Google home vs Amazon Echo... Is Google home finally King?

[malliekm]

http://www.androidauthority.com/google-home-vs-amazon-echo-785590/

[k9kids]

Uh... No.

[malliekm]

It is in this house (by a hair or two).

[mike27oct]

NO WAY! 

I had to resort to resetting it to factory defaults yesterday because of a same issue for the SECOND time in this first month of ownership.  In addition, after I had it running again correctly, in our early evening it quit responding other than saying "I can't do that right now. There must be a glitch." and the menu was missing some links, too.  Wife googled and found some posts that it was down at the same time elsewhere.  It lasted over an hour and then was back online.  She also saw posts that the Google server is down at least once a week.  the Google Home has some cool features, but the thing is not as stable as the Amazon gadgets, and is barely ready for prime time.

Buy some Amazon gadgets before ever buying the Google Home -- too many "glitches" as it admitted last evening. 
Right now, the GH is still an oddity in our house, and all the Amazon gadgets control the AI home environment.

[malliekm]

I have had ZERO "glitches" with my two GHs except once when the AWS was down.  GH controls everything my Dots control and is infinitely smarter (answers questions Alexa can't).  GH hears better, sounds better (than my Dots).  She's just a bit on the "chatty" side.  Mike, how much Amazon stock do you own?   

[renegade600]

I have had ZERO "glitches" with my two GHs except once when the AWS was down.  GH controls everything my Dots control and is infinitely smarter (answers questions Alexa can't).  GH hears better, sounds better (than my Dots).  She's just a bit on the "chatty" side.  Mike, how much Amazon stock do you own?   

how much alphabet (google) stock do you have?  :-P

[k9kids]

I have had ZERO "glitches" with my two GHs except once when the AWS was down.  GH controls everything my Dots control and is infinitely smarter (answers questions Alexa can't).  GH hears better, sounds better (than my Dots).  She's just a bit on the "chatty" side.  Mike, how much Amazon stock do you own?   

Anything sounds better than a Dot. GH is a different unit animal and shouldn't be compared soundwise to a Dot.

Although Mike can be quite gruff with his replies at times, for him to admit the GH isn't a front runner should be respected.

[malliekm]

Unfortunately, I have ZERO stock in either company but Mike seems to be the resident stock market/investor guru 

[mike27oct]

I have had ZERO "glitches" with my two GHs except once when the AWS was down.

  GH controls everything my Dots control and is infinitely smarter (answers questions Alexa can't).  GH hears better, sounds better (than my Dots).  She's just a bit on the "chatty" side. 

Mike, how much Amazon stock do you own?   

Obviously we use them differently.  I use the Google"casting" feature A LOT; meaning to both the Chromecast and GH.  Do you?  Or, do you just use the simpler features?

The casting feature has ALWAYS had crashing, not working, etc. problems even before  I got a GH.  The problem with the GH is that it does not always respond when triggered by clicking on the icon.  When this happens, I find I need to restore GH to defaults and it is a PITA.

Believe me, your GH was affected by the "glitch" at 6PM PDT.last night, you just didn't notice since it only lasted an hour.

 A LOT of both, because I have big chunks of the Total Market Fund plus a pure tech fund for a kicker.
How about you?

[malliekm]

Yes Mike, we do use them differently (and the same).  I don't do any "casting" since my Chromecast have been unplugged because they use about 10MB/hour in data downloads even with the tv off...it's 24/7 and as you well know, my satellite internet is capped at 20GB/month.  The joys of country living I suppose    You're right, I didn't notice GH being "down" last night around 8.  I wasn't home.  Like I said previously, I have no stock in either company.  We are more into real-estate.  I wish we did tho!!!

[mike27oct]

Yes, I know all about what you have told me about your satellite internet and the grief it causes you.  But, keep in mind that sending data (i.e. casting music From a phone, tablet, or drive} to the GH from WITHIN your home network does not affect your internet usage (it is only going through your home network; not the internet)-- it is only when you stream a movie from Netflix (internet), etc that you can use a lot of internet usage.

So, this is what I have been doing with my GH; sending (casting) music on a drive in my home to GH.  And, GH is tempermental.

Well my savings, retirement savings and investments are mostly stock and bond mutual funds.  The only real estate investments, are the home we own free and clear, a  REIT, ( a mutual fund of commercial real estate like national office space and apartment rentals) and the other is the Home Builders ETF that is closely related with the home real estate market.  My stocks are in a balanced group of all the big, medium and small companies in US and the rest of the world.  My investments are VERY diversified and I will not get slammed by any one company or market sector condition.

Owning too much of one thing such as real estate is very risky, because it is one sector and when RE is down it can take your savings way down.  You could also sell some RE and invest it elsewhere, to diversify, ya know.

[malliekm]

Hey Mike, I realize the casting from device to device isn't using data.  The problem is the continuous d/ling of data from Google to the Chromecast.  I could plug and unplug it as needed but it's hardly worth it since we don't stream from online video sources.  So far, it's just not something we do.  When I had them plugged into two tvs, I would occasionally cast from my computer or tablet looking at photos and home videos or surfing the net. 

I know, diversity is key.  We just haven't done it.  We're not big time players

[mike27oct]

The point of the Chromecast/GH was to point out that although the Chromecast may drain your internet bandwidth, the GH doesn't, so casting to the GH is no big deal. datawise.  You could cast music on your phone to GH with the right app.

I'm not a big time player either, but I had a 401k, while working, along with an IRA, etc and I wanted to be able to reach "critical mass" by the time I retired so I never had to work afterward, and I reached that goal.  To do that, I needed a good working knowledge of investing, and I got it.

[joshsimpson79]

Can Google Home run amazon music?  Because though I use Echo for many things, music is my most used feature.  It looks like Google would cover my lifx bulbs and my nest thermostat.