Mildly Amused
I sometimes forget I have a Google Home Mini. It’s not because I don’t like it, it’s because I rearranged some cables and it ended up under a table out of line of sight. This would make it worse for acoustics but it fares well. It’s able to pick up trigger and the request within 2–3 meters.
This weekend reminded me what it’s good at… knowledge. “OK Google, what does an oboe sound like?” I repeated this for about 10 instruments. “OK Google, how do you say my name is …. in Mandarin?” Done and quickly. “OK Google, find my phone”.
The language and sounds seemed to stump Alexa. That’s a shame — how things sound is a perfect use case for a voice first product. Let’s hope Alexa will catch up so that Google doesn’t become complacent.
