Google announces $49 Google Home Mini to compete with Amazon's Echo Dot

Confirming one of the industry's worst-kept secrets, Google announced today that it finally has a cost-reduced version of its Google Home smart speaker. The $49 Google Home Mini, available for preorder now, will go head to head with the Echo Dot that Amazon introduced way back in March 2016. Like the original Google Home, the Mini will feature fabric over its speaker grill. But Google assures us this is no ordinary fabric. Google's lead designer for home hardware, Isabelle Olsson, said the company invented its own yarn for the Mini--going through 157 iterations to find just the right colors: chalk, charcoal, and coral.