If you don’t have a Google Home or any of its variants yet, one alternative that you can try out is the upcoming iHome iGV1. It does almost all of the things that a smart speaker does, but it also adds a fairly simple functionality: it also serves as a clock and an alarm. Most likely, you’ll be placing it somewhere near your bed, and smart speakers can actually serve you best if it’s in that vicinity so you can access your connected home even before you physically get out of bed.
The iGV1 has a built-in clock shown on a simple white display and a smaller display to show you when you’ve set the next, upcoming alarm. You, of course,get a snooze button, which will probably get a workout from you almost every day, unless you’re a morning person and an excited riser. If you need complete darkness to be able to sleep, you can turn off the white display. The clock speaker also has a 1A USB port so you can charge your smartphone or any USB-powered device while you sleep.
The built-in Google Assistant can do a lot of things for you, like answer your questions, stream music from Spotify, Pandora, Google Play Music, etc, give you daily news briefings, and a lot of other tasks that the digital assistant can bring. You can also control with voice commands your smart lights, remotely-controlled outlets, and other smart home kits that you have installed. You have a manual launch button at the top to trigger the Google Assistant, volume keys, play/pause and track skip buttons, and one to start pairing your device through Bluetooth.
The iHome iGV1 will be available in the US soon, although no specific date has been announced. It will cost you $139.99, which is slightly more expensive than the $129 Google Home.
VIA: SlashGear
