nest

Imagine being in the middle of an intense moment of a film or TV show and suddenly the doorbell rings, jolting you out of your immersion. You quickly run to the door only to find out it was nothing important or no one at all (those pranksters!). The mood has been ruined, leaving you wishing for a way to know whether or not to even get up from the couch. Now you can if you own a Hopper or Wally receiver from DISH and a video doorbell from Nest, now known as Google Nest.

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Smart displays are great at showing information like the weather, schedules, recipes, or even just the time. Unlike clocks, however, these were primarily designed to be used up close and personal, making it harder to actually make out what's on the screen at a distance. That's no problem for people with better eyesight or more agile limbs but the Google Nest Hub flops in the accessibility department because of this. That's why Google has developed a new system that makes use of ultrasonic sensors to change what's on the screen depending on whether someone's near or far away.

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The Google Hub, along with the Amazon Echo Show, kicked off a new breed of smart home devices that basically combined a smart speaker and a tablet. These smart displays offered visual information and controls but, by nature, really only worked when you touch them or speak to them. It seems that Google is now mixing it up a bit by giving the Nest Hub and the Nest Hub Max some very basic presence detection thanks to the ultrasonic sensors in the devices.

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Google's Nest Wifi arrives as mesh networking is firmly embedding itself in the mainstream. Three years ago, Google Wifi surfed into homes at the bleeding edge of mesh, promising whole-home coverage with multiple interconnected routers filling in any dead spots. Now, Nest Wifi promises the same, only with fewer units and the addition of Google Assistant smart speaker functionality.

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Following its launch on Android TV earlier this year, SiriusXM announced today that it's picking up Google Assistant support as well. So, if you've got something like a Google Nest smart speaker or a smart display, you'll soon be able to access SiriusXM content using voice commands. With SiriusXM already compatible with Alexa, this move to include Google Assistant was really only a matter of time.

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If you have a Google Nest Hello connected doorbell, you now have access to fun new ringtones designed specifically for the Halloween season. Starting now, Nest Hello owners located in the United States can access special Halloween-themed ringtones, but only for a limited time. New offerings include a cackling witch, a vampire, and a scary monster.

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Google has offered a mesh router called Google WiFi since 2016, but today we're seeing the successor to that system. During its Pixel 4 event today, Google got up on stage and announced Nest WiFi, a new mesh router that improves on the Google WiFi formula. For starters, Google says that Nest WiFi is more capable than Google WiFi, boasting as much as twice the speed and 25% better coverage.

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There's a new Google Nest Mini, and while it may not look any different, Google promises its smallest and most affordable smart speaker should be louder, smarter, and more flexible. The new second-generation Mini looks just like its predecessor, a compact, circular blob that's topped with a speaker grille made from recycled plastic bottles.

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Today the Nest Aware and Nest Aware Plus system was revealed - or re-revealed, depending on how you look at it - for smart home systems. This is Google's full home security system coverage subscription service for Google Home / Google Nest products. Google also revealed the Nest Mini today for $49 USD - making it pretty much a new Google Home Mini with a slightly different hardware package - just a TINY bit different.

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Tomorrow is a big day for Google and its fans, as the company is set to reveal the Pixel 4 at long last. While the Pixel 4 will be the star of tomorrow's show, we're also expecting it to be joined by a variety of other devices. One of those devices could be the Google Nest Mini, which leaked out today, though those of you who are familiar with Google's smart speakers will likely get a strong feeling of deja vu when you see it.

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Today a new Google Nest Mini appeared at the FCC, and with it, confirmation of Google's continue expansion to every room in your home. Google has a plan with Google Assistant - that plan is to cover your entire world in Google-made natural voice smart assistant coverage, wall to wall, environment to environment. Google already has a first-gen Google Home Mini - the Google Nest Mini won't be particularly different in approach.

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The Nest Hub Max isn't just a larger smart display, it's Google's first where the Assistant can see you, too. If the original Nest Hub was a connected digital photo frame that just so happened to have Assistant smarts baked in, the Nest Hub Max builds on that with a bigger screen, better audio, video calling, gesture control, and - most controversially - facial recognition. Then again, it also comes with a significantly bigger, $229 price tag.

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