Google Home Speaker review: A modest update for the Gemini era

The question is whether Gemini is a good enough smart home assistant. Somehow, it's been almost nine months since Google first revealed its latest smart speaker, the boringly-named Google Home Speaker. I don't understand why it took the company so long to get it to market, as there's nothing that particularly changes the game here hardware-wise. The $99 orb looks a lot like Apple's HomePod mini, with a speaker that fires audio in 360 degrees and microphones so you can chat with Google Assistant Gemini for Home. It's the definition of an expected, iterative piece of hardware -- but on the other hand, it's been almost six years since Google released the Nest Audio and seven since the Nest Home Mini.