Make Your Google Home Portable With New Battery Base
There are a number of battery bases for Amazon Echo and the Echo Dot. Amazon also has the Tap which is designed to be portable and more rugged. Google Home since its launch has required wall power with no real option for portability. That will change in mid-October with shipments of the LOFT portable battery base for Google Home. The manufacturer, Ninety7, claims that it will offer up to 8 hours of unplugged use.
LOFT attaches to a Google Home using magnets similar to how the current device base attaches. It comes in three colors and is available for pre-order for $39.95. List price after the promotion period is set at $49.95. Ninety7 also makes the Dox portable battery for Amazon Echo Dot and Vaux portable speaker designed to improve the sound quality of Echo Dots.
A Good Sign for Google Home
This is another good sign for Google Home as it builds out a partner ecosystem. Google was two years behind Amazon in coming to market with a smart speaker and that meant playing catch up on the partnership front. Recent announcements by Bose, JBL and others suggest that Google has some momentum and is not having trouble signing up third parties to support the Google Assistant ecosystem. LOFT is a good example of a small product enhancement that partners can provide to make Google Home that much more useful. The next question will be whether the new Google Home Mini design will lend itself to a similar portable battery base.
Google Home Mini to Compete with Echo Dot Starting in October
