Unboxing & initial Setup - Google Home Mini AI Smart Home - Embracing Our Machine Overlords

In this video we walk through the unboxing and initial setup of the Google Home Mini personal assistant speaker.

It is hard to believe but personal assistants have been a thing ever since Apple brought Siri into our lives 6-years ago in 2011. Over that period of time Amazon Alexa, Google Now/Home and Microsoft's Cortana have all launched and made asking your device to tell you a joke or for tips on where to hide a body. While bringing these to smartphones, tablets and PCs has been widely accepted bringing these devices into the home has been the real battle. That's where Google's Home smart speaker system comes into play.

Think of Google Home as your "Ok Google" for any room in the house, but it's more of that. Google home allows you to connect to other connected devices and control them with your voice, all without needing another smartphone or tablet. Phillips Hue Lightbulbs, Google Chromecasts, Nest Smart Thermostats and other enabled devices can all be voice controlled via normal speech. In addition Google Home allows you to interact with services and features such as Pandora, Netflix, Spotify and Google Music all by voice command. It's pretty simple in its elegance and execution.

While Google Home has been around since 2016 new to 2017 is the Google Home Mini. With Home Mini you can do all the same things as with the standard Google Home in a much smaller package. It has a built-in speaker featuring 360 sound with 40mm driver and it sounds amazing. The sound from this little sphere is quite impressive. And when I say little it's less than 4-inches around and less than 2-inches high, making it easy to place anywhere discreetly. It even comes in a variety of colors to either blend into the background or pop out and draw attention to itself, all depending on your styling preferences.

Initial setup is easy, you simply need to follow the setup process in the Google Home app on your Android or iOS device. You'll assign the WiFi network parameters, sign into audio or video services and setup other info such as your home address and payment information. The Home Mini will also check for and download any necessary firmware updates, it's all automated and very simple to handle.

Early tests were really positive, using the Home Mini is super simple and intuitive. Launching Pandora to play music, commanding my Netflix, getting information on my day, traffic checking my tasks are all super easy and intuitive. Want to increase the volume? Use normal everyday commands like "Ok Google, increase volume" or "Ok Google, Maximum Volume". You want to play Christmas Music? "Ok Google, play Christmas music on Pandora" and BAM, it plays! It's pretty cool.

For $50 I don't know that I would have bit but for $30 it was an easy buy, and the fact that I got a $10 Best Buy gift card with purchase made this a $20 purchase, a no-brainer. The audio is great and functionality is great thus far. I think the future is bright for this little device and, if this is what our Machine Overlords have in mind for us I'd be interested in seeing what is coming next.

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