 Hey, it's Nick Statt with The Verge, and we're here with the new Google Home. It's their smart speaker, kind of like a competitor to Amazon's Echo. You can talk to this, you can ask it all sorts of questions. It also plays music. What really powers it on the inside is Google's Assistant. It's a new smart software assistant, similar to Siri, Cortana, kind of an evolution of Google Now. Simply say a voice command to it, and it can do things like tell you the weather, tell you how long it's going to take to get somewhere, and it can do all sorts of other things like search the web, play video through Chromecast, or play music through Google Play Music. Essentially it works just like how it works on an Android phone. You say, OK Google, what is the weather in Palo Alto? Right now it's 63 and mostly cloudy there. It'll be partly cloudy with a forecasted high of 69 and a low of 52 today. You can also ask it other questions like directions. OK Google, how long will it take me to get to 150 Spear Street? On your way to 150 Spear Street, traffic is lighter than usual. The route via Bay Street and the Embarcadero is the fastest. It is 14 minutes by car. OK Google, who won the Vikings game last night? The Minnesota Vikings won 24 to 10 yesterday against the New York Giants. So pre-orders for Google Home start today. You can get it for $129. It's available from the Google Play Store, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart. But if you want to get one of the fabric or metal covers, you can get those from the Play Store only. For more information about Google Home and all the other news Google announced today, check out TheVerge.com or subscribe to us on YouTube at YouTube.com slash The Verge.