Over the last few weeks we’ve been testing a Google-powered smart display in our kitchen. The device, a 10-inch Lenovo Smart Display, has quickly become one of the most used gadgets in our home.
This is surprising, because we have no other smart home products — no Wi-Fi connected light bulbs, thermostats or robot vacuums — to control with it. We’re using it just as an always-on tablet screen, home radio, podcast player, YouTube kitchen display and recipe guide.
Lenovo’s smart display has become one of the most-used gadgets in the Wells household.
We’re all in on the Google Home concept, privacy be damned. My wife and I rely on Google Calendar for all appointments, both work and personal, and having your daily schedule available at a glance while making your morning coffee is surprisingly handy, even when that same information is available on the screen in your pocket.
Likewise the Lenovo Smart Display will display my commute to the office Monday to Friday (and tell me during my “morning briefing”), so I can see or hear if there are any delays, as well as cycle through the weather forecast, helping me dress our daughter appropriately.
Speaking of, our three-year-old has become accustomed to having a Google device within shouting distance to listen, once again, to the Frozen soundtrack, or to answer important questions like “do fish cough?”. For the record fish cough, yawn and even burp, according to “the Google lady”.
But it is the smart display’s simplest feature we love the mos; using the display as a digital photo frame. In the 1284 days since the birth of our daughter, Google tells me I’ve taken a modest 6329 photos of her, and it is this album the Lenovo Smart Display cycles through.
Google’s own Home Hub is a smaller and simpler smart display.
Google’s algorithm is smart enough to surface the photos it thinks we’d want to see the most; photos from holiday locations, portraits, or simply photos with lots of colour and a good composition. But with so many photos to sift through, Google will sometimes pick images that weren’t Instagram worthy. Photos of meltdowns and tantrums, of spilled food or faceplants, and these are the photos I’m most happy to see. Because while I love the perfectly framed photos we share with the world, it's these imperfect photos that often capture our daughter’s personality the best, and show how much she's grown in the last few years.
Based on the joy these photos brings we’ve bought a Google Home Hub for grandma, and shared this family album with her. It took her less than a minute to set up the Home Hub on her network, and now she’s enjoying watching her granddaughter grow up too. She sometimes even uses it as a smart display.
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