A random stroke of luck, I won the 1st generation Amazon Echo during an Amazon Web Service summit in Malaysia early 2017. I was using it for awhile to entertain and occasionally requesting my daughter to do things. She was more receptive to Alexa's voice than mine.
Echo hardware is far more superior but Google assistant has better comprehension.
Later part of last year, got a Google Home mini as a Christmas present. There I have two competing voice assistant product in my home. Sadly, I'm now a slave to both. Only last week, I managed to identify a perfect location to put Google Home i.e. in the kitchen.
The microphone picks up my voice even I'm seated at my dining table or in the wet kitchen.
The sound is quite good and Google can comprehend more natural language requests compare to Alexa. The Amazon Echo sound is amazing but Alexa is still playing catch up.
3M typical shortcut in mounting it on wall.
Nevertheless, Amazon cloud services are amazing. They enable amateurs like myself to create my own voice commands using serverless applications such a combination of Lex, Polly, Lambda and Machine Learning. In contrast for Google, there isn't any that I'm aware of. Given the fact, Google assistant works better, one may not need to get hands and feet dirty.
Top 5 requests I use while in the kitchen.
- Conversions of mass, weight and currency.
- Set and list reminders.
- Set countdown clock for certain cooking methods.
- Play a song over Spotify.
- Read news and ask general knowledge questions.
Thanks for reading. Where will you put your home assistant?
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://joebabana.vornix.blog/2018/09/13/my-google-home-mini/