect but do drop enough indications to give us a pretty good idea about what Google is working on.

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If you got a new Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas, consider turning it off. Chances are you got the device as a gift, opened it immediately, and got to work asking about the weather, movie facts, and told it to sing a song. If you're like me, chances are you then sat the device on a shelf and forgot about it. It's probably still powered up and listening to you right now.

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As powerful and as magical smart home products may seem, we have yet to achieve a level of reliability to make them truly foolproof. Sometimes, even something as simple as an Internet outage can render a product useless. Even more problematic, however, is when those problems come via software updates that should be fixing bugs or adding features instead. That's exactly what some owners of the Nest x Yale Lock experienced just recently, though, to be fair, those are pretty much the expected risks of being part of the Nest Hub Max's Preview Program.

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It might be hard to believe but smart speakers have been in the market for more than half a decade now. Amazon launched the Echo, which was then seen as an oddity, in late 2014 and Google followed it up with the Home speaker two years later. Google would eventually expand that into a new line of "Home" branded smart speakers but now that will just be a footnote of history as the last of its kind, the Google Home Max, as officially sold out and has been discontinued.

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As previously promised, Google has added support for Zoom on its Nest Hub Max smart display, enabling users to fire up video calls with a single voice message. The new support joins video calling with Meet and Duo, expanding the number of people you can contact using the product. The addition has arrived in time for the holidays.

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Google has added Apple Music support to its smart home system, meaning subscribers can now ask the Google Assistant to play tracks on their Nest Audio and other smart speakers. The new integration further bridges the divide between Apple and Google's media and smart home platforms, which can at times prove a headache for those trying to make the most of all their content subscriptions across all their devices.

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If you've spent this year working from home, there's a good chance you use video conferencing software like Zoom. As tends to be the case in a home full of people, there's also a good chance that someone, at some point, has streamed movies or downloaded games at the same time, causing the video conference quality to drop drastically. Nest WiFi router owners now have a direct solution to this problem.

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Google is one of the companies offering some fun digital treats for Halloween this year, ones that you can enjoy using your phone and, for Nest owners, your smart doorbell. The content includes new AR experiences involving ghosts and skeletons, as well as special spooky doorbell ringtones for Halloween, and even new Google Assistant fun.

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Google is notorious for suddenly discontinuing apps and services, even those in wide use. That practice actually applies even to hardware products, much to the disappointment of many customers. The casualty in the latter segment is its Nest-branded smart home security system which suddenly became no longer available last week. To assure customers it isn't pulling the plug, Google now publicly commits to continue supporting the Nest Secure system. It isn't, however, saying anything about updates and new features.

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