Google unveils OnHub, a Wi-Fi router for the smart-home era
The search giant's newest device is a router Google hopes you'll display proudly, and gives the company a beachhead for tech in your home too.
Google has for years tried to remake several household items, from thermostats and speakers to smoke detectors and TVs. Now, it's tackling another device lots of people have in their house: Wi-Fi routers.
The search giant on Tuesday unveiled the OnHub, a sleek new router that Google developed with the networking hardware company TP-Link. The $200 device is also meant to eventually help control all the other disparate Internet-connected devices in your home.
The idea is this: Most Wi-Fi routers are ugly, with unruly cords, so people put them on the floor or out of the way where they can't be seen. But that also causes the device to emit a weaker Wi-Fi signal, Google said. The company hopes the answer is making a better-looking device that people don't mind displaying out in the open. It has subtle blinking lights and all its antennas are packed inside its black, cylindrical shell. The device also displays the Wi-Fi password if someone taps on it.
The OnHub is just another sign of Google's ambitions for consumers' homes. The company hopes it can be the go-to place even when people aren't on personal computers or smartphones -- like being the platform that helps people lock their doors, or heat their homes, or make their coffee. Other tech giants, from Apple to Samsung to Amazon, have made strides in that realm as well.
For Google, when it comes to the smart home, most of the heavy lifting at the company comes from Nest, the device maker the company bought for more than $3 billion in 2014. The company, which makes a thermostat, smoke detector and home security camera, was founded by Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive who is considered a hardware guru in Silicon Valley. Fadell and Nest, however, did not work on the OnHub, a Google spokeswoman said.
In May, Google announced a software platform called Brillo, which aims to help power smart-home devices, even those without screens.
Like Nest products, the OnHub is controlled with a smartphone app for both Apple's iPhone and devices running Android, Google's mobile operating system. The router will get software updates automatically. It also tells you how much bandwidth your devices are using, or lets you prioritize one device for a faster connection (like, say, the one you are using for a Netflix marathon).
The OnHub is available for preorder from websites including Google's online store, Amazon and Walmart.com. It will be in retail stores in the US and Canada in coming weeks, Google said.
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Apple reportedly to revamp its stores to make room for more products
As one example, the iPod lineup will be moved to the Apple accessory section so customers can simply pick one up off the shelves, says 9to5Mac.
Apple is purportedly tweaking the layout of its retail stores to shine a light on more products.
One device that's changing location is the iPod, 9to5Mac said late Tuesday, citing intel from several Apple Retail managers briefed on the plans. Previously, iPods were stored in the back room along with iPhones, iPads and other major products, so customers had to request one from a sales rep. Starting next Wednesday, Apple will display its latest iPod lineup in the accessory section so that customers can just pick one off the rack.
Once Apple's core product before the introduction of the iPhone and iPad, the iPod has gradually become a less significant part of the lineup, accounting for a lower slice of sales. In July, Appleupgraded the iPod Touch with an 8-megapixel camera and a faster 64-bit processor and also increased the variety of colors available for the iPod Nano and Shuffle. Relegating the iPod to the accessory rack can be seen as a type of demotion but also a better way to highlight the devices so they catch the eye of more consumers.
As part of the store revamp, Apple will also remove its iPad 2 Smart Signs. In the old days, Apple Stores used paper signs and poster boards to display information about its different products. In 2011, Apple replaced those signs and boards with non-working iPad 2 units that displayed product information on their screens. Referred to as Smart Signs, the units apparently confused some customers who thought they were working iPads that they could try out, 9to5Mac said.
Instead of the Smart Signs, Apple will put product and pricing information directly onto the displays of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. By removing the Smart Signs, Apple will also create more space for other products that consumers can take for a test drive. As one example citied by 9to5Mac, Apple will highlight iPhones with redesigned white display docks.
The changes are slated to take place overnight on Tuesday, August 25, so that consumers who visit an Apple Store will see the revamp in action on Wednesday.
Apple did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.
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