google home hub Archives - How to Kill an Hour

The Google Home Hub brings all the cool stuff about Google Home and repackages it into a small yet very powerful device with a 7″ display to help you get even more from Google Home. The Google Home Hub brings visual help to all the questions that you ask it. Use your voice to help set reminders and control a vast array of smart devices. However, with this particular device you get a visual aid, for example, see asking Google “How to tie a bow tie’ will present you with a helpful YouTube video, alongside a plethora of other YouTube videos available. YouTube you see on any other device is the same YouTube on Google Home Hub!

The device is incredibly well built, it is compact and can fit anywhere in the house and does not look out of place. Either in the kitchen, the bedroom or the living room! Google Home Hub has an inbuilt Ambient EQ Light Sensor too, so will adjust the screen to the colours and lighting in it’s environment. Therefore photos on the Google Home Hub will blend into the home decor!

Features

The device will show you a whole range of things, such as YouTube videos, Google Calendar so you can see what you have planned or Google Maps so you can see what your commute is like! Ask Google what the weather is like and get a visual aid, ask Google for recipes and be shown a step by step guide in either text or video form!

Photos

Google photos look beautiful on the Home Hub and you can use your voice to pull down the images from Google photos to be displayed on the gorgeous screen. Even set the screen to display your most favoured images when the Home Hub is not in use as a screen saver! Machine Learning will pull down the best photos too, therefore avoiding any duplicates or blurry images.Google Home Hub can also show shared Google Photo albums automatically on the device of the person you’re sharing them with, therefore avoiding any upload hassles!

Smart Home

The device is also a very powerful smart home hub, consequently easily connecting to the hundreds of smart devices already available. Such as lights, thermostats or security cameras. Control it all via the Google Home App on your smart device, no need to be next to the Google Home Hub to manage all of your devices. Even manage them away from the home! So you can monitor and manage devices easily—including compatible lights, cameras, TVs, speakers you are always in control of your home! (Android / iOS)

Kitchen

One popular feature is the that the Google Home Hub can help you in the Kitchen! As Google Assistant can understand conversational speech, simply ask the device to convert various measurements and it will tell you! Completely hands free and at a glance! If you’re not too sure when reading a step by step guide on how to cook a particular recipe, simply ask! For example, “Hey Google, show me how to dice an onion” will show you a video on how to dice an onion!

Google Home Hub works with other ‘Made by Google’ devices too, such as Chromecast, Nest Doorbells, Nest Thermostats, Google Home Speakers. Furthermore Spotify works on Google Home Hub too!

(Google Press Release)

For more information on how Google’s Home Hub can help you at Christmas please click here!

Available in four colours from the Google Store—Chalk, Charcoal, Aqua, and Sand, Google Home Hub is £139 and available from the Google Store!

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Christmas is right around the corner! Wrapping, presents, parties, lots of organisation and STRESS?!? But, Can Google’s Home Hub Make Christmas Less Stressful? Some new research has been commissioned by Google which found how stressed Brits get at Christmas time.With nearly 2/3 of Brits finding Christmas at home and 1/3 of Brits wanting to hide in the bathroom to get some away from it all, furthermore 1 in 10 of us would rather swim naked with sharks than spend Christmas with the in-laws. It can be said that Brits find Christmas very stressful indeed!

Stress at Christmas

Google’s findings were very interesting indeed with wrapping weirdly shaped presents making up 20% of those surveyed worries. Putting on weight made up another 20%, while financial worries made up the most of peoples worries with 24% of those surveyed. Furthermore Google even found that people would do their best to get away from people at Christmas time, for a bit of alone time. 45% of those surveyed would go to their bedroom and 8% would head to the pub! What Google found whilst undertaking this survey that a crazy amount of Brits do find it stressful over the festive period, a whopping 65%! The survey was conducted to find how people will be using Google’s home Hub to ease the stress. With Google’s Laurian Clemence stating:

“Google Home Hub was made for times like Christmas. Having family round over the festive season can be overwhelming, and this device is designed to fit in with your life by being your personal little helper when you really need it; from using recipes for sprouts while managing not to burn the turkey, to videos for wrapping oddly shaped gifts, to setting timers, entertaining the family and controlling the heating. As it’s powered by the Google Assistant, it works with a simple voice command – meaning that you can juggle all the different elements of Christmas at the same time, easily and seamlessly.”

The Stress Table

Below is a table of all the things that Google found were the most stressful around Christmas time, however, there was some that missed out! Finding things for the kids to do made up 7%, running out of alcohol 5% and having to play games with the family 10%.

Top Ten Reasons for a Festive Freak-Out
1	Finances	24%
2	Not having any time for yourself	22%

3	Cooking the Christmas dinner	22%
4	Wrapping weirdly shaped presents	20%
5	Putting on weight	20%
6	Spending time with the in-laws	16%
7	Pretending to like a present that you really don’t	14%
8	Buying presents for people you rarely see	11%
9	Decorating the house	10%
10	Untangling the Christmas lights	10%

BONUS:

The table above shows that Christmas dinner is third on the Stressmas list, the Home Hub can actually give you some help, (well we all know that!) but, there’s something special that you may not! Google have teamed up with Gordon Ramsay to create a hidden feature, you can find out what he likes to eat at home by saying ‘OK Google what does Gordon Ramsey eat at home?’ That’s not all either! Hidden content is also provided to you if you ask Google about prima ballerina Misty Copeland, famed for her performances in the festive ballet The Nutcracker, answering ‘OK Google, when did Misty Copeland start dancing?’ If you like to sing Christmas songs, you can ask Google for help with that too! Asking Google, ‘OK Google, how to sing like Nick Jonas?” will get you tips from the pop star himself!