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Worth noting that Ars also reviewed the OnHub [0] and weren't all that complimentary about it. Particular negatives were the price tag, single LAN port, poor w
by tolien 11y ago
Worth noting that Ars also reviewed the OnHub [0] and weren't all that complimentary about it.
Particular negatives were the price tag, single LAN port, poor wifi performance (particularly important if you're not supposed to use wired Ethernet...) and no web interface.
[0]: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/google-onhub-review-googles-smart-home-trojan-horse-is-a-200-leap-of-faith/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/google-onhub-review-g...
- wnevets 11y agotheverge is a joke, I wish people would stop linking to it.
- joelkesler 11y agoSadly, I agree. Over the last year or so, the quality of content produced by The Verge has noticeably decreased. I find it difficult to take their opinions of tech seriously.
- roldie 11y agoI agree. They're quality has gone downhill considerably. Which site(s) do you recommend? I like sites with strong community/lots of comments. Ars is pretty good. But I'm looking for a site that's a little more pop tech than sci/tech.
- jader201 11y agoNot sure I would put much weight in an article with a click-bait label like "Google’s smart home Trojan horse". I know there are many that are suspicious of this, but a site like arstechnica putting this in the title when it's, at best, speculation seems a bit sensationalist.
- kuschku 11y agoIt’s not meant as in "takes all your data out", but as being the first step to make people use Google’s Smart Home devices.
- jader201 11y agoMaybe I'm being cynical, but it seems like the motive behind that wording was more likely to attract the privacy-conscious users -- as this phrase often implies -- rather than it being a hook for their other products. That's why I feel it's click-baity. Especially considering the talk around the device collecting data when it was announced.
- simoncion 11y agoI think you're being overly cynical. After getting part-way through the article I understood that the "trojan horse" was inbuilt hooks for Google's (presumably) impending home automation hardware.
- kuschku 11y agoCompeting routers at similar price points have more LAN ports, are faster, often include a cable modem, have a web interface and app, and usually can also be used as VoIP server & answering machine (same usability as Google Voice, but self-hosted), and often even can be used as NAS. For this price point, the OnHub has to do something special, or it will be a loss, like the Nexus Q.
- tolien 11y agoRegarding other routers "are faster", none of the reviews I've seen have tested LAN-WAN throughput (i.e. how fast can your internet connection be before the router starts locking up mid-download because there isn't enough memory for the NAT table/stateful firewall/packet inspection). Given Google want to quietly add features down the line (which are bound to eat up CPU time and memory), that's probably relevant.
- kyrra 11y agoCan you point me to these competing routers you're talking about? The one Ars used in their review, the Asus RT-68U is priced[0] the same as OnHub. The main pieces I see that the Asus router has is a web interface and more LAN ports, but nothing else you list. If you look at OnHub, it has a lot of little hardware components that aren't active yet. The light sensor and a 802.15.4 sensor. I don't see OnHub being priced that far away from competing wireless routers (for 3x3 antenna with 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac support). My guess is the routers you're talking about don't have AC or 5GHz support, both of which seems to add a lot of cost to wireless routers. [0] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320174 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320...
- kuschku 11y agoThe one I am talking about has both of that, costs 219$, has integration with a whole ecosystem of smart home devices, has -AC (1.3GHz), 5GHz support, DSL vectoring, can be used as proxy endpoint, all that nice stuff. http://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7490/ http://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7490/ http://www.amazon.de/AVM-FRITZ-Router-DECT-Basis-Server/dp/B00EO777DI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441039130&sr=8-1&keywords=FRITZ!Box+7490 http://www.amazon.de/AVM-FRITZ-Router-DECT-Basis-Server/dp/B...
- inversionOf 11y agoWorth noting that Ars also reviewed the OnHub While a bit of a sidetrack, that review is horrible. Aside from the unnecessary narrative, the complete hackery of their tests leaves me fondly remembering the old days when tech sites actually did regimented, repeatable, bonafide tests among multiple competitors (the Anandtech gold standard, once even shown by sites like Toms Hardware and even rag PC magazines). Now someone hangs a couple of routers off each other, does some non-descript random test (from the web?) at some cherry picked position, and calls it a day. Maybe this is the result of the ad-supported and then ad-blocking world, but the raw, profound laziness is just too much.
- jfb 11y agoIt's also really poorly written. I am hoping that the looming adblockapocalypse just puts some selective pressure on writing, thinking, and editing.
- tgb 11y agoYou seriously think that's going to help? The entire industry is hemorrhaging like crazy already due to low add revenue. All it means is that they can't afford real reporting and the experienced reporters and editors (if they even have editors) get replaced with recent grads who are wooed in by the old glamour. Buzzfeed might survive adblocks but good luck to anyone that needs real content.
- jfb 11y agoNo. I don't. I wish it would, but the theory that a huge collapse in ad revenue that leads to widespread extinction among the bottom-feeders who rush to publish crappy junk -- or simply push someone else's crappy junk out wrapped in a few lines of useless "editorial" -- the theory that this will somehow magically be a return to a golden age of journalism; this theory is almost laughably naïve.
- zf00002 11y agoThey don't have a review of the OnHub yet, but http://www.smallnetbuilder.com http://www.smallnetbuilder.com does some pretty good thorough review of consumer router/aps.
- mrbill 11y agoAnybody that needs more than one Ethernet port will pretty much know that you can add a multi-port switch hanging off that one port for $10-$20.