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[Updated – replacement hardware on the way] Google bricks some Google Home devices with software updates (and inadvertently highlights conflict between auto updates and short user warranties)

One of the key selling points of Chromebooks, Chromecasts, and Google Home and Nest devices is that they receive automatic updates delivered straight from Google’s servers. The devices download and install the latest bug fixes, features, and security patches automatically on smart home devices and media streamers — although you’ll need to reboot your Chromebook occasionally […]

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Target’s Deal Days sale takes on Amazon Prime Day

Like Best Buy and others, Target is running its own sale July 15th and 16th in an attempt to steal some of Amazon Prime Day’s thunder. Target Deal Days is the retailer’s “biggest sale of the summer,” with deep discounts on select items, good only for online purchases. But you don’t need a membership and […]

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Report: Google’s 2019 hardware includes Pixel Lite, Pixel 4, and a smartwatch

It’s pretty much an open secret at this point that Google is planning to launch its first mid-range smartphones since replacing the Nexus lineup with its own in-house Pixel phones. We’ve already got a pretty good idea of what to expect from the so-called Google Pixel 3 Lite and Pixel 3 XL Lite. But according […]

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Canalys: Google sold more smart speakers than Amazon in Q1, 2018

Amazon pretty much invented the smart speaker category when the company introduced the Amazon Echo in 2014. And Amazon has pretty much dominated the space ever since… until this year. According to research from Canalysis, Google took the top spot in smart speaker sales for the first time in the first quarter of 2018. Amazon […]

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Google Assistant is getting 6 new voices, plus new features

Google is kicking off its annual developer conference by talking up several changes rolling out soon to Google Assistant. The company says its voice assistant service is now available on 500 million devices and by the end of the year it will support 30 different languages in 80 countries. Google says most people interact with […]

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Deals of the Day (4-16-2018)

Google and Amazon are both running sales on smart speakers today. While these aren’t necessarily the best prices ever for Amazon Echo or Google Home devices, you could certainly do worse. For example, you can save as much as $25 when buying a Google Home + Google Home Mini bundle. Or you can save $15 on […]

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Deals of the Day (2-26-2018)

The Google Home smart speaker has a list price of $129, which is how much it’s currently selling for in the Google Store. But several retailers are running sales at the moment, with BuySpry offering one of the best prices to date on this Google assistant-powered device: you can pick one up for $79. Prefer […]

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Hackers gives the Google Home Mini a line-out jack (that kind of works)

The Google Home Mini is to the Google Home smart speaker what the Amazon Echo Dot is to the original Echo: a smaller, cheaper model for folks that want an always-listening voice assistant that can play music and respond to questions… but who don’t want to spend a lot of money. But there are two […]

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$399 Google Home Max coming in December

A year after launching the Google Home smart speaker with Google Assistant, Google is expanding the lineup with two new models… one small and cheap, the other big and… not cheap. The Google Home Mini is a $49 speaker that’s designed as a cheaper alternative to the $129 Google Home. The $399 Google Home Max […]