Right around the time New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady orchestrated the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, Google officially introduced the world to its Amazon Echo-competing home servant, Google Home. A one-minute advertisement showing off the different ways in which people have the ability to interact with Home, the spot featured — over and over again, mind you — people uttering its popular wake word, “OK Google.”
Due in part to the wake word’s prominent feature, Google Home users all over the country say their devices acted a bit erratic during the ad, responding to the commercial’s commands. At least it’s reassuring to know the Home as a keen ear for its wake word, right?
Though the gaffe didn’t cause any serious harm to anyone — unless, of course, it accidentally turned off the lights while someone was transporting a fresh bowl of bean dip — many Home users took to Twitter to sound off on the incident. Using words like “bonkers” or “haywire,” Home users appear to have endured a rather interesting 60 seconds while Google’s big Super Bowl ad enjoyed its time in the spotlight.
During the ad, Google displayed several ways in which users can ask the device everyday questions. Inquiries such as “turn up the music” or “what’s a good substitute for cardamom” were shown off with the Home quickly answering back by either speaking to the owner or executing the desired action. On the other side of the TV screen, users say their Home device didn’t exactly react in a similar way with one Twitter user saying it responded back with, “sorry, I don’t understand.” While the Home picked up its wake word with ease, it appears it isn’t as up to snuff taking orders as the advertisement let on — orders given via TV transmission, at least.
Despite the humorous flub, Google’s Home spot still managed to introduce spectators to the next big player in the home assistant industry. Alphabet (Google’s managing company) has yet to issue any official response, though based on the fact no one was seriously injured or a product completely destroyed or broken, this is likely an incident in which Google Home’s management team can simply laugh about.
Few things ruin a quiet evening faster than a robot vacuum roaring through the living room. Most of us end up pausing the cleaning run, which defeats the whole purpose of owning one. Matic thinks it has the answer with its new Serene robot vacuum, and the big selling point is how little noise it makes.
The Matic Serene runs at 52 decibels even when cleaning at full power. To put that in perspective, Matic compares it to the hum of your refrigerator. It is available now for $1,695, which is $200 more than the original Matic’s current price.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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