Apple has long been involved in the networking peripheral space with its AirPort products, and today Google announced its own wireless router in partnership with TP-LINK. Google has just published a blog post unveiling OnHub, a wireless router it has developed in partnership with popular router manufacturer TP-LINK, which it says provides a Wi-Fi experience that’s “that’s fast, secure, and easy to use.”
The most important aspect of the OnHub router that Google highlights is a “unique antenna design and smart software” that constantly searches the airwaves in your home. This looks for the ideal frequency channel to deliver data to your devices at the fastest speeds and with the least interference. The router will adjust as needed, and users can even prioritize a specific device in the home to receive the best connection — say, for example, if you have friends over and your focus is just getting through a movie on Netflix without any hiccups.
Aside from this unique deliverance method, setup and management of OnHub is also meant to be quite easy. Through the Google On mobile app you’ll be able to see in real-time how much bandwidth all the devices connected to OnHub are using (so you can kick Timmy off when he won’t stop playing League of Legends), send the password to friends, and run diagnostics to get help in the event that your OnHub doesn’t seem to be working properly.
In what is some creative thinking, the router also has a sleek minimalist design that shuns the blinking lights of your typical router for “useful lighting” that is more utilitarian than simply pretty: Google hopes OnHub will be a beautiful enough piece of hardware that you’ll be happy with placing it somewhere at a higher elevation in your home than on the floor, where it’s harder to distribute a strong signal.
OnHub is available for pre-order for $199.99 from online retailers in the U.S. including the Google Store, and Amazon. It will be available for sale in retail stores in the U.S. and in Canada in the coming weeks.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNnfHP7VDP8]
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headline should read “GOOGLE UNVEILS ROUTER THAT TRACKS EVERYTHING YOU DO AT HOME”
Apple has had wonderful WiFi products for over a decade with many advantages like easy setup via an iPhone app. Would love to see a commercial about that.
This would be a good ad campaign: “OnHub, we’ll see what you’re doing, before you do.”
I guess Google’s product development team thinks consumers have a short memory. Hmm, maybe along with AT&T they could create a set of api’s called SpyKit.
not sure if SpyKit, or GoogleCore.
This is pretty ominous: ‘Google highlights a “unique antenna design and smart software” that constantly searches the airwaves in your home. ‘
Sounds like Google doublespeak to me. Spyware and nothing more.
Also not very ‘green’ if that thing is going to continually searching for the best channel. Where’s Greenpeace when you need ’em?
Today As Amazon.com (August 21,2015) sale price is $349.98