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my feelings going into this video are no secret i'm on the record and more than

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once as thinking that smart speakers like the amazon echo and

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google home are kind of cool

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and with the potential to be awesome in the future but right now not useful

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enough to warrant their three-digit price tags

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but what if 50 bucks got you all the

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same functionality introducing the

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google home mini as smart as the original but at just 38.5

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of the cost and speaking of smart only the smartest

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sponsors like zotac support our channel their zbox pcs are great for

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applications like streaming and gaming and feature Intel's 7th generation core

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processors in a tiny form factor check them out at the link below

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design wise the google home mini nails it it's smaller than a donut weighs only

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170 grams that's 5.997 ounces and comes in three distinct

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colors unlike its rival the amazon echo dot mini has no visible buttons relying

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instead on a touch sensitive fabric top to adjust the volume and craftily

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stealth indicator lights for visual feedback

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now originally you could tap the middle

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to play and pause doesn't work and to

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hail the assistant without using your voice but that functionality has

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actually since been disabled possibly forever according to a google

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statement since some kind of bug was causing the mini to record audio without

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you asking that means physically there's

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really not much to it anymore there's a hardware switch for disabling the mini's

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microphones outright when you want some definite privacy and then next to it a

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port for plugging in the power cable which is usb micro b instead of c

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what i mean given you get a free mini with

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the purchase of a pixel 2 phone it would be nice if the two products had

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interchangeable power cables maybe we'll get that on the next gen

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on the subject of the power cable no the home mini is not wireless though for

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some things that would be kind of nice even if the battery life sucked being

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able to cart it over to the shower or

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put it on the workbench next to you in the garage would be kind of killer with

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the flip side being that it could easily get lost if the battery died between a

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couch cushion and you know google's gotta get that money so they would

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probably much rather you carry your phone around with you and then fill your

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house up with these things anyhow speaking of

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do i need to already have a full-size

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google home for the mini to work and what's the difference between the

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two anyway as with the amazon echo and the echo dot

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the only difference is the size and the

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price oh right and also the audio quality

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so how bad is that speaker well the mini single 40 millimeter driver emits

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equally in all directions and actually my first impressions anyway is that the

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speaker isn't that bad the assistant's

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voice in particular is full-bodied and clear and as for music there are only a

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handful of phones that i've used with what i would call

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acceptable speakers um many of them are even discomfort inducing at normal

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listening volumes for me but this is quite a bit better than that the quality

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is more on par with or even exceeding what you might expect from a laptop and

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it's surprisingly loud so you could use it instead of your bluetooth speaker

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that is to say as long as you have a power plug nearby

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and the experience gets even better when you link a few of these bad boys along

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with any other google home or chromecast enabled devices in a multi-speaker setup

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now compared to my sonos setup at home

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it doesn't sound as good but it's really cost effective and the voice

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controls let you adjust the volume of the entire group or individuals without

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using an app even if you want to turn down the mini that you aren't directly

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speaking to with all that said

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i wouldn't go out of my way to listen to music on these

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especially just one of them but i don't think google wants you to do that anyway

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that's what the 400 home max is for we're hoping to review that one shortly

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to evaluate its superior auditory experience

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because we don't have hands-on with it yet i can't draw a conclusion but

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i will say that it would have to be pretty impressive because sound from the

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mini can actually be piped through third-party speakers provided that big

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asterisk here they are chromecast enabled or you have a chromecast audio

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dongle for them because unlike the echo dot

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but like the pixel 2 the mini does not have a three and a

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half millimeter audio out jack so that you could hardline it the old-fashioned

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way this appears to be a clear cost saving

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issue and is one of our biggest knocks against this product but enough about

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the hardware let's talk about the software experience

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along with the existing home features like using it as a voice remote for your

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tv which is so super cool by the way the mini is also

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rolling out some new tricks broadcast is

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an upcoming feature that lets you send messages throughout the house in the

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assistant's voice annoying eagle is returning to nest i repeat annoying

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eagle as returning to nest so that's pretty cool

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and voice match lets minnie know who it's talking to okay google tell me

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about my day good morning alex it will take you 45 minutes to get to work so

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multiple users can link their accounts and commands like

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call mom we'll actually call your mom and not your roommate's mom

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unless that's what you were going for which

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brings us to the best new ish feature

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free non-emergency calling within the u.s and canada which came out about a

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month ago you can call any local business or any contact that's in your

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phone and the thing that's actually new

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new is that now you can actually link your number to it so that phone calls

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coming from the google home will look like they are coming from your phone

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and it's smart so you can speak to it naturally

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some stuff that seems pretty obvious to me doesn't work yet like returning your

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last missed call but other things that we tried worked surprisingly well like

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redialing the last number that you called or hey google call the closest

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open pizza place calling pizza hut on 56th avenue in

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surrey and this kind of functionality also syncs with your phone like if you ask

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minnie how to get to the aforementioned pizza place it'll beam it over to your

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handheld device and it works the other way too you can

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browse for recipes on your phone and then send the one that you want over to

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the assistant with ok google start cooking

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like anything though it's not a perfect product and we do

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have some complaints google home still

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a year later can't send a text message sorry i can't send texts yet probably

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because they don't have enough confidence in its voice recognition to

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send out messages from a device that you can't preview them on yet and

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this one is even more relevant to me it doesn't sync with g suite google's

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enterprise level product so since my entire life is basically

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work and i use my corporate email account for everything

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this effectively means i can't use it for my calendar

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at all so for you though

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is this the smart speaker to get i still need that work integration

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but for everyone else man since echo still isn't available in

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canada at 50 bucks i really don't see what you have to lose

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this is a great place to start if you want to join the smart speaker

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revolution and speaking of joining the revolution

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faster you can see when your client has seen your invoice putting an end to the

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guessing games and the whole experience is available not just on the desktop but

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on Android and iOS as well so for an

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unrestricted 30-day free trial go to freshbooks.com tech tips and enter Linus

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tech tips in the how did you hear about us section we'll have that linked below

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so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video you can hit that

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button but if you liked it say okay google hit the like button

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or just hit it with your fingers probably faster get subscribed and maybe consider

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checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description also down there is our merch

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store which has not the hoodie but this one cool shirts like this one and our

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community forum which you should totally join