STACK #193 Nov 2020

LIFE TECH FEATURE

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ECO FRIENDLY continued

Here's a handy idea to ask your Google Assistant that you may not have tried yet.

“Hey Google! Remember this…” When stashing documents such as a birth certificate or a passport somewhere in the house, tell Google where you’re putting them. When it comes time to remember that obscure hiding place, your faithful AI assistant will tell you where they are. Well, as long as you haven’t moved them since.

4 MOVIE QUESTIONS FOR GOOGLE ASSISTANT “Hey Google, surely you can’t be serious?” “Hey Google, your mother was a hamster.” “Hey Google, aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” “Hey Google, inconceivable!”

SMART ALEXA! Amazon’s Alexa offers similar levels of smart home control to Google Assistant, complete with an impressive range of smart products to make your life easier. The Alexa app plays nice with both Android and iOS smartphones, allowing super-simple set-up of pretty much everything smart that you can think of to interface with it. IS THERE AN ECHO IN HERE? The fourth generation of Amazon’s Echo series is currently rolling out, ranging from the tiny powerhouse Echo Dot with Alexa through to the larger Echo with Alexa, which is made to make your streamed music sound amazing. Very snazzy-looking spheres, they’re available in a range of colours, and there’s even an Echo Dot with built-in digital clock that you can park by your bedside or wherever you like to watch time pass. The Echo Show range adds a screen to the mix for visual as well as audio content, while the Fire TV Stick Lite is a newly-released device to make all of your entertainment viewing a free and easy experience. It plugs straight into your TV, and allows access to everything from local TV to your various

CASTING CALL! The other popular member of the Google family is the latest Chromecast with Google TV, and it’s popular for good reason. Just plug it into an HDMI socket in your TV and it opens up a world of entertainment possibilities all in one place. Be it movies, live TV, streaming content and more, you don’t need to bounce between apps. Supporting latest TV technology including 4K and HDR, it comes with an old school remote control, but the really cool feature is that you can hook it into your Google Assistant network and use your voice to search for just the right movie or TV show. A PHOTOGRAPH OF YOU If you have precious photographs, then you’ll want to make sure that they’re stored safely, and a great way to do this is by backing them up to the free Google Photos cloud storage app. Once they’re there a whole new world of display options opens up if you have a Google smart home. Devices such as the Nest Hub family can be set to act as digital picture frames, and if you have Chromecast then you can pull off the 21st century equivalent of the classic slide night by casting your images to a television for all to enjoy.

streaming services all from the one place – and with the added joy of being able to ask Alexa to find things for you, rather than having to shuffle about in menus manually. AN APPLE’S OK! While Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are the dominant players in the smart ecosystem space, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t alternatives.

Here's a handy idea to ask your Google Assistant that you may not have tried yet.

Most notably, if you’re deep into the world of Apple then you may wish to set yourself up with their HomeKit range, which uses their proprietary assistant Siri to control your various smart items. Many smart products from other suppliers are completely happy to get along with Siri, just keep an eye out for “Works with Apple HomeKit” labelling.

“Hey Google! Broadcast…” Do you have a house full of Google hubs and want to round up the troops? Easy! Just say, “Hey Google, broadcast that dinner will soon be in the dog if you don’t hurry up”. Like your very own intercom system, each device will relay your message.

10 NOVEMBER 2020

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