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    Echo vs Google - still true?

    I saw this article and really thought his input was interesting.

    Do you agree with each section choice?

    https://www.techhive.com/article/324...vs-google.html
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    #2
    I've only used the Echo line since it was the first player on the block. It's pretty slick. I even have an Alexa app on my phone that I can control the lights remotely.

    I think it comes down to what you prefer. There are so many more options with Echo than with GH right now. I suspect that will change eventually. There was a recent report that indicated Echo was outselling GH 3-to-1.
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      #3
      So I have and use both.

      My thoughts:

      Home Control: I think it's a toss up. Amazon does have a slight lead due to doing it longer, but Google home isn't far behind. To be honest though, we don't really use voice control around here and both suffer from some annoy things to me. For instance in our living room we have 3 banks of recessed lights that are on different switches. I would like to turn them on all at once, but if I have other "lights" in the room, saying "turn on the living room lights" turns them all on. I can't even say "turn of the living room recessed lights" because it gets confused (Mine have North, South and Center in the names). I think I can group them in Alexa now, but I haven't tested that. That said, lights are almost fully automated, so I think events/scenes via voice control would be better for me anyways.

      Audio Performance. I might consider this an actual Tie. I don't notice much difference between my Google Homes and my Echo (OG). Both the GH Mini's and the Dots both suck for "music" of any kind though. At least the Dot has an audio out.

      Media Streaming: For me, google is the winner because of Google Music, but that is because google won't put it on Alexa and Amazon I don't see putting Amazon music on Googles. It's a shame really. They should just play nice and let the hardware and features speak, not limit us because we use other products of theirs.

      Model Versatility: I think the article is right. The Echos with screens are nice, but they are limited to what Amazon wants to show you and now you can't even get YouTube on them (thanks google!). However, Google has Chromecast to sort of fill that in for videos, but you can't really use them for informational purposes (Show me the weather). It's kinda close for me though. My wife does want that new Echo Spot though and I plan on getting her one for the side of her bed (she uses a dot for her alarm clock. the google homes alarm can't change and it kinda sucks).

      Retrieving general information: The article is right. Google wins hands down. It's another reason I wanted to move to them. Kids ask Alexa stupid crap all the time and she never knows. Google always knows....Google knows all......maybe that's a good thing... maybe that's a bad thing...LOL

      Addons: Except my desire to have a recess mounted Google Home Mini, I don't see the need for many of the accessories personally.


      Other thoughts: I really love that the Google Home's integrate with the chromecasts (in my case the Audios) so well. I have in ceiling speakers in my bathrooms that hook up to ChromeCast Audios via a Russound amp. From my Master bedroom Home I can say "Play music in the master bathroom" and it does it. I can do that from any Google Home in my house. I can even do it from my phone....FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! (yes, I actually tried this while not on my home network and no where near home. freaked the wife out a bit). Not only that, I can ask any of the Google Homes what is playing on any of the other ones or the chromecasts. I can even stop it from them or my phone.

      I also plan on adding Google Home Mini's to the bathrooms as well so you can start the music from in there. You'll jsut have to say "Hey Google, Play some music in the master bathroom speaker" (having to add "in the master bathroom" because now there will be 2 devices that play in that room and if don't the mini will play music on itself.).

      I've also tied the bathroom speakers to homeseer via @spud's plugin. It allows me to know if something starts playing. Right now in the bathrooms, the zone doesn't turn on unless the lights are on, but now if I sense the chromecast for that room is playing, I can turn on the russound zone. Same thing if you leave a room. if the lights turn off and hence the russound zone goes off, it stops the chromecast so I don't have it streaming while no one is listening.


      Edit: I shoudl also add that I use Harmony remotes for my TVS, so I'm going to add chromecasts to them and if it senses them start to play via homeseer, I will have the harmony turn everything on instead of having to turn the tv on first or depend on HDMI CEC (Which the harmony doesn't know about, so if the CC turns on the TV vie CEC the harmony is out of sync now).

      Comment


        #4
        I really would love to have a independent third party do a shoot out in terms of which is more secure. Data privacy and security end to end is my concern.

        If i had to choose, then it would be Amazon over Google...But that is a more of a gut feeling versus fact. I dunno, I personally just stay away from Google products....

        Thoughts?
        HomeSeer 2, HomeSeer 3, Allonis myServer, Amazon Alexa Dots, ELK M1G, ISY 994i, HomeKit, BlueIris, and 6 "4k" Cameras using NVR, and integration between all of these systems. Home Automation since 1980.

        Comment


          #5
          Any comments about the Echo Show Vs. the Google Home Hub, in terms of immigration with homeseer?

          Any HS Touch "like" integration or?

          Thanks.
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            #6
            I got both the show and home hub for Xmas. I have them side by side in the kitchen. Biggest difference I found is the show has two browsers and it has got a virtual keyboard enabling you to surf and log in. The home hub does not have a keyboard even if you trick into opening a browser you cannot enter anything.

            We use Big oven for personal recipes. I can access them on the show but not on the home since I cannot login.



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            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
              For instance in our living room we have 3 banks of recessed lights that are on different switches. I would like to turn them on all at once, but if I have other "lights" in the room, saying "turn on the living room lights" turns them all on. I can't even say "turn of the living room recessed lights" because it gets confused (Mine have North, South and Center in the names). I think I can group them in Alexa now, but I haven't tested that. That said, lights are almost fully automated, so I think events/scenes via voice control would be better for me anyways.
              Light naming, or anything you expect to control with voice, is critical. What's useful as naming for informational or labeling purposes is often nowhere near convenient for voice control.

              Sometimes it helps to think about how the space is going to get used and naming devices to work with that.

              I have a dining room with three circuits. A hanging fixture, some recessed cans and a rope light in the crown molding. "Dining Room Light" is the fixture. "Dining Room Ceiling" is the cans. "Dining Room Rope" handles the LED strip. Not chandelier, not recessed cans, or LED. Mainly because those don't 'roll off the tongue' and also because they're simple and memorable.

              Now, for me it's easy to have lighting come up "together" because all my lighting is on Lutron Ra2 dimmers. I can set up a scene on the Ra2 repeater and control it as a device. That eliminates the popcorn effect of having to issue commands in a linear fashion. I can control the lights individually, and sometimes do (mainly to drop off a set to reduce lighting, as opposed to dimming the whole group). So unless you've got lighting controls that support treating them all as part of a scene you may not be able to get them operating all at the same time. But that wouldn't prevent you from setting up a virtual device that at least makes turning them on/off using just one voice command. The nice part is HS3 gives you two labels for a device, what you see on the detail pages and what you use for voice control. I may want to see "recessed ceiling cans" in software, but am much happier using just "ceiling light" via voice.


              As for google vs amazon, it's simple. Amazon wants to sell stuff to you. Google wants to sell YOU to their advertisers.

              I have a google home and don't make much, if any, use of it for just that reason. I got one to at least be able to try things, not because I want them selling all my usage (and access to me) to advertisers. Yeah, I'd like search to be more robust, but Amazon's catching up pretty well. And google's not all that great at providing totally voice-only results. Searching on a web page is one thing, it's designed to allow for multiple results. But not voice. Amazon's had a 'show this on my device' feature from the start... but it's poorly implemented.

              I'm optimistic that Amazon will do more to improve the software. Much more so than ever expecting google to not sell my data/usage patterns.

              Regarding recipes.... well, my wife and kid are horrible at keeping a tidy kitchen when cooking. It be horrific letting them use a touchscreen while cooking. Plain old paper still wins for recipes. Print another one when they gunk it up, not attempt to dislodge gunk from speaker holes or off the touchscreen...

              Comment


                #8
                on the device naming...

                ive got 2 lights in my kitchen... well bank of 8 cans in kitchen and a light at the kitchen table eating area.
                I can say... Ok Google, turn off the kitchen lights and both sets turn off
                or I can say.. Ok Google, turn off the kitchen table lights

                and works independently. using zwave ge toggle switches and basement is the same but x10 togglelinc switches. 3 sets.. either hey google, turn off the basement lights (stairs, back, middle and front section) all turn off...
                HW - i5 4570T @2.9ghz runs @11w | 8gb ram | 128gb ssd OS - Win10 x64

                HS - HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.435

                Plugins - BLRF 2.0.94.0 | Concord 4 3.1.13.10 | HSBuddy 3.9.605.5 | HSTouch Server 3.0.0.68 | RFXCOM 30.0.0.36 | X10 3.0.0.36 | Z-Wave 3.0.1.190

                Hardware - EdgePort/4 DB9 Serial | RFXCOM 433MHz USB Transceiver | Superbus 2000 for Concord 4 | TI103 X-10 Interface | WGL Designs W800 RF | Z-Net Z-Wave Interface

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                  #9
                  I want to like the Echo Dot, but Alexa's ability to understand 'what I wanted' vs what I said is horrible. What I DO like about the Echo Dot is the ability to change the response so that if she understands the request, she simply dings. Where as Google wants to tell you all about the light he just turned on for you.

                  In contrast, my two year old, three year old, and 5 year old, who have varying levels of competency in their ability to form a sentence, let alone pronounce words correctly, generally have no problems asking Google to play music for them, cast a show to the TV, or control the lights. And the ability to associate devices to a given room in the house may hands down be the best feature because I can simply say 'turn on the light' and it assumes that because I've asked the Master Bedroom Speaker to turn on the light, I must be talking about the Master Bedroom Light, and it just works. Alexa would be like "A few things share that name, which one do you want?" (Nevermind Alexa, I've already left the room, next time I'll just ask Google).

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Google didn't have the ability to tie a speaker to a room initial, for device control. Nor did the Echo units. Both do now. Both are capable of having room-specific simplifications like 'turn on the light'. And if all you've got is one light in a space it'll work fine. I've got no rooms with a single light, so it's not an option I've put effort into configuring. I have set up TV and Xbox consoles that way, and that works nicely.

                    I've done zilch to program the Google devices other than to fight against their inability to use an on-site DNS server. Instead of following Internet standards, Google secretly forces their devices to use their own DNS servers, not any of your own choosing. And if you block this the devices won't work reliably. So I'm still taking a hard pass against any more Google speaker devices. It's just not worth their continuing advertising-oriented abuse.

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                      #11
                      so an interesting thing here.. I still feel google is behind as you can use alexa as 2 way intercom and google you can only … broadcast 1 way...

                      but just recently.. I know my kitchen lights are called so... and if I said.. Ok Google.. Turn off Kitchen Light.. it said that wasn't setup yet.. now it is.. it will take it plural or non..

                      in addition.. I forgot to speak a word and it worked..
                      I said..
                      ok google... turn off master bedroom ceiling...… and it said.. Ok Turning off master bedroom ceiling fan....

                      so it is getting updates and getting there.

                      now that I have google working with HS again.. family is very happy. love it...

                      got fish tank tied in for lights, tons of other things... ive got a switch on order to replace a defective x10 garage one and ill start in the garage.. get it 100% like it used to be.. controlled via motion, etc... then move out into the house..
                      ive got tons of stuff and have about 10% setup...
                      HW - i5 4570T @2.9ghz runs @11w | 8gb ram | 128gb ssd OS - Win10 x64

                      HS - HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.435

                      Plugins - BLRF 2.0.94.0 | Concord 4 3.1.13.10 | HSBuddy 3.9.605.5 | HSTouch Server 3.0.0.68 | RFXCOM 30.0.0.36 | X10 3.0.0.36 | Z-Wave 3.0.1.190

                      Hardware - EdgePort/4 DB9 Serial | RFXCOM 433MHz USB Transceiver | Superbus 2000 for Concord 4 | TI103 X-10 Interface | WGL Designs W800 RF | Z-Net Z-Wave Interface

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