Google Home Device Will Cost $129 and Ship in November

Google first announced its Google Home device in May of this year. The voice-controlled device is powered by Google Assistant. It provides answers to questions, plays music and enables users to control home automated outlets, lights and thermostats. It competes with Amazon's Alexa powered gadgets like Amazon Echo and the recently announced, Echo Dot.

Google says Google Home is activated with the words "Ok Google." It features a modular design. Google Home has a mic mute button, high excursion speaker and hidden LED lights. It has no buttons and features a capacitive touch surface. The base can be customized with different colors and features.

Google says in the announcement, "With Google Home, you can control devices around the house. Play and control music on your speakers that have Chromecast Audio plugged in or Chromecast built-in. Or stream videos to a TV equipped with Chromecast. At launch, you can fire up videos from YouTube, and we'll support popular apps like Netflix and Google Photos in the near future. You can also control your lights, thermostats and switches with popular home automation systems like Philips Hue, Nest, Samsung SmartThings and IFTTT - with more coming soon."

The Google Home device will cost $129. It will ship in November. Retailers carrying Google Home will include Google Store, Best Buy, Target and Walmart. It can be pre-ordered online at walmart.com.