Tag Archives: Home

Made for music, the new Nest Audio is here


This year, we’ve all spent a lot of time exploring things to do at home. Some of us gardened, and others baked. We tried at-home workouts, or took up art projects. But one thing that many—maybe all of us—did? Enjoyed a lot of music at home. I’ve spent so much more time listening to music during quarantine—bossa nova is my go-to soundtrack for doing the dishes and Lil Baby has become one of my favorite artists. But you might even prefer Mohammed Rafi or Ilayaraja.


To help provide a richer soundtrack to your time at home, we’re especially excited to introduce Nest Audio, our latest smart speaker made for music lovers.


A music machine

Nest Audio is 75 percent louder and has 50 percent stronger bass than the original Google Home—measurements of both devices were taken in controlled conditions. With a 19mm tweeter for consistent high frequency coverage and clear vocals and a 75mm mid-woofer that really brings the bass, this smart speaker is built to deliver a rich musical experience. 


Nest Audio’s sound is full, clear, and natural. We completed more than 500 hours of tuning to ensure balanced lows, mids and highs so  nothing is lacking or overbearing. The bass is significant and the vocals have depth, which makes Nest Audio sound great across genres: classical, R&B, pop and more. The custom-designed tweeter allows each musical detail to come through, and we optimized the grill, fabric and materials so that you can enjoy the audio without distortion. 


Our goal was to ensure that Nest Audio stayed faithful to what the artist intended when they were in the recording studio. We minimized the use of compressors to preserve dynamic range, so the auditory contrast in the original production is preserved—the quiet parts are delicate and subtle, and the loud ones are more dramatic and powerful. 


Nest Audio also adapts to your home. Our Media EQ feature enables Nest Audio to automatically tune itself to whatever you’re listening to: music, podcasts, audiobooks or even a response from Google Assistant. And Ambient IQ lets Nest Audio also adjust the volume of Assistant, news, podcasts and audiobooks based on the background noise in your home, so you can hear the weather forecast over a noisy vacuum cleaner.


Whole home audio

If you have a Google Home, Nest Mini or even a Nest Hub, you can easily make Nest Audio the center of your whole home sound system. In my living room, I’ve connected two Nest Audio speakers as a stereo pair for left and right channel separation. I also have a Nest Mini in my bedroom and a Nest Hub in the entryway. These devices are grouped so that I can blast the same song on all of them when I have my daily dance party. 


With our stream transfer feature, I can move music from one device to the other with just my voice*. I can even transfer music or podcasts from my phone when I walk in the door. Just last month, we launched multi-room control, which allows you to dynamically group multiple cast-enabled Nest devices in real time. 


The Google Assistant you love

Google Assistant, available in Hindi and English, helps you tackle your day, enjoy your entertainment and control compatible smart home brands like Philips Hue, TP-Link and more. In fact, people have already set up more than 100 million devices to work with Google Assistant. Plus, if you’re a YouTube Music or Spotify Premium subscriber, you can say, “Ok Google, recommend some music” and Google Assistant will offer a variety of choices from artists and genres that you like as well as others that are similar.


Differentiated by design

Typically, a bigger speaker equals bigger sound, but Nest Audio has a really slim profile—so it  fits anywhere in the home. In order to maximize audio output, we custom-designed quality drivers and housed them in an enclosure that helps it squeeze out every bit of sound possible. 


Nest Audio will be available in India in two colors: Chalk and Charcoal. Its soft, rounded edges blend in with your home’s decor, and its minimal footprint doesn't take up too much space on your shelf or countertop. 


We’re continuing our commitment to sustainability with Nest Audio. It’s covered in the same sustainable fabric that we first introduced with Nest Mini last year, and the enclosure (meaning the fabric, housing, foot, and a few smaller parts) is made from 70 percent recycled plastic. 


Nest Audio will be available in India on Flipkart and at other retail outlets later this month. Stay tuned for more information on pricing and offers, which will be announced closer to the sale date.


Posted by Mark Spates, Product Manager, Google Nest 


*currently only available in English in India

The best hardware, software and AI—together

Today, we introduced our second generation family of consumer hardware products that are coming to Canada, all made by Google: new Pixel phones, Google Home Mini and Max, an all new Pixelbook, Google Pixel Buds, and an updated Daydream View headset. We see tremendous potential for devices to be helpful, make your life easier, and even get better over time when they’re created at the intersection of hardware, software and advanced artificial intelligence (AI). 

Why Google? 
These days many devices—especially smartphones—look and act the same. That means in order to create a meaningful experience for users, we need a different approach. A year ago, Sundar outlined his vision of how AI would change how people would use computers. And in fact, AI is already transforming what Google’s products can do in the real world. For example, swipe typing has been around for a while, but AI lets people use Gboard to swipe-type in two languages at once. Google Maps uses AI to figure out what the parking is like at your destination and suggest alternative spots before you’ve even put your foot on the gas. But, for this wave of computing to reach new breakthroughs, we have to build software and hardware that can bring more of the potential of AI into reality—which is what we’ve set out to do with this year’s new family of products.

Hardware, built from the inside out 
We’ve designed and built our latest hardware products around a few core tenets. First and foremost, we want them to be radically helpful. They’re fast, they’re there when you need them, and they’re simple to use. Second, everything is designed for you, so that the technology doesn’t get in the way and instead blends into your lifestyle. Lastly, by creating hardware with AI at the core, our products can improve over time. They’re constantly getting better and faster through automatic software updates. And they’re designed to learn from you, so you’ll notice features—like the Google Assistant—get smarter and more assistive the more you interact with them.

You’ll see this reflected in our 2017 lineup of new Made by Google products:

  • The Pixel 2 has the best camera of any smartphone, again, along with a gorgeous display and augmented reality capabilities. Pixel owners get unlimited storage for their photos and videos, and an exclusive preview of Google Lens, which uses AI to give you helpful information about the things around you. 
  • Google Home Mini brings the Assistant to more places throughout your home, with a beautiful design that fits anywhere. And Max, which is coming later to Canada, is our biggest and best-sounding Google Home device, powered by the Assistant. And with AI-based Smart Sound, Max has the ability to adapt your audio experience to you—your environment, context, and preferences. 
  • With Pixelbook, we’ve reimagined the laptop as a high-performance Chromebook, with a versatile form factor that works the way you do. It’s the first laptop with the Assistant built in, and the Pixelbook Pen makes the whole experience even smarter. 
  • Our new Pixel Buds combine Google smarts and the best digital sound. You’ll get elegant touch controls that put the Assistant just a tap away, and they’ll even help you communicate in a different language. 
  • The updated Daydream View is the best mobile virtual reality (VR) headset on the market, and the simplest, most comfortable VR experience. 

Assistant, everywhere 
Across all these devices, you can interact with the Google Assistant any way you want—talk to it with your Google Home or your Pixel Buds, squeeze your Pixel 2, or use your Pixelbook’s Assistant key or circle things on your screen with the Pixelbook Pen. Wherever you are, and on any device with the Assistant, you can connect to the information you need and get help with the tasks to get you through your day. No other assistive technology comes close, and it continues to get better every day.

Google’s hardware business is just getting started, and we’re committed to building and investing for the long run. We couldn’t be more excited to introduce you to our second-generation family of products that truly brings together the best of Google software, thoughtfully designed hardware with cutting-edge AI. We hope you enjoy using them as much as we do.

Availability
Here’s some more info on where and when you can get our new hardware in Canada. Visit The Google Store for more info.

  • Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are available for pre-order today, starting at $899, on The Google Store, Bell, Best Buy Canada, Fido, Freedom Mobile, Koodo, Rogers, The Source, TELUS, Tbooth wireless, Walmart, WIRELESSWAVE, Videotron, and Virgin. 
  • Pixel Buds will be available later this year for $219 on The Google Store and Best Buy Canada. 
  • Pixelbook is available in three configurations starting at $1299, so you can choose the processing power, memory and storage you want. The Pixelbook Pen is $129. Both will be available for pre-order today in Canada, with the exception of Quebec, and on sale at The Google Store and select retailers, including Best Buy Canada. We’re working to bring Pixelbook to Quebec in the future. 
  • Google Home Mini is available for pre-order today for $79 on The Google Store, Best Buy Canada and select retailers. 
  • The new Google Daydream View is available for pre-order today for $139 on The Google Store and select retailers. 

Posted by Rick Osterloh, SVP, Hardware