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Just logged into my Google One accountant to see the offer of a free Google Home Mini. Clicked through the redeem stages and went to checkout and it’s all confirmed, £49 discount. 😁
Have the confirmation email as well, bit of a wait as I went for the free no-rush delivery (10-11 October) but free is my favourite price. 👍
Worth checking if you are a subscriber.
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Picked mine up earlier today, living almost in the main post office depot has it’s upsides.
For anyone that’s not played with one (or something similar) it’s a piece of the proverbial to set up.
I have no need of it so it’s going to mum’s place tomorrow. It should be very handy for mum.
Not got around to setting mine up. There must be a better way of packaging these things.
Don’t quite get you there Dave. Do you mean the ‘retail packaging’ or the shipping packaging? Or both?
Mine was in a small box about 5 mm bigger than the retail packaging in all directions. The gap was filled with shredded paper.
The retail packaging. Shrink wrapped in plastic even though the cardboard box is sealed. Hard plastic separators which will only be going in the bin.
Got mine yesterday morning about 9am, not opens it as I’m giving it one omy locals, who doesn’t have alot, so not opened it.
We have 5 or 6 minis, two maxes and a hub. So didn’t need this free one. But knew my local was after either a home mini or dot for his girl.
Finally got around to setting it up. The Panasonic TV needed many Panasonic account hoops to jump through, turns on and off and channel switching, volume up and down ignored. Turns apps like Netflix on but the next thing you have to do needs the remote so a bit pointless.
I can turn the Kasa (TP-Link) smart bulb on and off but changing brightness is hit and miss. Music streaming is better but one thing you have to do is be precise in everything you want.
The Star Trek “Hello Computer” it is not unless you are happy to accept Google defaults for when you’re not 100% focused on what you want and know how to describe it. However I will persevere because I can see how it could be useful. Play lists will need to be set up etc.
Privacy? That went out of the window a long time ago but still deciding if this is a step too far. I may well test it with some fake news and see what happens. It all seems very loose with who gets access to what.
In the Chrome and Gmail world I’ve been researching some holidays for the first week in December. Started off a month ago with some EasyJet and Hotel.com searches of Vienna (for the Christmas Markets), Trip Advisor joined in with spam with our exact favourite hotel. Started thinking wider, may be a two centre holiday, let’s see what Railbookers have via Eurostar as in the meantime flights have got expensive.
So we’re off to Paris for 2 nights then Amsterdam for 3 nights to take in the Light Festival; high speed trains all the way to and from. My inbox is on fire from companies I use with alternative hotels and trips I may want to take. However none of them mentioned the specific Light Festival canal cruises we really want to do, which shows how generic the algorithms must be.
And Google hasn’t twigged where we are actually staying as Maps doesn’t show the reservations as it usually does when we get confirmations by gmail message. All contact between us and Railbookers has been via Gmail but all the detail has been in PDFs which makes me think they aren’t opening documents. Probably a step too far.
Turns apps like Netflix on but the next thing you have to do needs the remote so a bit pointless.
If it works like Alexa, you might be able to say something like ‘play the next episode of Stranger Things on Netflix’
(Great if you’ve got a Fire Stick in the main TV and another Amazon device in a different room 😀 )
That’s strange day. I get very few issues with my Google now stuff. However I’ve been living with them for years.
You should be able to send/play/stop and pause etc Netflix to differnt tvs.though my tvs we use have cromcasts in, or the other is the now smart display (works really well) so the experiance may be more seamless, than a smart TV.
I still don’t own a smart TV. Well I have one in work, but apart from the day I unpacked it, it’s not been off the sky aux channel. I don’t really care for them.
It just seems easier with the TV remote / phone apps. “Hey Google, turn off the living room TV”. By the time I’ve got to Hey the red button has been pressed and the TV is off.
Oh defo, I don’t use it for that the kids use it for thst. Tbh I don’t use the tv full stop. I watch 99% (if not higher) on my phone.
The kids use the tvs as a place to cast music videos to.
Side not I’ve noticed alot of people ask me in the pub can they cast to a TV clips etc.. So it’s just not the kids that do this. I do have a Chromecast in the pub, but I managed to screw it up trying to move it from a closed network to a Ln open one, and not re set it up, as it kept timing out.
I use my Google homes mainly for reminders, alarms and turning lights on off. And the hub makes the best photo viewer. If you ever see a gen one cheap, grab it just for that the screen is fantastic. Makes a good bed side clock too. It’s ambiant light sensor is second to non. I couldn’t justify how good it is in words. It’s not even that high res iirc. But looks amazing, in any light conditions.
I’ve got mine set up as a bedside radio, they’ve messed about with DAB channels and mine wouldn’t get Gold – it’s now on DAB+.
I read the reviews that said it was a bit tinny for music, but I haven’t found it to be so. I’m very pleased. It runs overnight in the background to distract me from SWMBO’s snoring, I may try to set a few alarms for the mornings, we’ll see how that goes.
The main problem comes when you need to pick it up or move it – switching the mic on or off. It’s touch operated, but very touch sensitive – eg, I switched an alarm clock off, touched the Mini and muted the music. Not the end of the world, but first thing in the morning things need to go just right and not get complicated.😀
For £0 it was good value, but I can’t see myself getting a hub or more. I like the notification it gives me on the phone that it’s still running and letting you turn it on or off.
To turn Thr alarm off, just say OK Google off/shut up/I’m awake/silence etc.. No need to touch them hardly ever.
Even with volume control, just say set volume to 25% for example.
Edit-I use mine alot for setting reminder, great Especally when in bed. And the great bit is Google will send the reminders to the correct persons phone.
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