It's impossible to discuss Google Home in a vacuum. It's a direct, blatant, so-obvious-it-hurts competitor to the Amazon Echo--and if you spend just a few minutes with it, you may come away feeling it's got the Echo's number. Like the Echo, Google Home can start playing music with simple voice prompts. But it sounds better than the Echo, with much deeper bass. I only spent about 10 minutes with Google Home at Google's hardware launch event on Tuesday, and I certainly didn't have an Echo handy for A/B testing, but it took only five seconds of a Hooverphonic track to tell that Google Home delivers better low-end punch.

Google unveiled a massive strategic shift on Tuesday, announcing that it is officially getting into the business of designing and releasing its own smartphones. The Pixel and Pixel XL, announced at a special event in San Francisco, are the company's first forays into that market after working with outside manufacturers for several years to produce its Nexus line of devices. The phones are snazzy gizmos packed with some of the latest features that Google could come up with, like a new intelligent assistant and a high-quality camera. It feels like one of the best Android smartphones on the market and could be a serious contender to take on Apple's iPhone, especially for people looking to purchase a flagship smartphone. Google's launch answered a lot of questions that were floating around after details had leaked over several weeks.

Summer is now just a memory as the leaves slowly begin to change color and football dominates the weekends. One thing that didn't change is the constant stream of new Android apps. The last month was a little lighter on app releases, but we still had some excellent ones make their debut.

SAN FRANCISCO – Alphabet Inc.'s Google on Tuesday announced a new Pixel smartphone and a virtual reality headset, making a concerted move into home electronics and challenging Apple Inc.'s iPhone at the high end of the more than 400 billion global smartphone market. The string of announcements, including the 649 Pixel, a new Wi-Fi router and its voice-activated digital assistant for the living room, Home, is the clearest sign yet that Google intends to compete directly with Apple, Amazon.com and even its own Android mobile operating system customers to create a world of integrated devices and services that meet every digital need. The moves also show Google is taking tighter control of its products. Google lets Android device makers modify software almost without limit, which has helped make Android the most-used mobile operating system in the world. But company executives boasted that the Pixel was developed in-house from start to finish and gives it a direct hand on a platform for the distribution of its internet-based services.

If Google Home proves more capable than the Echo at responding intelligently to a wide range of queries--and I suspect it will, given Google's expertise in search and natural language--then it might not matter that it has a dumb name. Amazon pioneered the smart speaker category, but Google may be best equipped to perfect it. That could go a long way toward establishing Google Assistant as the new Google search--your default portal to the online realm. How exactly Google will monetize it, the company will have to figure out: Selling ads against search queries is one obvious possibility. Regardless, the history of the Internet suggests that if a company finds a way to monopolize a given type of online behavior, piles of money will follow.

USA TODAY takes a look at Google Home, Google's new voice-activated digital speaker, in the hands-on room at an event in San Francisco. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. USA TODAY takes a look at Google Home, Google's new voice-activated digital speaker, in the hands-on room at an event in San Francisco.

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Today marked Google's biggest hardware launch yet. Not only did it announce two Pixel phones and a Daydream VR headset -- it also unveiled a slew of products for the living room. We already heard about Google Home, its voice-powered assistant-and-Bluetooth speaker combo at the company's I/O developer conference this year. New today, though, was a mesh networking router and an updated Chromecast. We took a closer look at all three immediately after the event and came away with a dream of a Google-powered home.

Google is pretty serious about its plan to take over your home. The company on Tuesday offered more details on its smart speaker and home hub, Google Home, as an answer to Amazon's Echo speaker. But Google -- perhaps knowing that it's starting a little bit behind -- has been sure to hook the Home into Google's broader suite of services to make the concept of the smart home more affordable. Home will work with Google's Chromecast video and audio streaming devices -- 69 and 35, respectively -- so that customers can upgrade their current speakers and televisions with little fuss and not that much cash. When the whole system is in place, users can use their voices to call up YouTube videos on their televisions or ask for a specific song to play through their non-Google speakers. Home itself will also be able to play music.