Are Google’s new devices worth getting excited about?

Certainly very few females there, Kate.

Looks like Nerd Central.

When a platform like Facebook or YouTube becomes a defacto world standard app, then security leaks stand to compromise vast numbers of users.

In the real world, I think upgrading software or adding more features is always likely to add more bugs and loopholes.

Hence, I think successful companies like Google have an obligation to work hard on security, but even so, consumers should not expect those efforts to provide impregnable defences.

As an individual user, I try to limit the amount of data that I’m sharing via Google and Facebook, but I don’t find this easy to do.

Why do you think Google+ failed as a social platform Kate?

I associate the name Home Hub with BT but now we have Google Home Hub and BT have a Smart Hub. Has there been some wrangle over the trade name?

Well, they’re gradually caching Apple up, anyway. The look and feel of all the devices is remarkably similar – to each other, even. Wonder when we’ll see real innovation?

Given that the basics for decent PC’s were established a long time ago, it is easy to see that significant innovation is hard.

I think Apple have done a great job of securing the premium “more money than sense” segment of the market, but I can see that other suppliers would be attracted by even marginal incursions there.

As folk acquire more and more home computers, it becomes harder and harder for evolutionary products to make headway in the market.

In recent years, tablets seem to have lost out to smart phones, while “real work” mostly still needs devices with decent keyboards.

3D TV seems to have come and gone and cloud based AI is waiting in the wings. But we won’t make much use of cloud based AI unless we grow to trust the companies operating it.

From my point of view, home hubs and IoT devices look like brilliant solutions to nonexistent problems. But perhaps there’s a killer app out there, just waiting to be discovered.

Grown ups toys now, Derek. I still have notebooks and pencils for some tasks. I like Miele products; they work well and are well built. A feature of a washing machine described by Which?:
“The new Miele WCR860 WPS arms owners with a full suite of tech to improve laundry day. You can use your smartphone to set it using Miele’s WiFiConn@ct app. But if manual controls are your preference, you’ll enjoy swiping to set your programs using the new touchscreen on the machine itself. These two features make the Miele feel right up-to-date.”

Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/10/is-it-worth-splashing-out-for-a-new-miele-washing-machine/ – Which?

As I can’t use my smartphone to load clothes into a washing machine I’m not sure why I’d need an app. I’m sure someone will tell me :-). Our Bosch machine has a rotary knob to set the programme – is that an advance over a touch screen? People seem to use “new features” as an excuse to replace something; smartphones are a good example. Are “new features” always desirable, except for the manufacturer to sell more stuff?

malcosaurus r 🙁

Kate Bevan says: 9 October 2018

I think you’re bang on, Derek, and it answers Ian’s question, too: it’s really hard to come up with new products and to be innovative. Both Google and Apple’s strategy is clearly to keep giving you good reasons to stay with their respective eco

Ah – the joys of convergence.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”