Photo courtesy of Digital Trends.
Using your voice to give commands to a computer once seemed like science fiction. Remember Hal from the Space Odyssey?
We’ve been able to talk to our phones for a while now, using Siri or Google Assistant.
Since Windows 10 and Cortana, we can talk to our PCs as well. And with MacOS Sierra adding Siri support, we can now talk to all of our Apple devices.
But why be tethered to a device? Now there’s the Amazon and Google Home virtual assistant speakers (with Apple rumored to be releasing a Siri-controlled speaker sometime soon).
That’s a little too much you say? After all, those devices are continually listening for commands, so everything we say is going to the Internet.
What about privacy concerns?
My approach is always to look at how useful new technology is. Then weigh the privacy concerns and security risks against the productivity gains. It’s a personal decision. If you’re truly concerned about these companies knowing all about you, or you’re concerned about hackers/the government/foreign agents, then you probably don’t really need such a device in your life.
So why get an Amazon or Google Home virtual assistant speaker?
For me, it feels much more natural to just speak up when I need something. I don’t have to hunt down my device and unlock it first. It’s freeing.
I love being able to ask my Google Home about a crossword puzzle clue as I’m sitting at the kitchen table. I love being able to speak up and add something to my shopping list as I’m taking the last one of something from the refrigerator. My husband asks it to play music as he cooks dinner. My son asks it to remind him when he needs to leave for somewhere.
Google Home can now detect our different voices. So when I say “OK Google, what’s on my calendar today?”, I’ll get a different response than when my husband asks the same thing.
I could turn off the microphone if I wanted to, and I do unplug it when we have guests staying – just in case.
So which one? Amazon or Google Home?
Since I’m an Android user, it made sense for me to go with Google Home. Here’s a good comparison here: Amazon Echo vs Google Home
Here are some things that you can do with these devices:
- Play music from an internet music service or radio station
- Set a timer
- Get driving times
- Tell you what’s on your calendar
- Search the internet
- Set a reminder
- Get sports scores
- Get the news
- Get the weather
- Tell you a joke
- Control smart home devices
- Add items to a shopping list
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Great post! I don’t really use Siri too much, and I hadn’t considered investing in a Google Home device, but now this post has got me thinking…
How do you get Google home to help you with crossword puzzles? My wife can’t get it to cooperate.
Google Home can only answer specific questions that it can find in a database, such as Wikipedia. You can ask it geographical questions, history questions, correct spellings, translations, pop culture figures, etc. It won’t be able to answer questions that are too abstract, might have multiple meanings, or play on words. So it’s helpful for only some crossword puzzle clues.