How's that smartphone of your's holding out or are you still using smoke signals? Such a stupid response when you actually assess the connected devices you interactive with throughout the day

Do I want to pay £125.05 to have Google snoop on everything said in my house. Hmmm, let me think ... nope, not really.

And your response about smoke signals isn't stupid? On my smart phone, only the phone app has permission to access the microphone. I just think we should be cautiously sceptical about these sorts of services, rather than rush to get them first because they are new and shiny, is that wrong?

​comical

A warning / clarification. I was under the impression that you could use Google Home with a free google play music account - but that you could only play your own music organised into playlists.
No problem - I made some playlists and I could indeed get it to work by saying "Play Jazz Playlist". However it would only work for a few songs then mysteriously stop.
After an hour on the phone to support they asked if I had play music premium. Turns out I shouldn't have been able to play my music at all without a subscription.
It's not at all clear from anything I've ready - but apparently to play any music (except radio) in the UK you need a subscription to play or spotify. Looks like its going back.

​thank you. i grow tired of the 1984/big brother/ NSA comments everytime something like this comes up

​hey guess what.....

they dont care about you

Can anyone confirm this? i.e. if you don't have a paid subscription can you play music that you've uploaded to Google Play if it's arranged into playlists? If not, it would be an absolute deal-breaker for me, as I see >50% of my potential usage of one of these is for playing my music collection

Voucher seems to have stopped working:

"Sorry! That promotional code is not valid."

Anyone else having any luck with this?

Unless your typewriter was bugged?

Sent from my typewritter

Actually, you are wrong. On your smart phone, GCHQ has the ability to both remotely trigger your microphone and your camera. When this was revealed to be the case and it materialised that the UK government had been massively breaching people's data and performing illegal hacking, they introduced the investigatory powers acts which amongst other things, retroactively made legal the massive intrusions that they have been performing. Google/Amazon echo both say that they only record once you have said their keyword, but as the UK government has just proved, they are probably not the ones we should be worrying about. If GCHQ has the power to take over your devices, then so does anyone because GCHQ is staffed with people.

I have to smile at all the people making comments about Google Home being used to listen to conversations......I assume that the posters making that statement turn off their mobile phone when they get home as the microphone on that can be used in exactly the same way....if "Big Brother" wanted to.

Haha. I create a perfect Faraday cage around my phone by wrapping it tightly in foil when I go out. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out.

'​​Oh you can't even make calls with it !!!
Even my Samsung Level box can do that.'

Where did it ever claim it could make calls?

I got mine yesterday, disappointed you can't ask it to play music from your Google Play library without a subscription. Also there is no way to adjust the EQ - and it in its default setting seems to be tuned for the Kanye West generation (lots of bass, very little middle and muffled highs). I thought the sound quality would be better than the Echo but significantly worse in my opinion.

That said, it does know the answer to a lot more questions than the Echo. And saying OK Google is less annoying than I thought it would be.

Oh you can't even make calls with it !!!
Even my Samsung Level box can do that.

It's like Android Auto bags of potential but expectation is a FULL Google experience not a mismatch.

Gave up and returned it remapped my Samsung Level button to Google Now not handsfree but at least all notifications, calls and it's portable.

I have just sent mine back because of this. I wrongly thought that the "Play your Google Music" was just that and not "Buy a £9.99 subscription".

Stick with my Dot or move my music to Amazon and buy the Echo.

Lots of features I preferred on the Google Home to the Alexa but not £129 extra. I will wait and see if they add these missing features in the future and then buy.

Those saying you cant play your own music from Google play. AFAIK you need to have your music in playlists to do so.

Agreed, poor comparison though for as long as we've been creating time and labour saving devices there have been those that say they're not necessary.
Like it or not, this is the start of mainstream automation, many of us have been using home automation for years, Alexa/Echo and now Google Home are assisting this with automation limited only by the user.
My 96 year old gran(she's blind) uses a Dot to facilitate tasks she couldn't do without it, now that IS progress. :smiley:

Not everyone uses Android. Not everyone that does ignores the privacy control functionality either...

I didn't know you couldn't play your own music uploaded to Google. That is a significant issue I would have thought...

Torn with it, hate the OK Google and that you cannot make or take calls, here WhatsApp or messages (even my Samsung level box does that) - but as a novelty an handy music player (spotify but always gets my playlist wrong), alarm, question box it's pretty cool.

Just not for £129...

For the big brother worried folk most people have google now wakeup on by default and all that data get be grabbed from your phone - bottom line the Google mob have everything about you anyhow so my view is make the best of it.

So checking a facebook newfeed or asking google something every few days is the same as having a google microphone in your house capturing everything you say and sending it back to google... Yeah okay.

Received it today, which was fast delivery as ordered last night, however as others has said no link to your own music on google play and also doesn't connect to my harmony remote and unable to play netflix on my shield. Disappointing and yeah OK google is annoying after while.

AFAIK for me there are 2 significant problems with this device at the moment.

1. It cannot play the music that you have uploaded to Google play (only the subscription stuff).
2. It cannot set reminders.

Both have been fixable by Google but they have chosen not to.... which makes me wonder why not.

By reputable, do you mean companies like Google who have been found guilty and fined on many occasions over illegal data collection and abuse of their monopoly position? The controls you mention are only there because the EU and other bodies have forced Tech companies to provide privacy options, although such options are often hidden, and data collection is often turned ON by default.

It's all relative dude

that'll also cost you £125.00

people on hotukdeal got too much money!

​just get Spotify

Privacy:
Make use of the controls that all the reputable companies provide to us to control the information that they have access to. Problem solved.
Google Data Mining:
Cost free option - see my Privacy comment above
Low cost option - pay for the Google services you use and get zero data mining and full control of your information, plus enterprise grade and larger amounts (double) of cloud storage plus numerous other benefits. G-suite for £3.30 per month
Alexa or Google Home:
If you are heavily invested and bought into the Google Ecosystem, then GH is the product for you.
If, on the other hand, you want advert free services, access to audio books and kindle books being read to you, the cheapest and largest music service in the market, no data mining, access to a massive amount of skills, access to the complete wikipedia repository easily and the most comprehensive range of smart home skills and controls, then Alexa is the one for you

This morning I was getting ready to leave the house, My phone was in the car and I had popped back in to get a light jacket before stopping to think 'do i need this today'? At that point I wish I could have just said ' OK Google, what will the weather be like today?' Unfortunately I had to return to my car and check the weather forecast. I know it's not a great pain and i'm not a lazy person but saving time is a great thing.

Does anyone know what sort of power fitting this uses

Because I watched Star Trek as a kid and this blows my mind that something that was science fiction at the time is now reality. It's just cool, you don't "need" it.

likewise... was already to get the google home then I came across a 2nd hand shield and have since read about the spot...... lets hope its soon.. + Google Assistant on the shield should be out soon too.

I bought this yesterday and I got the free delivery using the code...but it didn't take £3.95 off the total order value aswell...

Did this work for anyone?

Oh and yes I am totally aware that Big Brother is listening to us all the time. I'm just a sucker for the SHINY SHINY

I'm not sure anybody talks about their every move in great detail? And not always in the same room as a listening device...

At last! Anyone know if you can play Youtube music without using a subscription?

It's all fun and games til it affects your insurance premiums and ability to get credit or work.

That's the kind of thing people said before the Snowden leaks when the idea of mass surveillance was seen as ludicrous fantasy dreampt up by tin-foil hat wearers. I don't see how any sensible person could possibly have a defensive position about this kind of technology which is so obviously ripe for abuse.

:laughing: but will someone please tell me i'm not the only one who had to google the word gait... :disappointed:

Im not on Facebook...

Edit... After rereading your post i think (although I might be wrong) that you're saying these people willingly give up their info on Facebook.

Which is what i was saying anyway as nobody is forced to post but i appreciate what you're saying..

​it is annoying as the echo dot i had was powered from the usb on my router.

​Were you expecting it to be battery powered then ?

Anyone else wish we could all go back a bit? To simpler times?

I wish my car didn't have 73 computers in it. Cost a grand to fix when one of them decides to crash and burn.

I wish phones were... Well phones, for phoning. Who can honestly say, that they would feel perfectly fine if I said, right now, power off your phone. Put it in a drawer and don't take it out for 24 hours? It would be impossible for 99.9% of people, with a smart phone, to do that. Myself included. There will soon be meetings everywhere for this addiction, taking over our lives or should that be, taken!

No? Just me? Probably.

Don't do that ! It just amplifies the signal :smile:

So you trust your phone maker and app providers that they adhere to your rule of only the phone being allowed permission to your microphone but getting Google Home is a certainty of being spied on by Google, interesting...

Got mine from John Lewis today - first thoughts great potential but three irritations. 1 Has to be plugged into mains, 2 saying Bloody ok or get google for every action get irritating and 3 Zero customisation to wake up, alarm Names, etc

Needs alot more development but has such potential. custom wake up word would be great. Seems silly but even saying "Alexa" just seems so much less hassle than "ok google" or "hey google".
Sound quality is surprisingly good and has good bass for such a small unit. Very cheap and easy way into multi room audio. I've had these from the states for a while now along with the echo dots. Find the Google home alot better overall due to the multiroom audio. Have set up groups of these and Chromecast audios feeding in ceiling speakers. Then can simply say "play top 40 playlist in kitchen" or "whole house" etc and off it goes. Which means i find myself listening to music alot more often than I would if I'd had to open an app and change the cast option to the correct room etc.

​Not on Facebook

How many of you idiots choose topost your every move on Facebook...

I saw you the other day using your Oyster card :wink:

​it's genius. they could pay us £129 for it and still make a fortune.

That's all well and good, but until I can call it Malcolm, I'm out! :wink:

He has a point...not to mention cyber terroism... hacking into our networks, switching every appliance on at the same time...blowing the power grid....red dawn sh*t

Nothing is sent to google's servers and saved there until it hears the wake-up phrase. You can wireshark your network to check. The device itself can only save a few seconds of what it hears, and this storage is constantly overwritten.

No

It accepts "Hey Google"

Sounds like you've overdosed on enemy of the state. As others have stated unless your using tor and a vpn ( who are probably farming your data ) then your probably leaking more already. In terms of priorities you wife saying she parked on a double yellow isn't going to bother them.

I think your assumptions are wrong. Nothing I have used so far has an always on microphone in my living room. I control the privacy settings on most devices I use.

I'll maybe get one of these things eventually but right now I think I'm going to hang fire and let someone else beta test out how good an idea it is.

Amazon offer UNLIMITED MUSIC for £3.99 on Echo Dot (albeit limited to one device) - great deal.
Great to see competition to Amazon.

Just a warning to all, be careful what you say at home towards Brexit, terrorism and collection of detailed bank floor plans from now

Removes the 3.95 price for me - but P&P is £9.99 for me :disappointed:

Those are poor comparisons though are they? I can type a query into Google on my phone sat on my rear on the sofa, I can use apps to do various things without moving - it takes no time or effort. So a Google device I talk to instead has little advantage over that.

Whereas:

- my tv remote saves me getting up and down every 15 minutes all evening
- my washing machine saves me hours of hand washing, or going the launderette
- my car enables me to work without being dependent on public transport, saves a fortunate if i take the family out

Does anyone knows as when they'll be releasing other colours?

Ask it if Bruce Grobbelaar was guilty of match fixing, or not.

It would be a nice change if someone in my house took any bleedin' notice of anything I say, my wife and kids don't.

We don't need it. Do you have a remote control for your TV? Washing machine? Car?

I bought one today.

Got it home. It's pretty pants.

Can't even answer questions like "Who played in goal for Liverpool in the 1989 Fa Cup Final". Can tell you who the teams were, and the score, but that's it.

My biggest problem with Alexa is the amount of asthma medication that she keeps automatically ordering after picking up on mine and Mrs Freezin_Wolfs weekly fettling!

Nope, anyone else use a NAS to store there music played through a rasp pi, controlled by Yatse, steamed to chromecast Audio?.

I'd like to know if Google home would control (voice) this?

Yeah, until you or your wife slips up and mentions something embarrassing/illegal/slightly suspicious sounding. Or until years down the line when something seemingly innocuous you said comes back to you.

Your argument is the constantly-rehashed "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" argument which badly needs to die.

Another person who needs to read about the fallacy of "nothing to hide, nothing to fear".

as if they give a flying fudge what any of us say .... "Oh Julian I had a horrid day at work a man asked me to make him a cup of tea how awful, such a sexist blah blah blah"

Have a day off

Not really. Google Homes searching is a million times smarter specifically because it's contextually aware. Alexa at the moment has wider support from 3rd party services mainly due to being around longer but it makes them fairly even so it comes down to personal preference and what smart devices you use. If the ones you use are supported by Google Home then the smarter searching makes the Google Home better but if not then Alexa is better

said the people when 3d glasses came out

alexa is better.

I'm buying, been waiting on it for months. Only issue is it not supporting multiple accounts, hopefully that will come.

I'd like to see them try now I've lined my entire house in tin foil. :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuokQU0YVIY

Always makes me search for this for a laugh :smiley:

Actually, I've just walked out of PC World having gone in to get one to replace my Amazon Echo, and I've walked out without one.
Now if you're in the pipeline to pick either the Home or Echo up, then it's a personal choice and Google definitely has a more comprehensive search engine. But if you're already using an Amazon Echo, I'd hold off buying one. The search on my phone (android) is actually better than the Home and I can't see as of yet anything that would make me purchase this to replace the Echo. The Amazon product does seem to do more for now at least. Hold off a few months for the inevitable sales.

You do know that now you've said that,the government will know you have something to hide and will be watching you more closely :wink:

I think it could be Newspeak

Oh...you didn't give your phone permission to use it's mic...it definitely won't access it then. Well done Sherlock!

Tempted but think i'll wait for the Nvidia Spot to pair with my shield... just hoping it's released soon though!

Pretty sure you can programme any trigger name.... Already!

Hey, im walkin' here... Bada-boom-bada-bing... Alright already...

I would suspect that those that have an issue with these have smartphones, smart TVs, games consoles, PCs, tablets, social media accounts, a collection of 'the internet of things' (which is what i believe the phrase is), i bet they all access the Internet on a daily basis. All of which farm bits of data from you.

I bet many of these same people know little to nothing about the privacy setting on many of these devices and services, yet they'll jump on this because its Google.

Most of the population have already sleep-walked into the Orwellian vision. Its a bit late to get bothered about it now, especially those on Facebook!

Wow, people are willing to pay google to mine their data! Information is power.

I'll buy one the moment I can interact with it without saying the ridiculous
"Okay, Google"
Just give it a wake-up name already.

Just waiting for Amazon price match

Seems pretty good

Unless a recent update has gone over my head some of the comments on this topic seem silly. Sure, google home and amazon echo listen to everything you say, but only queries are sent to their servers. They have to listen to you telling your dog that you need a new tinfoil hat, but they don't store that on their servers unless you say 'ok google, buy me a new tinfoil hat'.

What they store on their servers is no different to your ISP (or google) storing your internet history. When you google 'cheap bras so I can get points on the internet' - that's stored, when you say 'ok google, I need more tin foil' - that's stored. When you say 'my hemorrhoids are back mum' - that's not stored.

Not quite perfectly. If it's the same as Android Wear, then I can't get it to turn on my hot water using voice, nor through the Nest app on wear, nor using IFTTT. I have to go into the app, and manually boost the hot water for how ever long I choose.

The hot water thing isn't an option on the US version of the Nest, so I don't see them adding it any time soon either.

why do we need this in our life?

Or put a microphone in the Chromecast Audio.

I use google audio x4 multi room with Yatse rasp pi and nas, could I integrate this too?

Plus from me for the Hue Bulbs & Sensors. It's awesome to be able to walk from room to room, floor to floor, with the lights just turning on/off as required.

I wear a tin foil hat and a mask when I go out in public. And then I heard that London Underground can actually find you from your signature gait. So I now walk all funny on purpose. So I'm the funny looking one with the funny walk.... Good lord, I've revealed too much!

Why buy something that goes on and on about nothing when you can just get married?

Nothing stupid about it, however, still we see lots of criticism of people who want to protect their privacy by those that have given up trying. They spew criticism because no one else having the privacy they gave up makes them feel better.

pffft, having to even use your voice is an inconvenience. what if you're carrying glasses of juices etc. AND have a mouthful of biscuits. Hue sensors + bulbs is the ideal setup imho :stuck_out_tongue:

How many of you idiots post your every move on Facebook...

No point getting uptight about this.
Horse, stable door and bolted spring to mind.

does anyone now if this will work with the nest thermostat 3rd gen + nest protects?
I have not had a chance to look into this just yet but do have the nest, wow how lazy would I be then -
cannot be bothered to get up to turn heating on - use app / cannot be bothered to use mobile device - shout it out.

Also V 2.0 may have wifi networksing built in which you might want to wait for: http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/04/05/information-google-plans-release-google-home-mesh-networking/

They need to make a cheap microphone too like the echo dot for this to really take off

I bought a couple of these back from the states when they were released (for a lot cheaper than £129 btw - since when is the exchange rate like for like!?)

I see your point about actions rather than speaking, but the amount of times ive headed from the kitchen to the lounge with hands full of glasses of juice etc and using my voice over even flicking the lightswitch has been a godsend - a mixture of the 2 would be great

Hmmm, but next day delivery is £3.95...

I'm the same. I'd much rather wave my hands and the lights come on, than have to say "OK Google... turn on the lights" each time. Some gestures baked into Android wear would make this sort of automation much more useful to me.

Do I want to pay £125.05 to have Google snoop on everything said in my house. Hmmm, let me think ... nope, not really.

I like chromecast audio, and have even just set up one in my car, but you cannot plug it directly into a speaker - it needs to plug into an amplifier. For the best results, use the optical output and an external DAC.

That's fair enough, my initial comment was deliberately provocative. Basically, I just don't like talking to devices, I'm all for technology, enjoy the benefits and I am not even particularly paranoid about my data being harvested as it will be pretty dull; but, I don't want to talk to it and don't want it listening for me to do so.

hum, can the speaker be used as sonos? i've got google assistant on my phone

I agree the smoke comment wasn't the smartest response, but I was making a point. I work in the industry and am fully aware of the potential of these devices. but the "Big brother" comments become tiresome, everytime you search, walk and move, the device knows exactly what you are doing. At least with this, it's sat in one place and the most exciting conversation it will get from me and my wife is how our days went and what were having for dinner. After using Alexa for 9 months, but selling ourselves to the google eco-system, for me this is a benefit along with the power of google to support it.

I agree new tech like this needs to be approached with caution in some instances.

I agree, but you're wrong. I'm sure other items have so much access to my data. But I've made that trade-off as the convenience is so fantastic.

​yes, yes it is.

These types of services have been around since 2012 so it's hardly new and shiny. So yes, It is wrong.

And your response about smoke signals isn't stupid? On my smart phone, only the phone app has permission to access the microphone. I just think we should be cautiously sceptical about these sorts of services, rather than rush to get them first because they are new and shiny, is that wrong?