Items tagged with google assistant
A rather strange bug has reared its ugly head that could impact those who are removing some Google Assistant devices from their network. One of the first things that many people do when getting rid of a Google Assistant device is to revoke the device's access to a Google account. However, some users have discovered that revoking access to Google Assistant devices can wreak havoc on a smart home set up, potentially deleting everything in its wake. The issue was first seen by users of the TiVo streaming dongle that were revoking access to their Google account for the device. Once access was terminated for the TiVo streaming dongle, the users noticed their Nest devices had been de-linked from their...
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Many of us are currently updating our homes and adding items that make our havens more comfortable and convenient. Although the Memorial Day sales have now come and gone, there are still plenty of deals to be had. And with that in mind, the Lenovo Smart Clock with Google Assistant is currently on sale at Best Buy for a steal. The Lenovo Smart Clock is currently available for $39.99 USD ($40 off). This is already one of the least expensive Google Assistant-enabled devices on the market, but is now cheaper than ever. The purchase also includes both a free SiriusXM Premier Streaming subscription for 3 months and 90-days free of Pandora Premium for new subscribers. Best Buy also offers...
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Smart speakers are still very popular devices and are high on the wish lists of folks looking to bring more automation and AI-powered assistants into their home environment. Both Best Buy and Target are offering outstanding deals on the Google Home smart speaker with Google Assistant. The deals knock a significant amount off the MSRP and could represent the perfect time to get a Google Home in every room of your home or office, if you're looking for that level of connectedness. The regular price for the Google Home smart speaker is $99.99, but Best Buy has a deal right now where it is offering $70.99 off the purchase price. That brings the price for the Google Home smart speaker to $29, representing...
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If you’re looking for a mesh router that can cover your entire home, while being easy to setup and maintain, then we’ve got a pretty compelling deal for you today on the Google Nest Wifi. Interestingly enough, this hot deal comes from an unlikely retailer for discounted electronics: Bed Bath and Beyond. The Nest Wifi typically retails for $269, but Bed Bath and Beyond is currently selling the router+satellite combo for just $199, representing a steep $70 discount. That price includes free shipping, which the retailer claims will leave its warehouse within 1 to 2 days after placing your order. Bed Bath and Beyond offers the Nest Wifi bundle in Mist or Sand colors. Unfortunately,...
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Google recently launched the first Android 11 Developer Preview, and code sleuths are quickly scouring through the OS to see what new features await users. While Google announced a number of new features coming to Android 11 earlier this week (including better support for 5G phones and folding displays), some new ones have been uncovered including double tap gestures for Pixel smartphones. The gesture system was developed under the codename "Columbus" and is initiated by double-tapping on the back of the smartphone. Right now, these are the double tap gestures that are currently available with Columbus according to XDA-Developers: Dismiss timer Launch camera Launch Google Assistant...
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When it comes to the smart speaker market in the United States, there's Amazon, Google... and everyone else. Amazon kicked off the festivities with the original Echo, and Google followed up with the Home. Now, both companies have multiple display-equipped smart speakers, including Google's Nest Hub. Today, Best Buy is bringing back a very popular deal from the Christmas 2019 shopping season that will get you two Nest Hubs for just $99.99. The retailer typically sells the smart speakers for $99.99, so this represents a hefty discount, and the two for $99.99 offer extends to both the Charcoal and Chalk colors of the Nest Hub: Google Nest Hub with Google Assistant Chalk (2-pack): $99.99...
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Many people make New Year resolutions and companies like Google are no exception. The company recently announced at CES several changes that Google Assistant users can expect in 2020. Google plans to make Google Assistant available on more devices and provide greater control to users, offer more features for families, supply greater privacy controls, and incorporate better speech technology. Google reported that a greater variety of devices this year will be compatible with Google Assistant. These include August Smart Locks, Telus Wi-Fi Hub routers, GE Appliances Ultrafresh Front Load Washer, and many more. It will overall be easier to connect these devices with your Assistant. Users will also...
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The Pixel 4 family is famous for its strong support from Google. Google tends to support the devices with three years of major Android OS, along with feature/security updates, which is much better than we typically expect from other Android OEMs. Google is now introducing a new category of updates for its Pixel devices, and it is calling it a "feature drop". Google says that feature drops bring bigger and more impactful updates than the typical security updates and bug fixes, and will come "on a regular basis." The first feature drop is coming later this month and includes a handful of new features for Pixel users. One of the most prominent additions is the ability for the Google Assistant to...
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Back in September at IFA 2019, Google first announced Assistant Ambient Mode. About two weeks ago, the feature began to roll out to devices that are Nokia and Xiaomi branded. Google has now officially detailed all of the features of Assistant Ambient Mode in a video that can be seen below. Assistant Ambient mode does some cool things for users, including functionality that will turn your smartphone into a digital photo frame. Users can also use Ambient Mode to control music, other smart home devices, and perform various tasks. Assistant Ambient Mode is enabled during charging on select devices with Android 8.0 or higher. While Nokia and Xiaomi devices got the feature first, it is reportedly rolling...
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Google Assistant has gained a new capability that movie fans will appreciate courtesy of Google Duplex technology. On Android phones, Google Assistant can now help users to buy movie tickets online. Users can get times and buy tickets starting with "Hey Google, showtimes for [movie] in [city] this weekend." Google also notes that movie fans can search for movie times from the Google app on Android. Once the list of theaters in the area turns up, users can choose a theater and time that they want. The option to buy tickets will be offered from within the Assistant and supports more than 70 cinemas and ticketing services. Supported ticketing services include Fandango, movietickets.com, AMC, or...
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Google has made a lot of inroads with its "Home" family of Google Assistant-powered smart speakers that include the Home, Home Mini, and Home Max. However, in recent months, some users have been left with non-functioning devices due to faulty firmware upgrades. After a failed firmware update, the affected devices will seemingly reboot normally, yet show all four LEDs lit up. Once this happens, the device is no longer responsive and will not answer to any voice commands. However, according to Android Police, some users were able to get their Homes to break free of this failsafe mode by powering cycling the device. In addition, some users have been able to factory reset their devices...
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Besides announcing its new Pixel 4/Pixel 4 XL and the Pixelbook Go, Google also announced a handful of other hardware accessories that will surely be popular with folks invested in the Android and Google Home ecosystem. Those three products include the Pixel Buds, Nest Mini and Nest Wifi. Pixel Buds The Pixel Buds have been completely redesigned with absolutely no wires. Each earpiece has a stabilizer arc to keep in firmly in place in your ear, while the ear tips help seal out ambient noise. Adaptive Sound is included to dynamically adjust the volume based on how loudness or quietness of the room (or environment) that you're currently residing in. In addition, Google says that...
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We are still more than two months away from Christmas, but Google has found itself in the giving mood and is playing Santa Claus for some lucky Assistant users. Just as it has done with some YouTube Premium subscribers, Google is gifting free Home Mini speakers to select Assistant users. There does not appear to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason to who exactly gets chosen, other than users who active use Google Assistant. If you are one of them, be on the lookout for the freebie offer from Google in your feed. The only caveat is you have to pay a few bucks for shipping. Source: XDA Developers That's not a bad deal, considering you are getting a $49 product for around five bucks. The voice controlled...
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Google Assistant-powered devices like the Google Home have increased in popularity over the past few years and have grown to be competitive sales wise with the Amazon Echo family in the smart speaker realm. Today, Google is looking to further the appeal of its Google Home and Nest Hub devices with the introduction of a new feature called stream transfer. When people purchase their first smart home device, it’s often hard to stop at just one. Google knows this, and stream transfer is meant to help users manage media content as they move throughout rooms in their home. Using just your voice, you can all upon the Google Assistant to transfer music from the Google Home in your bonus room, for...
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Google is building a number of cool features into the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones, and details have been leaking like crazy over the past month. Another new feature has now leaked that outlines an interesting new way that users of the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL will be able to activate the Google Assistant. The new way is "raise to talk." The way the feature reportedly works is after the user lifts their phone, they can then issue a command to invoke Assistant. The question has to come immediately after the phone is raised or the Google Assistant will ignore the speech it hears. This feature will presumably be in addition to the squeeze to activate that leverages the Active Edge feature...
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Some Android device users have been reporting a crashing issue with the Google Assistant recently that as of writing is unpatched. For users who are facing this issue with their Android device, there is an "unofficial" fix that reportedly addresses the crash until Google gets an official patch ready. Users impacted by the bug see crashing messages after the app fails in the background. The crash will start when the user utter the "Hey Google" wake phrase, a gesture, or a button press. The Google Assistant crash bug isn't device-specific with users reporting the same crash on Google Pixel, Galaxy Note 10+, Xiaomi Mi 9, Galaxy S10e and other devices. As for the workaround, one user reports...
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After catching heat for hiring subcontractors tasked with listening to audio recordings from its smart products, Google is making some changes to its privacy policies in hopes of easing concerns among consumers. It is basically an effort towards better transparency, as Google outlines in a new blog post on the subject. "It's clear that we fell short of our high standards in making it easy for you to understand how your data is used, and we apologize. When we learned about these concerns, we immediately paused this process of human transcription globally to investigate, and conducted a full review of our systems and controls. Now we want to share more about how audio recordings work, and some...
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We know that Google has a hardware event coming up next month, but what exactly will the company introduce? One of the items is rumored to be a new mesh router system, presumably built around the latest Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard. Assuming the info is accurate, it will be sold as a "Nest Wifi" system with accompanying beacons. Google already sells a mesh router called Google Wifi. Pricing starts at $99, which gets you the main router, which is covers up to 1,500 square feet. There is also a 3-pack available for $259. By the power of mesh networking, the 3-pack covers larger spaces, up to 4,500 square feet. Citing sources who are apparently familiar with the matter, 9To5Google says a refreshed...
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Google's Pixel 4 family of smartphones is shaping up to have quite a compelling assortment of high-tech hardware to keep users happy including a snappy Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC, dual cameras on the rear, and gesture tracking with Project Soli. However, equally as important as a competent hardware platform is the software that layers on top. The Pixel 4 will be running Google's newly released Android 10 operating system, and a new report suggests that the phones will also gain an exclusive extension of the Google Assistant. We've all had the experience where we've been put on hold by a business that we've called, and we just sit there waiting, and waiting... and waiting for a human...
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Voice assistants can be great for looking up the weather, playing music, and answering inquiries. However, consumers should use caution before asking their voice assistant to call a business or customer service line. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) recently reported that voice assistants are accidentally dialing scammer phone numbers. According to the BBB, several consumers have recently used voice search to dial the numbers of customer service lines, but were taken instead to scammers. For example, one consumer asked their voice assistant to dial an airline’s customer service phone number. The scammer attempted to convince the consumer to purchase $400 in prepaid gift cards. Why are consumers...
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Not all feature updates have to be groundbreaking or big in scope. I'm reminded of this today with Google announcing a nifty new capability coming to Google Assistant. In short order, Google Assistant users will be able to assign reminders to family members and friends. There are several ways this could come in handy. "Assignable reminders on the Google Assistant help families and housemates better collaborate and stay organized while at home or on the go. This means you can now create reminders for your partner or roommate to do things like pick up the groceries, pay a recurring bill, walk the dog—or send them a note of encouragement when they need it the most ('Hey Google, remind Mary...
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One of the first things you learn in driving class is to keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel. That is easier said then done these days, with increasingly functional mapping apps and digital displays getting in the way. To help with that, Google Assistant is heading to the Waze navigation app, Google announced on Monday. Google acquired Waze back in 2013 for $1.3 billion, and it continues to operate independently of Google Maps. Over the years, however, Google has ported several of Waze's features over to its own home-brewed maps app. On occasion, some of the features in Google Maps have also found their way over to Waze. The latter is the case here, at least technically—Google...
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