Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Google’s new Wifi router is a smart speaker”.
So these cute candle jar, looking plastic things that are on your screen right now. These are Goggle’s new WiFi, routers., Actually they’re. Also Google’s new smart home speakers.. You see, Google went and did the obvious thing, the thing that we’ve all been asking for.. They took a Google Home and they put it inside a WiFi router. Or maybe they took a WiFi router and put it inside a Google Home. I don’t know it doesn’t matter..
This is the Google Nest WiFi., So Google’s whole argument with the Nest. Wifi is that WiFi access points work way better when they’re out in the open, instead of buried in your closet, somewhere or even attached to a wall socket in the corner.. So they want you to put it on your counter or your table and to convince you to do that. They put a smart speaker in it so that you would actually put it out in the open and talk to it..
So let’s talk about this thing as a smart speaker, first., It’s actually kind of neat.. It has this new lighting system where, when you talk to it, it puts a ring of light underneath it and that ring of light turns orange when it mutes, which is super annoying. But you can turn that off in the settings which, by the way, are inside the Google Home app now and that’s terrible because the Google Home app is terrible, but we will all survive this problem together.. It also does this neat thing where, when your hand gets close to it, it uses ultrasound to detect it and that lights up a couple of lights on the top, so that you know where to tap for volume up and volume down. Okay.
But how does it sound as a speaker? Well, it sounds like a pretty good Google Home Mini because it’s literally a pretty good Google Home Mini.. It’S a slightly upgraded Google Home Mini speaker. Only in this thing it’s firing downward and because it’s a little bit bigger.
It’S got more air to work with, so it can sound just a little bit. Better.. Oh hey speaking of Mini’s, there’s a new one..
It’S not the Google Mini now.. Now it’s the Nest Mini and it has a few new things in it.. It looks exactly the same as the last one, although there is a new blue color, but the new stuff is. It sounds slightly better because that’s slightly better speaker and Google also says it did a whole bunch of like machine learning and tuning and stuff just to make it sound better.. It also does local control for certain things, so you can turn your lights on and off.
Without having to ask a server how to do that., So that’s neat., And it also has this new ultrasound feature from the Nest WiFi. Where, when you reach for it, it will light up and tell you where the buttons are’cause you can tap it to play, pause or you can turn the volume up or shorten the volume down right on the Nest Mini itself.. It’S still gon na cost 50 bucks. But I bet you there’ll be discounts on the thing all the time., Oh one, more thing..
It does have a hole on the back so that it’s easier to hang on the wall. I guess, if you want. All right back to the Nest WiFi..
How is it as a router? Well, we don’t know the full specs yet, but it does support AC2200. So it should be a little bit better. There.
Google says that it’s twice as fast, but what exactly that means remains to be seen.. It supports Thread’cause they’re still trying to make that thing happen, and they also say that it has 25 % coverage than the old Google WiFi, which is still sticking around by the way.. Google’S main package is a two pack, which is one router which doesn’t have an assistant in it and then the little point that does and that’s gon na sell for $ 269.
There’s a whole bunch of different price points for buying one of them individually. If you want to – and they are backwards compatible with the Google WiFi, if you want to build out from there., Also they’re making a pack that is just two routers – that they’re selling on Amazon, because Amazon won’t sell the Point. Because the Point has the Google Assistant built in and Amazon doesn’t wan na, sell anything that competes with Alexa because capitalism..
So look I’m really happy that Google just finally went and did the obvious thing.. It took a smart speaker and a mesh router and they crammed them together., But we still need to test it and see how it actually performs, especially since Eero just announced a new router at an Amazon event about a couple of weeks ago because well, this is A really good idea, the most important thing is that it provides good WiFi., Hey everybody. Thank you. So much for watching., There’s, obviously a lot more happening at this Google hardware. Event. We’ve got a video with the Pixel 4, which I know you’re into, and we also have a video with the Pixelbook Go, so you should check those out.
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