Roger Fingas
Thought it pulled a product page within a matter of minutes, Walmart on Tuesday briefly offered preorders for the Home Mini, a new smartspeaker expected to be officially revealed in a Wednesday Google announcement.
The disc-like speaker is a little over 4 inches wide, with four lights on top presumably matching those on the full-sized Home, according to photos and text from the product page, shared by Gizmodo. The device should weigh less than a pound, and cost $49.
The leak would appear to back up Droid Life information from last month, which also suggested that the Mini will come in three colors: charcoal, gray, and coral.
The device appears to be a direct competitor with Amazon's Echo Dot, which costs $49.99 and likewise serves as a cheaper alternative to a full-size speaker. The regular Google Home costs $129, and hasn't achieved as much traction as the growing Echo lineup, despite Google Assistant often being considered a better voice assistant than Amazon's Alexa. Amazon was the first company to succeed in smartspeakers, and Alexa now integrates with a number of apps, services, and smarthome accessories.
Other Google products anticipated on Oct. 4 include two Android phones, the "Pixel 2" and "Pixel 2 XL," plus a "Pixelbook" Chromebook with a stylus.
Apple's first smartspeaker, the HomePod, will only ship in December for $349. Unlike the Echo or Home the product is being aimed at an audiophile market, helping to explain its richer pricetag.
Christine McKee
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28 Comments
If Apple's version costs $349, you'd better hope it's aimed at the audiophile market.
Smartspeaker is a misnomer. The Echo is offering content just like Google Home trying to compete. If HomePod is for audiophile then it is not trying to compete or replace Echo or Google Home.
Any company who invades our privacy, steals IP, disrespects their customers, wants photos of our children and access to our brain deserves to get shitted on.
Sog you’re Ok here and it’s true, generally no one cares about their leaks. IDK why AI is reporting this either.