Google Assistant is poised to be a major talking point at CES 2018, and iHome is taking a swing at its own device running Google's AI experience. The iHome Voice is basically a wide-looking Google Home with a few extra buttons and a dot-matrix style display on the front that makes it perfectly positioned to be an alarm clock.
Just like the old iHome docks we all know, it has a set of buttons on the top to perform basic functions, but it also has this simple display on the front showing the time, upcoming alarm and volume level. This immediately makes it more appealing as an alarm clock than the all-voice Google Home and Home Mini. It also has a USB port on the back to charge your phone at night, and since it's only a 1A output it won't be useful for more than overnight charges anyway.
The rest of the experience rounds out basically like a regular Google Home. It has far-field array mics for voice commands, and a big speaker in the base for music, podcasts or news reports in the morning while you get your day started.
Pricing is set at $139, a $10 premium over the standard Google Home. That may be a slightly steep price to pay for something that's not as sleek and versatile as the Home in terms of placement, but getting an actual display and some physical buttons that make it far better as an alarm clock is probably worth the extra money if that's your plan for this kind of device.
