Google Home FAQ

Shedite27 · 04-01-2017 4:01pm

noel100 wrote: »

Set up six bulbs today from 2 starters kits
Second starter kit was not recognised till I manually put in serial numbers.
Working great with Ghome and colours are great. Wife thinks I'm mad telling Ghome changing colours going through rainbow. When we get to red she thinks the the room looks like a brothel.

Where did you buy the bulbs? Are they expensive?

McG · 04-01-2017 5:08pm

Shedite27 wrote: »

Where did you buy the bulbs? Are they expensive?

They're pretty expensive. The colour bulbs are £50 each or £150 for 3 bulbs and a bridge. The normal white bulbs are £15 and the white ambiance (can change "temperature" of the white light) are £25.

You could get all at reduced costs at various times from amazon over the last few months.

mloc123 · 04-01-2017 10:14pm

Is there a UK/Ireland launch date for this yet? I was in the US last week and forgot to pick one up

McG · 05-01-2017 11:37am

mloc123 wrote: »

Is there a UK/Ireland launch date for this yet? I was in the US last week and forgot to pick one up

no date yet but with other companies bringing out similar devices I'd imagine they'd want to get it released soon.

BailMeOut · 05-01-2017 11:41am

it is bizarre how it refuses to recognize U2. Maybe an apple jab?! Whole family have tried and U2 is always interpreted as 'YouTube' now matter how we say it.

Shedite27 · 05-01-2017 12:04pm

BailMeOut wrote: »

it is bizarre how it refuses to recognize U2. Maybe an apple jab?! Whole family have tried and U2 is always interpreted as 'YouTube' now matter how we say it.

I've had it play U2.

yrrag1974 · 05-01-2017 2:53pm

Had a quick look at the Google Home app last night and there is a lot of new voice services supported now - Akinator, WebMD, Headspace etc. 15 or 20 new services from memory. Haven't had a chance to check but plan to tonight.

Also set up on Irish Chromecast on the TV and its working perfectly with Google Home - plays Netflix, Spotify, Youtube etc very well.

Now just waiting for the Wemo support to kick in!!

aaronm13 · 05-01-2017 7:10pm

Got mine in best buy, didn't have any in stock but they ordered it in for me. Set it up no problem when I got home this morning. Really easy to do but a bit disappointed I need a chromecast to control the TV, could have gotten it in the states cheaper had I known. Now to start my collection of smart home products.

mloc123 · 05-01-2017 8:57pm

mloc123 wrote: »

Is there a UK/Ireland launch date for this yet? I was in the US last week and forgot to pick one up

Looks like I will be back over for work in 4/5 weeks so I guess I'll pick up a couple then

phenom · 07-01-2017 12:16am

Csn anyone recommenf the best way to purchase the google home from the us including shipping.

Tried on best buy afew weeks ago but the order got cancelled straight away. Assuming i got geo blocked.

aaronm13 · 07-01-2017 4:44pm

phenom wrote: »

Csn anyone recommenf the best way to purchase the google home from the us including shipping.

Tried on best buy afew weeks ago but the order got cancelled straight away. Assuming i got geo blocked.

I know Target ship internationally but not sure what the cost is.

phenom · 07-01-2017 5:04pm

aaronm13 wrote: »

I know Target ship internationally but not sure what the cost is.

Brilliant . Thanks will give it a try.

aaronm13 · 07-01-2017 5:17pm

phenom wrote: »

Brilliant . Thanks will give it a try.

Good luck with it.

kaisersose77 · 07-01-2017 6:21pm

Other option is ebay.com. Got 2 so far through different sellers. Took around 2 weeks for delivery.

Target at the moment dont ship the google home from what i can see.

phenom · 07-01-2017 7:12pm

kaisersose77 wrote: »

Other option is ebay.com. Got 2 so far through different sellers. Took around 2 weeks for delivery.

Target at the moment dont ship the google home from what i can see.

I see that alright. Must try ebay so.
Ive got an alexa with a basic setup of wemo lights and sockets want to put a google home in the mix aswell and go from there

aaronm13 · 07-01-2017 10:09pm

phenom wrote: »

I see that alright. Must try ebay so.
Ive got an alexa with a basic setup of wemo lights and sockets want to put a google home in the mix aswell and go from there

Sorry I gave you wrong information about Target. Was looking myself when I was in the states last week. Saw they had the home and shipped internationally, 2+2=10, didn't try to order it, was an option till best buy ordered it in store for me.

Stoner · 07-01-2017 11:00pm

TP Link integration coming to Google home

https://9to5google.com/2017/01/06/tp-link-google-home-february/

bk · 08-01-2017 12:10am

Stoner wrote: »

TP Link integration coming to Google home

https://9to5google.com/2017/01/06/tp-link-google-home-february/

Cool, but this is actually even bigger news. It shows when Google Actions API opens up (the direct actions, versus the conversation one launched a few weeks ago).

This indicates Google Actions API will open by February and thus we will see a flood of direct support for HA tech then.

So I'd also expect to see support coming for Wemo plugs, Harmony Hub, Netatmo, etc.

jogdish · 08-01-2017 11:05pm

Can anyone tell me if a Google Home would play "lyric fm" & "rte 1" radio ? using voice commands along the lines of play lyric/rte1 ? in Ireland?

aaronm13 · 08-01-2017 11:08pm

jogdish wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if a Google Home would play "lyric fm" & "rte 1" radio ? using voice commands along the lines of play lyric/rte1 ? in Ireland?

Tested on a few radio stations and they work. Example say play RTE radio 1 on tune in and plays perfect.

jogdish · 08-01-2017 11:15pm

aaronm13 wrote: »

Tested on a few radio stations and they work. Example say play RTE radio 1 on tune in and plays perfect.

cool ty! not trying to be smart but does it work with Lyric, as I have heard people say the Amazon ECHO is hit and miss with certain stations - but from what i understand the HOME is "smarter" at actually understanding a request, compared to the echo needing it to be part of a skill?

the heathen · 08-01-2017 11:24pm

jogdish wrote: »

cool ty! not trying to be smart but does it work with Lyric, as I have heard people say the Amazon ECHO is hit and miss with certain stations - but from what i understand the HOME is "smarter" at actually understanding a request, compared to the echo needing it to be part of a skill?

Yup, just tried it. Works straight away.

ibFoxer · 08-01-2017 11:59pm

aaronm13 wrote: »

I know Target ship internationally but not sure what the cost is.

As far as i could see when i was checking, they won't ship the Home.

corvus4906 · 10-01-2017 6:42pm

Will have one for sale in a few days:

http://www.adverts.ie/media-players/google-home/12082786

Am hoping to get as much as possible for it as will be aiming to buy a GoPro with the money I sell it for (Apologies....am being an unsound capitalist and selling to highest bidder)

Anyway if interested there ya go

BoardsMember · 10-01-2017 6:50pm

€200 - you're having a laugh. Not cool at all.

ibFoxer · 10-01-2017 6:53pm

More like €132, going on today's exchange. I don't think anyone would begrudge €150 but €200 is a bit saucy.

wexfordman2 · 10-01-2017 6:58pm

corvus4906 wrote: »

Will have one for sale in a few days:

http://www.adverts.ie/media-players/google-home/12082786

Am hoping to get as much as possible for it as will be aiming to buy a GoPro with the money I sell it for (Apologies....am being an unsound capitalist and selling to highest bidder)

Anyway if interested there ya go

Jaysus, that's pricey

corvus4906 · 10-01-2017 7:11pm

BoardsMember wrote: »

€200 - you're having a laugh. Not cool at all.

I expect it to go for 130- 150... Just leaving it there if people want to offer more and bid till I get in the post. Am happy with whatever it goes for. I'm not saying it is 200 euro. Shame there's no bid option for adverts (if you set the price at 150 for example it wouldn't let anyone offer more than 150 ... So set it a bit higher just incase that were to happen)

él statutorio · 10-01-2017 7:48pm

ibFoxer wrote: »

More like €132, going on today's exchange. I don't think anyone would begrudge €150 but €200 is a bit saucy.

Out of Curiosity, what would people pay for a GH shipped from the US?

Just wondering if it would be worth my while buying a few and shipping them over to Ireland.

Bluefoam · 10-01-2017 7:55pm

él statutorio wrote: »

Out of Curiosity, what would people pay for a GH shipped from the US?

Just wondering if it would be worth my while buying a few and shipping them over to Ireland.

Somewhere around face value... They'll be launched in Ireland soon with 3 pin plugs, setup for the local power grid and with local services... While getting one prelaunch from the us is great, it also has minor negatives...

+ Those allot of people who really want one previous to launch will be resourceful enough to source one themselves.

él statutorio · 10-01-2017 8:06pm

Bluefoam wrote: »

Somewhere around face value... They'll be launched in Ireland soon with 3 pin plugs, setup for the local power grid and with local services... While getting one prelaunch from the us is great, it also has minor negatives...

+ Those allot of people who really want one previous to launch will be resourceful enough to source one themselves.

Meh, probably not enough to get me interested in that case (no get rich quick scheme for me)

There has been no official announcement as to when it will launch in Ireland.

There are rumours (from friends who work for google) of Easter but nothing confirmed.

The only difference is the 3 pin plug.
It's a 100-240v power adapter.
There are no local services that will be preloaded on the GH, it'll pull them all as needed.

Bluefoam · 10-01-2017 8:22pm

él statutorio wrote: »

There are no local services that will be preloaded on the GH, it'll pull them all as needed.

I may be wrong, but Google may need to turn on certain APIs and services to work both the Home in other territories... Many of the services are server side & the servers are handled separately in different parts of the world. This is certainly the case with Amazon... Certain services are definitely restricted in ireland.

On another note, I am living in the Middle East & we don't have Google movies or music, nor do we have spotify etc... Also Google maps is not as capable here... I'm hoping for Google to activate Deezer and Logitech Harmony to make it more useful for me...

MentalMario · 10-01-2017 8:25pm

I think I paid close to 150 including taxes and shipping to a US address so 200 isn't terrible.

Anything under 180 us a steal.

bk · 10-01-2017 8:30pm

Yes, the GHome could be launched in Ireland any day. Right from the start it was more ready for Ireland then Amazon Echo is!

Just box it with an Irish/UK plug and release the GHome app on the Irish app store and it is good to go. Almost everything works perfect out of the box in Ireland. Maybe add better understanding for the word RTE and that would be about it.

él statutorio · 10-01-2017 8:49pm

Bluefoam wrote: »

I may be wrong, but Google may need to turn on certain APIs and services to work both the Home in other territories... Many of the services are server side & the servers are handled separately in different parts of the world. This is certainly the case with Amazon... Certain services are definitely restricted in ireland.

On another note, I am living in the Middle East & we don't have Google movies or music, nor do we have spotify etc... Also Google maps is not as capable here... I'm hoping for Google to activate Deezer and Logitech Harmony to make it more useful for me...

Would using a VPN (via a custom device) work for you if you wanted to use Ghome?

Bluefoam · 10-01-2017 9:03pm

él statutorio wrote: »

Would using a VPN (via a custom device) work for you if you wanted to use Ghome?

We'll see if I need to... I'm hopeful that Google will catch up fairly soon and start adding more app and hardware compatibility... The uptake seems to be good, so I'm sure there's a big effort in the background to get things working. One thing I was a little shocked by was the fact that I can't find a wi-fi 3 pin adapter to work with harmony... Seems like an opportunity for someone to come out with a good product.

bk · 11-01-2017 12:58am

Bluefoam wrote: »

We'll see if I need to... I'm hopeful that Google will catch up fairly soon and start adding more app and hardware compatibility... The uptake seems to be good, so I'm sure there's a big effort in the background to get things working. One thing I was a little shocked by was the fact that I can't find a wi-fi 3 pin adapter to work with harmony... Seems like an opportunity for someone to come out with a good product.

Googles API for third party device support (Google Actions + Google Weave) is currently available to developers and is expected to go live in the next month or two. Once it does, I'd expect an absolute flood of third party device support then.

the heathen · 11-01-2017 2:06pm

bk wrote: »

Yes, the GHome could be launched in Ireland any day. Right from the start it was more ready for Ireland then Amazon Echo is!

Just box it with an Irish/UK plug and release the GHome app on the Irish app store and it is good to go. Almost everything works perfect out of the box in Ireland. Maybe add better understanding for the word RTE and that would be about it.

Works first time for me every time. Maybe your pronunciation of RTE doesn't work as well 'out of the box' as it should? :P

BoardsMember · 11-01-2017 2:19pm

I find the d4 pronunciation "or"te doesn't work, but the "are"te works every time!

Bluefoam · 11-01-2017 2:23pm

Apparently the rest of the world doesn't pronounce 'r' the right way... I find the best way is to pretend I'm a pirate... 'arrrre'.

Did anyone see Mark Zuckerberg's video of Jarvis AI? I want to give it a voice like Brad Pitt in Snatch...

the heathen · 11-01-2017 2:26pm

Bluefoam wrote: »

Did anyone see Mark Zuckerberg's video of Jarvis AI? I want to give it a voice like Brad Pitt in Snatch...

Feck that - as soon as it's an option, mine's getting Scarlett Johansson in Her :cool::)

ibFoxer · 11-01-2017 4:19pm

Say i have a Chromecast on my TV in the living room, and i ask the GHome to play Netflix on it, where does it stream it from?

bk · 11-01-2017 4:21pm

ibFoxer wrote: »

Say i have a Chromecast on my TV in the living room, and i ask the GHome to play Netflix on it, where does it stream it from?

From Netflix's servers!

ibFoxer · 11-01-2017 4:26pm

bk wrote: »

From Netflix's servers!

Ah, i was wondering was it from your phone or tablet or something. Is it the same for all the services- Hulu, HBO, etc as in do they all stream from the server?

the heathen · 11-01-2017 4:35pm

Here's one...

You know the way that Google Home can kinda act like a Sonos system ie. playing the same music in multiple rooms? Is it possible to have music playing on your Google Home in one room but also the same playing on your Chromecast audio in another room? Been trying to get my head around how it might be possible but not having much luck!

Bluefoam · 11-01-2017 4:44pm

In theory yes... They are both cast speakers & casting now supports multiple devices...

bk · 11-01-2017 4:52pm

ibFoxer wrote: »

Ah, i was wondering was it from your phone or tablet or something. Is it the same for all the services- Hulu, HBO, etc as in do they all stream from the server?

Yes, it is the same for all services. Google Cast is just a protocol. For instance when you cast a youtube video from your phone to a Chromecast on your TV, what is actually happening in the background is the phone is simply telling youtube/Netflix/etc. to start streaming the video to your TV's Chromecast.

Much more efficient all around then streaming the video to your phone and then streaming from the phone to the TV. That requires double the bandwidth and just ends up unnecessarily using the phones CPU and battery.

the heathen wrote: »

Here's one...

You know the way that Google Home can kinda act like a Sonos system ie. playing the same music in multiple rooms? Is it possible to have music playing on your Google Home in one room but also the same playing on your Chromecast audio in another room? Been trying to get my head around how it might be possible but not having much luck!

Yes, I do exactly that. I've both a Google Home in the living room and a Chromecast audio on a speaker in the bedroom in one group so that I can cast to both simultaneously. Very easy to setup.

I just say to GHome: "Hey Google, play Nirvanna on Home Group"

Where "Home Group" is the name of the group that includes both.

Irish Gunner · 11-01-2017 4:59pm

In the States soon and thinking of picking a Google Home up. Other than the plug any other major issues or better to wait until its released in Ireland?

the heathen · 11-01-2017 4:59pm

bk wrote: »

Yes, it is the same for all services. Google Cast is just a protocol. For instance when you cast a youtube video from your phone to a Chromecast on your TV, what is actually happening in the background is the phone is simply telling youtube/Netflix/etc. to start streaming the video to your TV's Chromecast.

Much more efficient all around then streaming the video to your phone and then streaming from the phone to the TV. That requires double the bandwidth and just ends up unnecessarily using the phones CPU and battery.

Yes, I do exactly that. I've both a Google Home in the living room and a Chromecast audio on a speaker in the bedroom in one group so that I can cast to both simultaneously. Very easy to setup.

I just say to GHome: "Hey Google, play Nirvanna on Home Group"

Where "Home Group" is the name of the group that includes both.

Oh ok - I haven't noticed the 'Home Group' thing anywhere - I presume it's in the Google Home app?

Edit: found an online tutorial for setting it up - cheers

bk · 11-01-2017 5:13pm

Irish Gunner wrote: »

In the States soon and thinking of picking a Google Home up. Other than the plug any other major issues or better to wait until its released in Ireland?

No issues, you just will need to follow the steps in the FAQ to get the Google Home app working in Ireland, but easy to do, just takes two minutes.

It works really well in Ireland IMO.

the heathen wrote: »

Oh ok - I haven't noticed the 'Home Group' thing anywhere - I presume it's in the Google Home app?

Edit: found an online tutorial for setting it up - cheers

BTW "Home Group" is just what I named it, you can call it anything you like.

Google Home FAQ

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