The other day I wrote an article titled Google Home Hub: The Jury Is Still Out . It’s an article about the new Google Home Hub we purchased as a family gift, and something we had high hopes for. This article is the follow-up to that article.
After a couple days of playing around with the Google Home Hub, and doing some research into other similar devices, such as the Amazon Echo Show, the jury has convened and there is a verdict.
The Verdict
The Google Home Hub has been returned.
Here are some of the reasons the Google Home Hub wasn’t going to work for us:
- The Google Home Hub, and devices like it, are mainly intended to control smart devices in your home. Things like turning on and off lights, accessing security cameras, controlling your thermostat and other smart appliances – such as coffee pots and television sets. If you don’t have smart devices in your home, you really don’t need the Google Home Hub.
- While the Google Home Hub does have a lot of built in apps, very few are actually truly useful. Here is a link to all the apps – What Google Home Hub Can Do, and here are a few examples of things we discovered:
– You can listen to news stories – but only from some news sources, not all.
– You can watch some programs on various channels, such as YouTube, but this is very limited.
– You can listen to music on a few stations (mainly YouTube), but again, this is very limited.
– You can ask for the weather conditions, but will only get very basic information (no radar images, no wind speeds, etc.).
– You can ask for recipes, but the recipes returned from a search are extremely limited.
– You can use the Google Home Hub to show your photos stored in Google Photos as a slideshow on a digital frame (assuming you use Google Photos).
– There are some games you can play, but most you’ve never heard of and they are also very limited.
– It can interact with your Google Calendar to keep track of your schedule (assuming you use Google Calendar). - There is NO web browser on the Google Home Hub – this is extremely limiting, and frankly was darned annoying! As a note, the Amazon Echo Show does have a browser.
- There is no way to watch live TV, or channels that you might have through cable or satellite.
- There is no camera, so you can’t video chat with others. You can use the Google Home Hub to talk to other users using just audio.
…These are just some of the reasons this device is not one of our choice.
The Solution
While the Google Home Hub and other similar home devices weren’t the solution for us, it ends up the solution was right in front of us the entire time!
Enter….. the iPad and the iPad Pro!
Yes. The iPad… the amazing tablets I’ve had now for a couple of years. Duh!!!
After returning the Google Home Hub, I bought a fancy stand for the iPad Pro, added a few apps and Siri shortcuts to do the things we were looking for, and now the iPad is THE perfect smart home device for us!
Why was the iPad the better smart home device for us?
With Siri voice control or via touch screen, the iPad is basically just like a computer. ANYTHING you can do on the computer, you can do with the iPad. And, pretty much anything you can do with a smart home device, you can also do on the iPad.
Here are just some of the things we can do with the iPad Pro as a smart home device:
- Check daily news, on any and all channels (no limitations)
- Watch any channel via DirecTV (this includes local news channels)
- Play music via YouTube or any other music station, radio station, or music app – such as iTunes
- Check daily weather, get forecasts, alerts, radar images, etc. – all via local weather stations, weather channels, news channels, etc.
- Have access to every single recipe on the internet, including recipe videos
- Share photos, display a slideshow of photos as a digital camera, and take photos
- Play games (there are thousands of games in the app store)
- Check calendars for our schedules, using any calendar app we chose to use
- Access the internet (no restrictions)
- Watch Netflix directly on the iPad (can also be streamed to TV)
- Stream ANYTHING on the iPad to our television (via our Apple TV)
- Use the iPad for Facetime calls with others
- Use the iPad for text messages and iMessages
- Send and receive email from all your email accounts
- Access social media platforms via browser or apps
- Check our security cameras (while at home and while away)
- Use the iPad to control smart home devices – the HomeKit app is just ONE of the apps you can use to control smart devices; there are others such as the Gideon Smart Home App , the IFTTT app, and many more. There is pretty much an app that will control any smart home device you have.
- Access banking accounts, pay bills, check investments, etc.
…This list could go on and on and on and on. Seriously.
The verdict is a clear win for the iPad or iPad Pro for our family.
Summary
While new technology and new electronic gadgets are fun and exciting to try, it ends up not every new gadget lives up to everyone’s expectations. We had high hopes for the Google Home Hub and the things it could do, but we were so disappointed by the things it couldn’t do.
After serious testing and careful thought, we realized that the iPad had everything we needed, and MORE.
We’ll be sticking with the iPad, and we’re having fun with the new apps and capabilities I added to make this a COMPLETE smart home device! Discovering things the iPad can do that I wasn’t aware of has been very enlightening.
Do you use a smart home device? Tell me what you like most about it and how you’re using it with your family.
