Oh boy, where to begin...
The big thing so far is the new "Google Home" gadget. The hardware is analogous to an Amazon Echo, but it's got built-in support for Chromecast and they're trying to be very clever about the sorts of instructions you can give it. One example command was "play Coldplay in the living room". So think of this as Chromecast + Sonos + Echo.
I'd like to amend your equation because Chromecast was already like Sonos, but I get your point. The only problem I have is that Chromecasting needs a ton of work. The reliability I've experienced has been pitiful, IMO, especially with multi-room audio. When it works, it's fantastic. But one of my Chromecast Audio devices is constantly cutting out or getting lost, and Google Play Music will almost always tell me I've been disconnected from the Chromecast after little more than 10 minutes. It's exceedingly frustrating.
One of the features of the canned video was "hey Google, turn on the lights in the kid's room." So they're also going after the rest of the home automation market.
Yeah, everything can do this now. My question is: what are they using? Is it just API's to talk to other mostly-closed systems? Is it one of those things where it'll work with Nest and Hue and a couple of the other most popular devices, but never a complete system? And what is the interface for this? Voice only? So if I'm on the other side of the house, I have to use the individual apps for those automation devices? Ugh, don't get me started on the state of home automation. IMO, it's a total disaster right now.
Also, I'm now assuming that Android@Home is done. Right? They named this new project "Home," which seems to put that to bed. I'd also hoped that this was the sort of thing that would be added to the OnHub products that Google has been making. It has a microphone and a speaker, but who knows why!?
Android N: still no name yet, instead a PR stunt, where people can share name ideas with Google. Yawn.
Yeah, that's stupid. Who cares? The vast majority of users don't even know any of these names. Just pick an "N" sweet and move on.
Three claimed improvements in Android N:
There'd better be performance fixes and not just improvements. My Nexus 5X has been a disaster, but I'll start another thread about that...
Android Wear 2.0
- Oh boy, they've got a teeny tiny keyboard as well as handwriting recognition so you can reply to texts without needing to pull out your phone.
I've completely given up voice dictation on my gen 1 Moto 360. I have no idea why, but while it was pretty good at first, it's become 100% unusable in recent months. It'll completely miss-hear me, and even when I try again and try to enunciate perfectly, it still totally messes up. Recently, I tried sending a simple four digit number to myself. I said something like "OK Google, note to self 4628." I tried it three times, and every time it heard the number with a 0 in front of it. I have no clue why.
Sorry, I realize I'm venting on some of these issues, but I've been having a really hard time keeping the Google faith when every Google product around me is malfunctioning.
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