Comments on: Google vs. Amazon – Battle of the Home pt II.

By: Victor

Victor — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 04:21:15 +0000

https://madeby.google.com/home/partners/ shows they’re compatible with about 16 lighting solutions now. Surely something would have satisfied the child’s fascination with lighting.

They have 54 partners overall. That’s getting closer to rivaling Alexa’s standing.

By: windsorr

windsorr — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 06:11:50 +0000

very funny clip though!

By: windsorr

windsorr — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 06:09:02 +0000

It is. But it is still inferior. Just like VHS vs. Betamax.

By: windsorr

windsorr — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 05:44:01 +0000

why should I have to? Smart Home is about convenience. If it is not then no one is going to use it. This is Google’s failing. Everything works with Alexa so for smart home I can buy the product that I want rather than be limited. The user expereince on Alexa is terrible but that is another matter that I have addressed on other posts.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 00:51:42 +0000

Alexa is popular enough to be spoofed on Saturday Night Live

https://youtu.be/YvT_gqs5ETk

By: Victor

Victor — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 15:39:59 +0000

“This is why Google suffered such a resounding defeat at CES in January where Amazon Echo was everywhere and Google Home was barely seen or talked about.”

No, it isn’t. Google didn’t have a third party program in the months leading up to CES, so obviously there was no hardware or talk about it at CES. Now they do have a third party program, and it’s only been available since about March.

Where this is actually headed is that devices that are developed for Amazon can also add Google without too much issue. Devices in the wild can gain compatibility, and devices in the future will do both. Homes with Echo in it already can add a Google Home and the heterogenous environment will work fine, excepting things like chromecast.

By: Victor

Victor — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 12:54:58 +0000

“The one exception was a small child who was much more interested in endlessly turning the lights on and off rather than improving his general knowledge.”

That just tells me that you didn’t equip that user with a philips HUE or LIFX starter kit, both of which work with Google Home.

Google is also ahead in multimedia integration. Amazon has Alexa on FireTV/Stick and Alexa on echo and third party speakers. If you have both in your home, they don’t acknowledge the existence of each other: You can’t tell Alexa on an Echo to start watching Netflix at the TV.

If you have Google Home and Chromecast, you can kick off programmes by instructing Google Home to watch Black Mirror from Netflix on the TV. It sounds silly, but in practice, it’s very convenient.