Google Home Mini is a basic $49 smart speaker

If you feel the regular Google Home is overkill when you just want to ask about the weather, you're in luck: As rumored, Google has introduced the cut-down Home Mini. The puck-sized, fabric-covered device drops music-grade speakers in favor of a narrow focus on Google Assistant voice commands (including a Find My Phone feature) and, as you might imagine, a lower price to match. Pre-orders start now, and it ships Oct. 19th to all seven countries where Home sells today. Is it a perfect replacement for Amazon's tiny speaker? Not quite: You can't plug in a wired set of speakers, so you'll have to stream to a Chromecast-enabled speaker (whether through an adapter or built-in) if you want music.