INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Some things are inevitable — stock market fluctuations, thunderstorms, your favorite band reuniting to offset poor financial planning
Amazon smart assistant is slowly making its way onto every aspect of the smart home, and Google own offering isn''t too far behind.
As far
as these things go, routers make a lot of sense
They&re a key part of staying connected, and in the case of mesh ones, they&re everywhere
So why not have them do double duty, right Clearly Huawei and Netgear were struck by the same thought, and Amazon was more than happy to
oblige.
Both companies debuted a take on the concept this week at IFA
Huawei AI Cube, which despite not being a cube at all, is the more straight forward of the two offerings
The device looks remarkably like a Google Home (and, by extension, a Glade air freshener, but I digress) and does LTE via a 4G SIM card,
along with both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands
The fabric bottom of the router is a larger speaker so Alexa can talk back, featuring a &400ml sound cavity and an aluminum diaphragm.& The
&AI& appears to refer to the Alexa functionality
No word on what specific router skills Alexa will have here, but speed readings seem like a pretty good start
Netgear, meanwhile, beat Huawei to the draw by a day with the Orbi Voice
The addition to the popular line takes advantage of the fact that mesh routers are designed to be placed throughout the home to help cover
It a bit like putting Echo Dots everywhere, except they&re helping keep your network covered in the process.
No word on price for the
Huawei, but the Netgear gonna run you $300
Either one seems like a pretty solid addition for those looking to Alexa up the place
