Google OnHub Announced & Reviewed

[RMerlin]

Last 2 years or so, there was a WiFi router with an LCD display to prompt you. Instead of the catch-22 use of a PC for admin/setup.

Not marketed well. It fizzled.

Almond and Almond+? Almond was actually a top seller at Amazon back when it came out.

Almond+ greatly suffered from a one year development delay, it only got to market a few months ago. Overall it's a nice product (I have one, haven't checked their firmware progress since last winter), probably could use some better marketing right now, as the Smart Home market is only starting to grow as the "Next Big Thing"(tm) .

The LCD made little sense for the router portion, but for the Smart Home function, it was a great idea. Google is probably going to leverage smart phones for that particular area, which makes sense in their case.

 

[RMerlin]

Same reason why they have ASUS build their tablets. There strength is not hardware.

Right, but you would have thought that this type of product could have been engineered by Nest, who does have experience in that particular area.

 

[thiggins]

Right, but you would have thought that this type of product could have been engineered by Nest, who does have experience in that particular area.

I suppose. But putting Wi-Fi into a smart home client device is one thing. Designing a router is quite another, no?

 

[RMerlin]

I suppose. But putting Wi-Fi into a smart home client device is one thing. Designing a router is quite another, no?

Could have gone down the same route as Securifi, and simply taken OpenWRT and build on a reference platform. But then again, I suppose TP-Link could have been more cost-effective than having to allocate Nest engineers to the project. And Google already has plenty of experience in outsourcing product development, thanks to the Nexus program.

The fact that they also have Asus tapped for another model make me suspect that they are trying to create a new ecosystem, and leave it semi-open to other manufacturers to fill up with products.

 

[thiggins]

Last 2 years or so, there was a WiFi router with an LCD display to prompt you. Instead of the catch-22 use of a PC for admin/setup.

Not marketed well. It fizzled.

The Almond+ actually ranked surprisingly well for performance. But at $200, it's way expensive for an AC1750 class router and not that many people are looking for an all-in-one router with ZigBee and ZWave radios built in.

 

[sfx2000]

Interesting to note that it's running Gentoo Linux as it's OS - not a *WRT variant...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Google-OnHub-Router

 

[edavid]

The OnHub product page claims that you have to use an iOS/Android app to configure it: https://store.google.com/product/onhub

Lame if true...

 

[RMerlin]

The OnHub product page claims that you have to use an iOS/Android app to configure it: https://store.google.com/product/onhub

Lame if true...

The absence of a web interface is considered a "feature"...

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[sfx2000]

The absence of a web interface is considered a "feature"...

I would agree... and removing Samba Servers, Media Servers, VPN Servers and the like - less edges to peel up.

Maybe Asus should consider that for a product?

sfx

 

[Ronv42]

I wonder home much private data Google will be harvesting with this device to use to sell ads? Nice idea but since Google is behind it I wouldn't go near it.

 

[IAAI]

I know I will never be recommending one of these. Just like with AE's. Far too limiting. Far too expensive and performance will never be top of class.

Not to mention you'll be giving google first hand access to your network.

This is exactly what i thought when i read google announcement. They will give us ads based on our internet activities.

------

Is it going to be open source? . I hope to see this router over xda


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[irev210]

I am surprised Google didn't take the opportunity to allow for customers to easily create a mesh network.

If they can do a chromecast at $29, they should have targeted a lower pricepoint... $99 would have been more appropriate.

 

[RMerlin]

I would agree... and removing Samba Servers, Media Servers, VPN Servers and the like - less edges to peel up.

Maybe Asus should consider that for a product?

sfx

You could also just recompile my firmware with all those features disabled - they're configurable at build-time.

 

[RMerlin]

This is exactly what i thought when i read google announcement. They will give us ads based on our internet activities.

------

Is it going to be open source? . I hope to see this router over xda

It's Qualcomm-based, so no, don't expert a real, full open-source alternative for it anytime soon.

 

[sfx2000]

It's Gentoo, so yep, will be fairly open... GPL makes it so...

more info on this device here...

http://linuxgizmos.com/googles-wifi-router-runs-linux-offers-home-automation-hooks/

 

[sfx2000]

You could also just recompile my firmware with all those features disabled - they're configurable at build-time.

You and I have had this discussion with regards to the entire *wrt baseline, which many chip-set OE's provide with regards to security and basic design/architecture...

The technology-debt there is old and deep - seems like Google has stepped up and solved that particular problem in the GPL space...

 

[IAAI]

It's Gentoo, so yep, will be fairly open... GPL makes it so...

more info on this device here...

http://linuxgizmos.com/googles-wifi-router-runs-linux-offers-home-automation-hooks/

thanks for sharing , this caught my eye
Operating temperature — 0 to 40°C - unlike our asus ovens

 

[Sg45]

I think this is Google's "thin end of the wedge" into their fledgeling smart home goals. For a couple of reasons.
1. They included a zigbee radio. This is the radio the Nest thermostats use to communicate with each other and with the Nest Sense smoke detectors. This gives them the translation bridge they need to their IoT devices.

2. 4GB of flash and 1 GB of RAM is a lot for firmware. They also have a dual core CPU. They clearly have bigger ideas about how to use this horsepower for more than routing home network traffic.

3. They just introduce Brillo at Google I/O this summer. It is their version of Apple HomeKit for API integration to smart home systems. They need a native Google hardware appliance for hub control (which is where all the major tech players think the end of the rainbow lives with it's pot of gold). Apple is most likely going to use an upgraded AppleTV device as their hub and there is no way the chrome cast stick would have the reliability or horsepower to compete (btw, the specs of the CPU and memory of the latest AppleTV and OnHub are not dissimilar and a new AppleTV is coming).

I see Google upgrading the firmware and application capabilities of this device to more fully take the role of the smart home hub (which certainly includes WiFi routing services in the future). Unlike Apple, they seem to have a strategy to separate the HDMI and video services from the hub itself.

Just my two cents...

 

[Selden]

SNB's article, Google Thinks We Need Another AC1900 Router, may be a bit off the mark regarding support: "There is no help via phone, email, chat or smoke signal from Google itself. Only fellow frustrated users like yourself, complaining into the void and hoping some kind soul will answer."

• Customer support will be available 24/7 starting Aug 31. Check back for details!

Source: https://on.google.com/hub/support/#ready

Personally, as someone who doesn't game, has no AC1900 devices, and has a 30 mb/sec (when it works) service from Xfinity, I have no need for this device.

 

[thiggins]

I think this is Google's "thin end of the wedge" into their fledgeling smart home goals. For a couple of reasons.

No question about that. Which is what makes it both powerful and scary for those of us who surrender too much information to Google already.

4GB of flash and 1 GB of RAM is a lot for firmware. They also have a dual core CPU. They clearly have bigger ideas about how to use this horsepower for more than routing home network traffic.

Agree both are more than found in other AC1900 routers today. The CPU is found in the latest QCA-based AC2600 class routers, so again, more powerful than found in AC1900 class competitors.