I just saw one of these are Costco, and I immediately thought it might work for a touch screen smart home controller/device. I know it’s not intended for this, and has a popout stand that also serves to improve sound, but it could still be done. Since I use google assistant and smartthings it seems like it could work. I hear that google is coming out with their own smart screen before Christmas as well, but I have no details. For now, this little guy is pretty cool from what I could tell while the unit is in demo mode.
It’s an interesting device, but you can’t upload your own apps and it doesn’t have a web browser. So I don’t see how you could use it with SmartThings except via the same voice control you would get from a Google Home. The screen isn’t really adding any value as far as smartthings goes.
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It’s my understanding that this runs what us now called “Android Things” (or something like that… Once called “Brillo”).
So far, Google and/or the particular manufacturers are limiting functionality - probably to ensure consistent customer experience and likely also to ensure ad revenue, etc…
So far, ActionTiles customers are finding the Amazon Fire HD tablets to provide a good compromise due to their low cost, and built in Alexa (and now “Alexa Show Mode” too - though that switches out of the browser completely).
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This looks a lot like the Amazon Echo Show.
It’s very similar, except for obviously working with Google assistant rather than Alexa. The only big feature that it’s missing is drop in video calling, which means the echo show makes a much better baby monitor, for example.
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