Google Home first impressions

Posted on by Adam Doud

Google’s focus on services of late has centered around the concept of the Google Assistant. And there’s no better implementation of that concept than Google’s answer to the Amazon Echo – Google Home. Google Home recently started adorning living rooms and kitchens, with its always-listening far range microphones and boomy speakers ready to crank some tunes or tell you the weather. I’ve been using Google Home for about a week now, and I’ve had some time to form some initial impressions.

Google Home is one of those devices that I have been looking forward to for some time. Amazon’s Echo, and its extended family, have been tempting me pretty much since its introduction, but the thought of tying into yet another ecosystem was not an appealing one. Sure, you can use services like IFTTT to transfer your data from Amazon’s calendar into Google’s, but that just seems like a lot of work. So when Google introduced the Google Home, take mah money, ya know?

google_home_lightsNot just a pretty face

Google Home is a great device – very stylish, like it belongs on your shelf. It almost looks like a decorative piece of art, and would probably be mistaken as a fairly-large tchotchke at a glance. But, of course, the first time you say “Hey Google” and the top lights up, you realize you’re in for much more. Lights beneath the top of the device indicate when Google Home is listening or working on something you’ve requested. So, let’s talk about those requests.

Google Home can do a lot of the basics – tell you the weather, play you a song, look up a piece of information, etc. But if you start to stray beyond that scope, you’re told – rather politely – that Google Home can’t help you with that. And I get it, Google Home is not meant to be able to do everything. But there is a lot that is can’t do. There’s a lot that your phone can do, that Google Home cannot do. Like setting reminders. When I asked Google to remind me in one hour to take out the garbage, I was surprised to learn that it can’t do that.

I was not overly surprised to find that I couldn’t ask Google to send a message to my wife – but at the same time, it occurs to me, this is something Google Home be able to do, even if it requires a connection to my phone. That might be an overall problem with Google in that, while you think all of these services should be interconnected into one Google ecosystem, instead you’re seeing a lot of ecosystems that are different, not the same. See what I did there?

What can I do for you?

Regardless, I soldiered on, adding items to my shopping list, letting my children stand in front of it and ask it to sing “Happy Birthday” for an hour, and getting updates about the weather and travel times. All that stuff is great since I don’t have to be holding my phone up to my face while trying to shepherd my children out the door for school. In that sense, it’s handy.

But Google has an opportunity here to tie a ton of services together with its massive cloud infrastructure, and it just isn’t. Maybe there are privacy concerns. Maybe Google hasn’t figured out how to handle a full Android family – after all, how can it distinguish between a reminder it is supposed to create for me and one it is supposed to create for my wife? All legitimate concerns. But Google should have realized that people are going to want to do these things. It’s nice to be able to ask how many milliliters are in a cup and all, but what about actually getting things done?

google_home_touchNetflix anyone?

One last note – despite the demo showing how Google Home can pull up Netflix and start playing “Stranger Things” on the living room TV – I have yet to find this functionality. I even picked up a brand-new Chromecast to make sure I was working with the latest and greatest, and that functionality is nonexistent. I’m hopeful that an update will fix that, or that I just haven’t found the right commands yet, so stay tuned.
Overall, Google Home is a 1.0 product, and it shows. It’s not a train wreck, not by a long shot.

But the promise of Google Home is currently greater than its delivery, which is a bit disappointing. It also makes one wonder how a $130 device will stand up against a $50 Amazon Echo Dot in the long run. Google has a lot of work to do here, and it needs to leverage its massive reach to bring Google Home to its full potential. Otherwise, Alexa will be the queen of this castle.

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Bixi Review: Touchless control of your smartphone is just a gesture away

Posted on by Adam Doud

Every now and then, my job allows me to play with something really cool. Maybe it’s cool because it’s powerful, or has great hardware, or something else. Sometimes, you get to use something that feels like using the future. That’s what Bixi brings to the table. Bixi is a Bluetooth remote control for your smartphone or tablet that allows you to control your device with just a wave of your hand.

Touchless control of your phone is a really great concept. There are practical reasons why you would want to. Bixi’s team cites its inspiration as using a phone while cooking, and your hands are covered in food. Definitely a need, if a bit niche. But expanding this model, touchless control of your smartphone – everything from using your voice to waving gestures over a thin puck – allows you to slip into your best Tom Cruise in Minority Report character.

bikeUtility player

I had the opportunity to test out the Bixi with alpha software for about two weeks, and it’s a pretty fun little device. The Bixi remote can connect to your phone or tablet, but also can control devices like a GoPro, Smart lights, and other devices with a wave of your hand. My testing was performed solely using my Honor 8, focusing mostly on the phone and music playing functions.

And that was generally enough for me to get excited about the Bixi. I set up a few predetermined text messages and phone call contacts, and controlled my music. The Bixi can recognize seven different gestures which can be preset to various functions, depending on the profile you choose in the app. For the phone function, you can choose a contact and even a preprogrammed text message to send to the contact of your choice.

I see you

An IR camera, similar to that in an Xbox Kinect, detects the gestures above the device. The range is limited to 20 – 25 cm to conserve battery life. My demo unit lasted the entire two-week review process, only needing one charge along the way. The CEO/founder of Bixi, Narayanan Vijayaraghavan, anticipates up to a month of battery life in the final product.

As you gesture above Bixi, LED lights indicate that your hand has been detected, and flash to indicate what gesture was detected. Supported gestures include a swipe up, down, left, right, plus moving your hand up and down (away/toward the Bixi), plus a “tap” gesture. Each of these gestures has its own function, depending on what profile you have open. For example, in the music profile, swiping downward plays and pauses, swiping to the right skips to the next track, and so on.

bixi_car-controlOn the road

There are also accessories you can pick up which allow you to mount the Bixi to your bike/car. Personally, I’m most excited about the potential bike application. I dream of keeping my phone in my pocket, or in a mount and swiping over the Bixi to text my wife to open the garage door. Also using Bixi to answer an incoming call, or even turn on/up music while riding is one of those ultra-futuristic scenarios that make this technology exciting.

And really, that’s what we’re all doing here. We’re looking for technology that excites us going forward. That being said, the device is not without a few downsides. Most notably, the software isn’t quite there yet – prone to occasional crashing and missing some crucial functionality that would make the app nice to use. Plus, Bixi feels like it belongs somewhere between truly useful and a gimmick, but the fact that I’ve been using it for two weeks and I haven’t decided yet speaks well for it.

Bixi is currently fully funded on Kickstarter with more than twenty days to go. Most of the early rewards are gone, so a Bixi unit will set you back about $80 at this point. That’s another part that’s a little hard to take. Bixi is cool, but is it $79.99 cool? That’s for you to decide, but assuming the developer can work out some of the software bugs, I would have to think I’d be willing to pony up. I’ve been looking for a device like this to help me power through my bike rides, so for that alone, it would be worth it for me. Plus, I love the future of devices, and I think Bixi might be part of that future.

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Verve Ones+ by Motorola review: Truly wire free

Posted on by Adam Doud

Seeing as how Motorola is kicking off the “no headphone jack” bandwagon, it seemed only appropriate that we cover its answer to the jackless phone – a Bluetooth headset. Motorola recently launched its Verve line of Bluetooth headphones and we wanted to take one set for a test run. We’ve been testing the Verve Ones+ for about a week and here is what we’ve found.Once upon a time, a company called Motorola developed a Bluetooth earpiece called the Hint. The Verve Ones+ seem to be the next evolution of that device. These Bluetooth earbuds are tiny, and truly wireless. They also boast ...

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Livescribe 3 review rebuttal: the past meets the future

Posted on by Adam Doud

Regardless of how much technology has advanced, nothing is as comfortable and familiar an input device as the pen and paper. It’s something we’ve been doing since we were kids and it feels so natural, it has never been adequately replaced. Microsoft, Apple, and a virtual cornucopia of other stylus manufacturers have tried to replicate this experience on mobile devices for years. Some have come close, but haven’t crossed that last hurdle. And yet, there remains a strong demand for the ability to write things down but still have them stored digitally for later review. This is the gap ...

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1MORE audio products: A quartet of quality

Posted on by Adam Doud

In some industries, presentation is everything. 1MORE gets that. We had the opportunity to review four sets of headphones from 1MORE over the last four weeks. From the time we held the boxes to the time we removed the headphones from our ears, we have been thoroughly impressed by the end-to-end experience. 1MORE has encapsulated quality in all aspects of the experience. Even the unboxing is special in its own way, which is why we’re going to talk about even that.Wow, right off the batOne of the first things we thought when merely opening the packaging of these headphones was “wow.” ...

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The Caseco Blu-toque review: more than just a clever name?

Posted on by Adam Doud

If you live in the northern hemisphere, it’s still pretty cold in March, unless you live in Chicago where the weather is crazy as a gerbil on a mocha latte. Still, we’re not putting the winter gear away just yet as Mother Winter can easily come back for an encore or three. And if she does, we’ll be ready to keep warm and keep up with our favorite podcast, the Pocketnow Weekly, just as we have been for the past three weeks. The Blu-toque by Caseco has been keeping our head warm through the harshest Chicago temperatures of late. The Blu-toque is a cleverly named winter accessory which ...

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GO PUCK battery review: Your next wearable tech

Posted on by Adam Doud

There is something that seems…silly…when you talk about a concept like a wearable battery pack. Why would someone need…no. Why would someone want to wear a battery pack? Now keep in mind, this is coming from someone who wears a belt pouch every day and who used to keep his smartphone in a holster, also on a belt. Doesn’t a battery pack seem like the next logical step? So when we first picked up the GO PUCK power pack, we were a bit dubious at first. It certainly was an interesting concept. But we needed to try it in the real world. So we did, and we’ll talk how it works, but ...

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VXi BlueParrot Reveal review: Bring the noise (cancellation)

Posted on by Adam Doud

Bluetooth earpieces get a bad rap these days. But the fact of the matter is that they are very neat and very useful things to have – under a certain set of circumstances. Of course, those circumstances require a few key points that a headset must hit in order for it to be a success. The VXi BlueParrot Reveal headset meets many of those key points.Setting the requirementsIn general, a Bluetooth earpiece needs to have a few things going for it. It must be comfortable to wear, it must have a place to go when you’re not wearing it, and the controls should be easily discernable by touch. It ...

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Lumsing 5-Port Charger Review: Your perfect travel companion

Posted on by Adam Doud

Traveling as a tech geek has gotten both easier and harder at the same time since we were but wee lads and lasses. Time was we would load up a bag with a few games, a good book or two, perhaps some DVDs for the trip. Now, we simply toss an iPad, Nexus 9, and Kindle Fire into a bag (though really only one of those is strictly necessary) and we can travel the world without ever getting bored. The downside is, we need to be able to charge all these dang things, lest boredom catch up to us, sometime in the middle of Pennsylvania at the beginning of day 2.Until recently, that meant we also ...

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Microsoft Universal Foldable Keyboard Review: compact, convenient, costly

Posted on by Adam Doud

I’ve talked a lot lately about portability. When it comes to laptops, tablets, keyboards, I’m on the go a lot and I sometimes need to write away from my comfortable little desk at home. So I could carry around a laptop, but there are times when a tablet is more convenient. Beyond that, there are times that a phone is even more convenient. But typing a full editorial or review on a phone isn’t feasible, right? It’s madness! Well, unless that phone happens to be a Lumia 950 that has Continuum capability. One aspect of Continuum that is particularly nice is the extreme portability of ...

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Innori CD slot phone mount makes your car’s CD player useful again

Posted on by Adam Doud

The CD player is one of those items that you probably have in your car, and if you’re like us, you don’t use. It just kinda sits there. It’s a slash that cuts right through our dashboard which used to be somewhat useful, but hasn’t been used in who knows how long and hasn’t worked in who cares how long. So now that something has finally come along that makes that feature useful, we’re excited. The Innori CD Slot phone mount does just that.We have been using a similar mechanism in our car for some time now. But this particular version by Innori has us intrigued enough to give it ...

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