Recent Smart Home Stories

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Google this week is announcing a series of partners who are bringing its Google Assistant technology to their smart speakers and other devices.

Over a year ago, Microsoft secretly agreed to partner with Amazon to integrate their digital personal assistants, Cortana and Alexa.

While it's taking us longer than I'd hoped to get up and running in the new home, we've started planning the improvements that it needs.

Today, Google said it had begun rolling out hands-free calling functionality via Google Home to customers in the U.S. and Canada.

Google is now offering a Preview Program for its Home and Chromecast devices, with access to new features before their broader release.

We're currently using multiple music subscription services and speaker systems, and that has to change.

The next four weeks are going to be busy and interesting. But when it's over, we should be fully moved to Pennsylvania.

This week, I snagged a Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit with Google Home a bit ahead of my expected schedule.

I've never experimented with smart home technology. But I think I've found the right places to start with the new home we're moving to.

We're still about a month away from our move to Pennsylvania, but I've started planning for our cord-cutting future.

We're moving, and I'm using this change as an excuse to re-evaluate the personal technology we use.

We're planning a big move, and while this is a stressful and uncertain time, I'm rethinking the personal technology we use day-to-day.

Apple announced a slew of new products, including iOS 11, new iMac and MacBook Pros, a new iPad Pro, and a Siri-powered HomePod speaker.

Google Home can answer questions, trigger entertainment experiences, and control smart home devices. But I'm more interested in Google's embrace of the various screens we all have around the home.

When Google announced its Home appliance a year ago, I figure it would quickly evolve into the most powerful and useful solution of its kind, thanks to the firm's deep search engine and machine learning expertise.

A year ago, Google announced its Assistant and the Assistant-powered Home appliance. This year, both products are being significantly upgraded.

During his Build 2017 keynote address, Microsoft's Terry Myerson referred to Mixed Reality as "the next wave" of computing. But I think ambient computing is a much bigger deal.

Like Microsoft, Amazon.com came too late to the smartphone market. But unlike the software giant, Amazon has already found its Next Big Thing.

Google announced today that its Googe Home digital personal assistant appliance now supports multiple users, answering one of my key complaints. I believe it is the first such device to offer this support.

The Google Home I ordered is heading my way. But in looking at the first reviews of the device, I can see that this it has one fatal flaw. And it's a big one.

On Wednesday, Google broadcast the day one keynote for its 10th annual I/O conference, with most of the announcements pertaining to products and services that won't ship for many months. The biggest was for a product called Google Home, which brings its conversational digital personal assistant technologies to your home for the first time.