INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Smart speakers are the best first step if you want to try out smart home technology
Many are affordable, they are fun to play with and even if you decide you don't want to talk to a disembodied voice, they still work as
natural-feeling virtual assistant and you have three sizes of speaker to choose from
Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo range is the most popular, helped by being forever splashed across the internet's biggest retailer.Apple makes
just one smart speaker, the HomePod
Just like Siri on your iPhone or Google Assistant on your Android, you can almost treat these assistants like a person
Ask it to play a specific song, about a bit of pop culture triva or to set an alarm, and it will.Although it's often embarrassing to start
talking to your phone in public, the same social pressures don't exist in the home where you can be as weird as you like with your new robot
Let's find out which is right for you.HardwareHow big a speaker do you want Google and Amazon offer plenty of choices
Small, affordable, puck-shaped speakers like the Home Mini and Echo Dot let you try out digital assistants without spending too much
Cube$119 (UK TBC)The Fire TV Cube is Amazon's latest branching-out of smart speaker tech
This is a smart speaker, but also a set-top box
And as it has an IR blaster it'll turn your TV on and off too
than the standard Echo, this more expensive model also sounds better
You can video chat with people using the front camera
Home has an unusual but stylish look and a touch surface on top to let you control volume and music playback.Google Home Max$399The big
daddy of smart speakers, the Home Max looks like a wireless hifi rather than the kind of speaker that blends into the background
That said, the look is still neutral
There are tweeters firing out from all sides, letting you put the speaker in the middle of a room
design, their footprints aren't all that large
It has worse clarity than the Echo (2nd Gen) and Echo Plus
company's budget, screen-equipped Echo.FeaturesWhich speaker is more intelligentWhen it first launched, Alexa's functionality was fairly
basic, limited to mundane conversations like asking about the weather or the time
As Amazon continued to develop the software, however, Alexa gained the ability to talk about calendars, sports and what we should have for
dinner.We're not quite living in a Star Trek-esque future, where the device will understand your every command, but Alexa is advanced enough
to understand multiple phrasings of the same question, for example.Amazon has a strong track record for the past two years, sure, but it's
going up against Google, a company that's had a strong track record in information parsing for the last two decadesGoogle's impressive
search abilities means the speaker has a lot of information at its disposal
It understands your commands better than Alexa
The HomePod has Apple Music
Echo devices have Amazon Music
devices allow you to play content on an external TV
have a Chromecast Audio then you can simply ask Google Home to play music through the speakers it's connected to
Meanwhile the Echo is limited to playing music on its own speaker, and the Echo Dot can only be connected to a single speaker at a time
through either Bluetooth or a wired 3.5mm connection.In theory this should give the Google Home the edge, but in practice its Google Cast
functionality could be better
You can easily play shows from Netflix, YouTube and other supported apps using just your voice, however again in practice this could be
Google's other services, from planning routes using Google Maps to translating using Google Translate
nearly enough use of this functionality
is available with a number of different finishes.Meanwhile, Amazon has an ever-growing list of compatible "Skills" apps including Domino's
Pizza, Just Eat in the UK and Uber, allowing you to either have your pizza delivered or request a ride over to the store to pick it up
course, music and services are just two parts of the smart speaker equation
If you're buying a Home, Echo or HomePod, you're also looking for a smart assistant to help control the burgeoning field of smart appliances
It has a Zigbee hub built in, which means that for many smart home products you no longer have to have a separate piece of hardware plugged
Philips Hue lightbulbs, for example, can be turned on and off, but their more advanced color-changing abilities will still require a
Google Nest, for obvious reasons, is also integrated into Home's functionality
As for Apple, it started its HomeKit program ages ago which means many devices are ready to go.However, there are thousands of third-party
devices that will work with all three smart speakers
Amazon Alexa supports the highest number of smart home devices, but the best idea is to check whether the smart home gear you own, or are
Amazon offers daily and weekly specials via the "Alexa, what are today's deals" command
When used, the speaker will rattle off a list of products available to purchase and the price of each
At any point, you can stop the speaker and say, "Alexa, purchase " and Alexa will confirm your order
doesn't own a massive online retail store like Amazon does, Google Home has partnered up in the US with Walmart and other retailers to offer
a voice shopping catalogue of its own
It's all part of Google's Express platform, that allows you to quickly order products from a number of other retailers like Kohl's, Target,
CostCo, Whole Foods and Ulta
Some may find this reassuring rather than an issue
However, you can ask Siri to add items to a shopping list
You can then check it on your phone when at the supermarket
to Jon's profile."Google Home is slightly more clever, and will recognise different users by the sound of their voice alone
You'll need to train the speaker to recognise each person's voice by saying "OK Google" and "Hey Google" a few times, but after that point
And Siri will react to whoever talks to it
Google and Amazon use data collection to learn about you
Apple uses a purer form of artificial intelligence, making it harder to create the illusion Siri knows what you want every time you open
This data can then be used to tailor the ads you see on websites, which also happens when you search for something on Google.com or
You have to have an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to get it working
and Google Home Mini are your two choices
HomePod or Google Home Max
speakers with screens are great for, say, the kitchen
Make sure you adjust your expectations before buying
