I've run out of patience with the Pixel Tablet as a smart hub
One of the selling points of the Pixel Tablet is its ability to double as an Assistant speaker and smart hub. It failed me at both of those.
A little eye-opening to read about the issues experienced. Glad I wasn't an early adopter in this case.
Honestly, the biggest thing they need to fix is the assistant. It can't even set the alarm to 5:05 with voice commands, without suggesting that I meant to say 5:05, which is exactly what I said.
It often mistakes what was said, and does a google search, even though you asked it to do a function it's perfomed many times before (like tirning on a light).
Assistant has been wonky for years.
Recently my hub wouldn't recognise "goodnight" as a household routine command, only as a personal one. Instead it'd just respond with a chipper "goodnight!"
There's a new issue every week.
I feel that the last year has been awful for the assistant. We have a google nest mini or w/e in the bedroom, and I can't snooze my alarm for 10min without it shitting the bed and setting off the alarm, while also asking me if I meant 10am or pm (as if I'm setting a new alarm). To be clear, I can snooze for 9 or 11 minutes just fine. But 10 minutes is no good.
It blows my mind that half a year after the public launch of ChatGPT that Google Assistant seems to be getting dumber instead of smarter and Bard is a completely different silo'd product still.
My Google Assistant a while ago picked up a problem. I use it to set timers all the time. Suddenly, one day it wouldn't understand "set a timer for 3:30" anymore and I'd have to say "3:30 pm". Then its dementia progressed and it was setting timers for the next day unless I specified "today at 3:30 pm". Then the day after that lucidity returned and it regained the ability to do the basic "set a timer for 3:30". It doesn't feel like it actually understands language at all. I appreciate that they're making updates, but I wish they were updates for the better.
The first company that will sell me a smart speaker that works like ChatGPT/Bing/Bard/etc. and I throw my Nest speakers in the garbage and switch brands.
So her biggest issue is that the tablet wasn't on the dock when it needed to be used. Because she took it and wanted to use it for herself. Having a smart home hub means you can't take it away and use it to surf the web.
But the point that the reviewer makes (and that many others have made as well) is that it doesn't have to be like that. When undocked, the decision could have been made to allow the base to be a self-functioning smart speaker, like a Google Nest Mini. This is the functionality that most reviewers have wanted - so that it you undock the tablet, you could still use the speaker for voice commands or playing music.
💯
It's what stopped me getting one. There's just no way I'm gonna bother listening to media on the thing, only to have it stop if I want to pick up the tablet and sit on the couch.
I assume they did this to keep the speaker cheap enough to include for free and at a compelling price for as many people as possible. Here's hoping they, or a third party, release a premium version at some point!
And because the base costs $130, it should have been like that: a smart speaker that can occasionally hold and charge a tablet, instead of an overpriced charger with a proprietary connector.
Completely rely on the tablet software is janky, and only works if someone lives alone.
So her biggest issue is that the tablet wasn’t on the dock when it needed to be used. Because she took it and wanted to use it for herself. Having a smart home hub means you can’t take it away and use it to surf the web.
Is this to downplay the pain points she encountered? Because reading it another way it seems like a total indictment of the concept behind merging a tablet with a smart hub.
I don't think it's an indictment of the concept, but rather a failure to realize it. I think there are two big improvements to be made, that would solve the author's issues:
Because it's the opposite of how I would do it. I see the value in using a tablet off the shelf to control a smart home, but if it were me id probably mount it in a case to prevent it from walking away. I wouldn't want somebody picking it up and using it around the house, that's what their own tablet is for, but this one stays stationary in the kitchen.
Then why make it a tablet?
But also it doesn't support more than one user (it requires screen interaction to change the user before speaking the command, at that point could just directly type on a phone in the pocket)
Having a smart home hub means you can't take it away and use it to surf the web.
Easy fix: get two tablets. Better yet, get the number-of-people-in-the-household plus 1 tablets, so everyone has their own plus one to be the hub.
Congratulations, you've passed Capitalism 101.
They got ya.