Nvidia Spot is like a Google Home you stick on your wall

The Google Assistant's expanding its repertoire as an entertainer. At CES, Nvidia showed off the new Shield TV. Say the word and you can search for content, pause or rewind with your voice, all powered by Google's software. The Shield TV will even display information if you search the internet, and it works with SmartThings to control your home. If you buy the $200 streamer, you won't even have to be in the same room to talk to Google, thanks to a $50 add-on called the Nvidia Spot.

The Shield TV is out later this month. The Spot's release date hasn't been specified. An always listening controller with the Google Assistant built-in, the Nvidia Spot sure sounds a lot like a Google Home. The Spot looks different -- a round orb as opposed to a white cylinder. You'll also be able to easily move the Spot from room to room and even attach it to walls.

 

A smart home scoreboard for CES 2017

How about a good, old-fashioned technology arms race?

You could just buy a smart light bulb set, but for a lot of consumers (reportedly more than 5 million of you, as of November 2016), it's Amazon's voice-activated Alexa that will be the entry point for controlling devices around your home.

Along with Amazon, Apple continues to grow its Siri-powered HomeKit smart home system. Google has also entered the fray with its own blandly named smart home AI, Google Assistant, which featured prominently in Google's Echo-imitating Google Home speaker in November 2016.