My ramblings on tech driving utility

Tech Utility #1 - Google Home

Right then, if you know me - I'm a data geek and I like technology, and what excites me most is when I see great applications of data and technology creating real utility in our lives. So I thought, what the heck - let's start sharing some examples from a customer perspective - as there's loads of amazing stuff going on. Will try and do one a week and see how long I can make this last (gulp...)

First confession - I'm an Android/Google guy, so you're not going to see me singing the praises of Apple or Amazon stuff (granted this Amazon Go thing is pretty cool and sending shock waves through the industry). Second thing is I like tech, but i'm not a super tech geek at the complete forefront of the latest widget or whizz bang thing - what I like is seeing the application of tech to the masses and where it can really make a difference. As such, I'll try to explain it as I see it and not techno gabble.

Anyway - Google Home. I LOVE IT.

I was excited by this months ago, and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. A bit like a kid at Christmas time when opening the box. It also happened to be the night of the US Election, and I decided to ask my first question "Hey Google, who's going to win the election?" Google was sensitive to my question letting me know that was up to the people to decide - can't argue with that one. They certainly did...

So, I've had the Google Home in my kitchen now for about a month and think it's awesome. What I actually use it for about 90% of the time is playing music, as having hands free capability to play whatever I want, is super cool. For me this is genuine utility as the voice recognition is superb, and whether I want to listen to some BBC Radio 6 (via TuneIn) or some of my albums in the Google Play Cloud (back to the old days of Chemical Brothers/The Prodigy - oh yeah), it does a great job. I do pay about $10 a month for the Google Play service, and love the ease of suddenly having whatever I want playing in my kitchen - in such a simple way. This does signal the death of my CD player as the speaker quality is good enough to bang out some tunes whilst busy in the kitchen. I'm getting re acquainted with my old tunes, happy days - because it's so quick and easy.

So beyond music, it's still a really handy tool for getting answers to stupid questions, playing silly games with the kids, and been experimenting with IFTTT and Wemo power switch. Useful for telling me whether it's going to rain today whilst getting kids ready for school, what's on my Google calendar and adding stuff to a shopping list (which updates in Google Keep). It's still in it's early days and well behind Alexa and the integration to so many other things (Skills as they say), but as it's first foray into this space - I think it's pretty darned cool. Have got Chromecast on my TV too, and having fun freaking the kids out by putting stuff on the TV by magic :) Sadly we live in a rented house so I can't get a Nest thermostat, but that would be top of my list to integrate too.

The speech recognition is excellent (even with my British accent in the US) and it's a lot of fun to play with. Once you've seen one in action, you'll want one and you can see that these are going to hit the mainstream and we'll wonder how we ever lived without an 'Assistant' in our home to do our bidding as you're cooking up some dinner.

As I said up front, I love tech that adds utility. Sadly this has meant I'm unlikely to turn my CD Player/Radio on ever again, but how much hassle was that anyway? Seriously, you had to put a CD in the drawer and press all those buttons? Not anymore. 'Hey Google' and you're off - love the utility, good job Google. Excited to see how this evolves with new partnerships etc.

Ramble over - let me know how you're using your Google Home to drive utility and we can start a super geeky club. Go get one today - go on, do it. DO IT.