Google announced a new product yesterday on its official blog. Simply put, it launched a router it calls onHub. “While we count on Wi-Fi more than ever to be entertained, productive, and stay connected, we’re streaming and sharing in new ways our old routers were never built to handle. So today, with our partner TP-LINK, we’re launching OnHub, a different kind of router for a new way to Wi-Fi. Instead of headaches and spotty connections, OnHub gives you Wi-Fi that’s fast, secure, and easy to use.”
The first thing that can be said of the router is that it’s a cool cylindrical object which has 13 antennas, 12 for signal and one for checking the signal congestion in the area. For those in areas where many people are connecting at the same time, this should be good.
It’s important to note that this is a router and it does what routers do but in a slightly different way. It also makes life easier. You have an app (Android/iOS) called Google On which helps you set up, manage and monitor your network thereby reducing the average time you spend on turning on and off your router. This app also eliminated the indicator lights you would usually see on a router since you would be able to see the status of your network at any given time. It also makes password saving easy. It saves you password and can send it to guests on your network as a text.
The first time you try to set up your new onHub router, it will find your phone using audio. That’s cool, isn’t it?
On the cost side, it costs $199/40,000 Naira and at the time of this report, Google was already out of stock. Other stores will soon have it though but it will first ship to US and Canada.
So if you’re in any of the African nations and want this, wait for a few weeks until it is fully out and then buy through someone you know in the US or Canada. It might take some months before it hits other markets.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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