With the Google Home going on sale in the USA a few weeks ago the more enterprising and impatient of Australian Tech enthusiasts immediately moved to get their hands on one (ours are stuck somewhere in Keasbey New Jersey) and they have started to arrive in the land Down Under.
Reddit user seadog3172 has taken to the Google Home subreddit to post his initial opinion. The verdict? Bloody amazing. We managed to contact the aquatic K9 and got a few more details. The far field mic is apparently awesome, with Google Home actually hearing commands on a recorded video and responding appropriately.
He’s only had the device for a few hours but apparently the whole family has already been having fun with the device. It seamlessly integrated into the existing Cast-network with audio and video streams being patched over via voice.
Localisation is still an issue, unsurprisingly seeing as the device isn’t even announced for Australia. New stories are US centric however location and other contextual searches seem to work ok . Apparently, a few videos of the device in use will be heading up soon!
Are you importing a Google Home? Let us know below.
Hi guys, I am in the US and want to send one to a friend in Australia. Will she just need to get a US/AUS power adaptor for it to work?
Have had one since Tuesday and love it. Kids having great enjoyment in getting her to share anumal noises. Super impressed with its function connecting with old cromecast and spotify.
I’m wondering how do you select an episode of a podcast with voice?
I prompted play this week in tech podcast and it switched on the latest from TWiT
Right. I was just wondering about older episodes than the latest.
Waiting to hear how it works locally. Have finger on the buy button.
I sure am, mine will be here Monday. I purchased 3 and sold off alexa already.
So just where are you purchasing them via. Curious given both Walmart and bestbuy seem to not want to ship stuff to remainders.
I purchased mine through the G****e Store and shipped it to a USA Shipping Service who is shipping it to me … I **** it because I want others to be able to access the same thing here in Australia, they will wake up to us Aussies at some point like Netflix did … BTW someone point me to a Netflix thread of how to get it to function here
I have an Echo and would happily swap that for a Home in order to get the awesome casting features, but lack of integration with my Wemo bulbs stops me enough to wait for it to officially arrive in Australia.
Got an Echo Dot on the way from the UK. Not only much cheaper to stick toe in the water, but I can at least separate my “OK Google…” from my “Alexa …”, rather than having everything beep.
I can always flip to a google later if they sort out their issues (and get that price down), plus there is talk of a RaspPi hack version.
The “Hey Google” command pretty much overcomes the “Okay Google” problem. What issues are you referring to Fred?
Things like the unit being tied to one account, the lack of reminders, wifi connection issues (shades of it’s chromecast basis), etc.
Ah OK, I haven’t experienced any wifi issues yet.
Hey Google stops your phone picking up your commands to Home, but what if you want to say OK Google to your phone? Videos I have seen complain about this.
You can always turn the microphone off on the Google Home or go to another room I guess. Or you can say okay Google and while the home is listening you can say okay Google again to activate your phone. I managed to turn Bluetooth off and on on my phone using this method. Plus you can always use the Google Assistant And manually tap the microphone icon to activate okay Google voice commands
But WHEN will this come to the UK? And why do Google remain silent on this?
Have been ‘forced’ to buy an Echo, but EAGERLY await Google to give us a release date for the UK, PLEASE!
I think there are lots of reasons, localisation, the product is still in testing, Sundar P suggested on stage that even training it for specific ascents was a challenge.
I thought about trying to get one for the US but as there is no support here will wait for the release.
What do you mean by there is no support here ATM?
If the Hardware goes bad they would tell you to send it back to the US.
Yeah I guess so but that’s the same for any grey import you get from the US. I buy lots of stuff on Amazon too but I’m happy to take the risk
I got the ChromeCast and Nvidia shield from US but will wait on the home.
Wouldn’t that have been the same for all the legitimately released Nexus phones too, and the Pixel? I never had one break but I bought all mine from Google’s shop rather than a local distributor. I see no reason Home hardware should go bad any more than phone hardware :/
Had issues with two Nexus phones bought from the Google Store. They send you a replacement device and give you all the details to book your phone to be picked up.
Ah sweet, thats good of them! I wasn’t aware, thanks for the info :).