This is Nest Hub Max, the first product from Google’s newly-formed team, Google Nest. It is a smart hub that does pretty much JBL LINK View and Amazon Echo Show does and then some. It packs so many tech in it, that it might give you the creep. Or at least, that’s how I felt. But it could be just me being paranoid. It is a digital photo frame powered by Google Photos, it is a home view dashboard that gives an overview of your connected devices and grant you control over them, it is a life organizer, a communicator and an eye on your home when you are away.
With it, you can stream you favorite live shows and sports served by YouTube TV if you are subscribed to it and it can also play your favorite tunes and teach you how to cook. If Google Nest Hello video doorbell is connected, you can see who’s at the door too. For it to pull off all of the above mentioned, it has Google Assistant built-in, ultrasound sensing technology, ambient EQ light sensor, Voice Match technology, far-field microphones, and a stereo speaker system comprising of a pair of 18 mm tweeters and a 75 mm 30W rear-firing subwoofer.
It has built-in WiFi, supporting dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac, as wells Bluetooth 5.0 technology, Chromecast built-in and 802.15.4 (at 2.4 GHz) Thread support. There is a smart camera built into the front for video calling, leave video messages and with motion detection, it conveniently doubles as a security cam for your home. With notifications, of course. Thanks to Face Match (basically, face recognition technology) and Voice Match, Google Nest Hub Max only pulls up information intended for you and not others.
The camera also recognizes gestures too to do things like, for example, pausing the media simply by raising your hand in front of it. So, yeah, it has on-device gesture recognition technology too. Where there’s camera, there is security concerns and to address it, there’s a green light on the front to indicate the camera activated and there’s also a hardware switch to disable the microphone and camera. Google Nest Hub Max will arrived this Summer in stateside, available through Google Store, Best Buy, Target, Home Depot and more, priced at $229.
It will also land in UK and the Australia. Presumably, in Summer as well. In addition, Google will also make available Nest Hub to 12 new countries. Nest Hub sells in the U.S. for $129. In a somewhat related news, Google has also announced the updated pricing for Google Home and Google Home Max which will sell for $99 and $299, respectively. Keep going for the product video.
Images: Google.
