Google Mini home

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Google Mini home

psychrn

1610 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 155

ID Verified

Trusted

#265540 26-Jan-2020 18:17

Anyone here playing around with one of these.

Went to PB tech yesterday to get an Alexa but came away with one of these.

I am very much google centric so thought this may be more useful for us.

Ok for general google assist questions. Have worked out how to manange the lamp in the lounge turn on/off.

No luck with the TV connection as yet. Looks like Ill have to purchase a Chromecast for that. Have a Samsung smart TV and have down loaded Smartthings app for that,

GZMCC. Lenovo Yoga C640. 8 gb Ram and 256Gb SSD, Cam Am Spyder 2016 F3 LTD. GoPro 5 Black, Samsung S22 Ultra, Huawei Watch D. Samsung S6 Lite Tablet, Amateur Radio Callsign ZL1CJH

sparkz25

750 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 284
Inactive user

#2407137 26-Jan-2020 18:40

Either a Chromecast or an RM mini Ir blaster will work as well, having an IR blaster will allow you to control a lot more. currently it allows me to control my AC an Tv.

psychrn

1610 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 155

ID Verified

Trusted

#2407138 26-Jan-2020 18:49

thanks for that.

What I was surprised to note was that it had to be plugged into the power via USB port to work. Im sure Alexa was free standing ??

GZMCC. Lenovo Yoga C640. 8 gb Ram and 256Gb SSD, Cam Am Spyder 2016 F3 LTD. GoPro 5 Black, Samsung S22 Ultra, Huawei Watch D. Samsung S6 Lite Tablet, Amateur Radio Callsign ZL1CJH

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#2407140 26-Jan-2020 18:55

psychrn:

What I was surprised to note was that it had to be plugged into the power via USB port to work. Im sure Alexa was free standing ??

I think there is one Echo model that is essentially a rechargable speaker (that you need to press a button for requests rather than it wasting power listening for a hotword) but the rest of the Echo range definitely need to be plugged in.

richms

29098 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10209

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2407141 26-Jan-2020 18:57

tieke:

I think there is one Echo model that is essentially a rechargable speaker (that you need to press a button for requests rather than it wasting power listening for a hotword) but the rest of the Echo range definitely need to be plugged in.

Thats the amazon tap, it has been discontinued. It was really slow, had bad 2.4GHz only wifi, and it could use a wake word but then the battery life was much shorter. It also had pretty bad sound. Worse any other bluetooth speakers the same size.

Richard rich.ms

Handle9

11924 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9675

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2407147 26-Jan-2020 19:15

The UE Blast/Mega Blast (Alexa) or JBL Link 10/20 (Google Assistant) are decent sounding portable speakers with alexa or google assistant

apocalypso

54 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 12

ID Verified

#2407277 27-Jan-2020 00:06

I just purchased one for $38 from Noel Leeming a week or so ago.
Really impressed with it so far. Love being able to control Spotify music (on/off - , playlists, skip tracks, volume etc) without having to get my phone out.
The sound quality and volume from the unit itself is quite an added bonus I hadn’t anticipated. Handy just to play music from it in the kitchen if I don’t want to have to hifi system going.
Frustratingly it tells me it can’t play Netflix to my android TV with built In chrome cast yet. Will try a fix I found on the net but doesn’t look too promising with that. YouTube etc all works fine
Overall very impressed with it.
I thought the “good morning” greeting it told me to try out was quite funny. - telling me the weather for the day, how long my 8min commute would be and then It fired up the TV and started playing Aussie news clips!

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

NorthernZone

69 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 20

#2407306 27-Jan-2020 08:34

I think the new Google Nest Mini is about to replace the Home Mini??

jonathan18

7415 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2850

ID Verified

Trusted

#2407344 27-Jan-2020 09:24

Yep, but they're not readily available in NZ. I know that all are PI anyway, but there's clearly a lag with the Nest Mini arriving here; I see that Kogan/DSE are selling them ($80). Main advantages are that the audio is louder/better quality, they have a wall mount, and some of the processing happens on-device. The top button they had to disable on the Home Mini actually works on the Nest Mini.

I see they've also added an additional microphone on the Nest Mini, but personally I've found the mics of the Home Mini incredibly sensitive and way superior to those in the Google Home Hub: we can be sitting right next to the Home Hub and it won't hear a command that the Home Mini in the next room (about 12m away) picks up perfectly. (That said, I would actually give up the Minis before the Home Hub - they are just brilliant in terms of providing a visual interface available to the whole family - including the kids who don't have phones - and for convenient controlling of lights and other devices like Chromecasts.)

@apocalypso: it's really easy to tailor any of those routines such as 'good morning' via the Google Home app; there aren't too many options for NZ content here, but I'm totally happy as it can at least be set to play the latest RNZ news bulletin, which is what I was previously doing every morning manually on a device anyway.

nitro

757 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 335

#2407357 27-Jan-2020 09:56

apocalypso:
Frustratingly it tells me it can’t play Netflix to my android TV with built In chrome cast yet. Will try a fix I found on the net but doesn’t look too promising with that. YouTube etc all works fine

i'm surprised that isn't sorted yet. people have been screaming for that for over a year now. meanwhile, if your patience runs out, you can find chromecast reasonably priced on tm or eve fbm. i know, unnecessary redundancy.