Google is repositioning its smart home products within its portfolio and put all such devices under the Nest brand. For instance, the devices you formerly knew as Google Home Hub will from now on be known as Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max respectively, which is the newest product of the Google smart home family.
It shows you your photos in idle-mode
One of the features that were most appealing to me of the Nest Hub Max was the curated photo frame. Many of us enjoy to put photos in frames and hang them on the wall or put them on stands somewhere. Of course, you can buy dumb (as in “not smart”) photo frames that can display your digital files, but including this major feature in a smart home hub makes it a lot more enjoyable in my books.
Use it in the kitchen
Nest Hub Max can be used as Kitchen TV too if you run YouTube TV on it or load up your favorite YouTuber chefs and get the latest recipes as you cook along. Of course, you could also use your smartphone for that, but perhaps some would feel it’s more convenient to have a dedicated device for doing so.
What’s that camera for?
I don’t know if this is a plus or not for the users. Not many people like being on the watch even if it’s only an idle risk and nobody is actually watching what they do. I could imagine that many people will put a sticker on the lens to be sure Big Brother isn’t watching.
But what can you do with the camera if you decide to use it? You could access the camera remotely with the Nest app on your smartphone and possibly check if everything is okay at home. You could also use it to do video calls with friends and family. To pick up on the example above, maybe the best chef you know is Mom and she isn’t running a YouTube show, so why not give her a video call as you cook the family secret dish?
What else?
The Nest Home Max also comes with all the Google Assistant gizmos that you might already enjoy on your other Google devices. Play music or videos, check the calendar, weather, web search, or control your smart home IoT devices, much like many already do, using Amazon Alexa from the Echo product family. The Nest Hub Max, however, will not only support touch and voice control but also understand hand gestures for simple commands.
And what does that cost me?
For pricing and availability, I’ll quote Rishi Chandra, Vice President of Product and General Manager, Google Home, and Nest, who confirmed, “later this summer, Nest Hub Max will be available in the U.S. for $229 on the Google Store and at Best Buy, Target, Home Depot and more. It’ll also be available in the UK for £219 and in Australia for AUS$349.
We’re also bringing Nest Hub to 12 new countries — Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, and Sweden. And Nest Hub will now be available in the US for $129. Finally, we have updated pricing for our speakers, starting today, Google Home is $99, and Google Home Max is $299.”
YouTube: Meet Google Nest Hub Max
Photo credit: All used images are owned by Google.
Source: Google blog article on The Keyword
