The technology world was shaken late last week by a ruling of the US International Trade Commission saying that Google had infringed on Sonos’ patents. After a couple of years of legal back-and-forth, this was a difficult blow to Google. A US import ban on many products is looming on the horizon, and a few crucial Nest and Chromecast features were deemed illegally used. The company has explained several of the imposed limitations in a post on the Nest community blog. One of these concerns the setup of some Google Home/Nest speakers and Chromecasts.
Of course, the timing was perfect — I wish I could convey the extra sarcasm in my tone — for me. I moved into a new apartment about a month ago and was dragging my feet to set up my older Google Home Mini in my bedroom. Hey, in my defense, I had to move the bed to plug it in. So when I heard that the setup process was about to get worse, I thought I still had time to do it right. Alas, no.