The Made By Google online store officially began selling wall mounts for the Google Home Mini, as well as individual or bundled items for Nest Secure. Spotted on its website today, Google’s branded hardware is accompanied by a couple of new options. First, the Google Home Mini can now be neatly attached to a wall, instead of sitting on a shelf with a custom mount made by Incipio. A Google Home Mini snaps into the mount, and one can either use the included adhesive strip or metal screws to affix the smart speaker to a wall. Other options enable an owner to adhere the speaker to a ceiling or a piece of furniture for maximum space-saving. One also reduces the likelihood of tripping over a cord. Paired with a good cable management solution, and this device should offer some great peace of mind. The Google Home Mini Mount is available for $15, and is available for purchase immediately.
Another new addition to Google’s online store comes in the form of Nest Secure products. Google acquired Nest Labs in 2014, and has since been working closely to unite the two platforms in various ways. Nest is known for its Internet of Things (IoT) thermostats and security cameras, but the Palo Alto company recently created a new set of devices for the technologically savvy: smart home alarms. Nest Secure introduces a number of internet-enabled devices to help keep your residence safe. Along with indoor and outdoor security cameras, Nest Labs launched a few new devices. Nest Connect is a signal boosting device to ensure adequate network coverage for your Nest Guard, available for $69. Nest Detect acts as a smart signal to notify account holders of opened or closed windows and doors, and can be purchased for $59. And finally, Nest Tags attach to a keyring or wallet to travel with you. Tapping them to the hub will activate or deactivate an alarm system for easy convenience on the fly. You can buy the tags individually at $25 or get the whole bundle for $500.
Google acquired Nest a few years ago, and the partnership continues to grow. With its ever-growing list of smart-home devices like Chromecast, Google Home, and Google WiFi, a close integration with Nest’s featured products is quickly becoming necessity. Nest devices support an increasing number of voice commands by the Google Assistant, and more are continually being announced. Speculation is that Google may absorb Nest in the future to bolster the smaller company’s profits, and also to expand its own brand name to compete with Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices. Google’s addition of the aforementioned smart-home products certainly appears to support such conclusions.
