While Google Home Hub has gotten the lions share of the attention from most, the Lenovo Smart Display was one of the first Smart Displays to launch here in Australia. Lenovo is ensuring parity between their smart display and Google’s with a new release rolling out now.
The release – labelled ‘R5’ – is mainly aimed at users in the US, UK and Canada, though all Lenovo Smart Displays around the world will receive it. Just like Google’s announcement of Assistant features there’s no way to tell which updates will be live in which countries.
The updates appear to be functional as well as containing some of the new features announced last month for the Assistant. From that update it looks like Lenovo is bringing the Cooking feature that allows you personalised results and a personal cookbook with your favourite recipes, also added are some new photo controls, remote controls and options to remove tiles from the home screen.
The full update changelog includes:
UPDATED COOKBOOK FEATURE
Planning meals just got easier. Cookbook is your virtual cookbook that allows you to find recipes on your smart display and save them for later.
Just say, “Hey Google, save this recipe” and your recipe will be added to your Cookbook. When you’re ready to get cooking, try saying “Hey Google, show me my Cookbook” and find the recipe in just a few seconds.
“show my cookbook”
“add to cookbook”
“remove from cookbook”
“save this recipe”
“show me my saved recipes”
PHOTO ACTIONS
Favorite, Share & Remove Photo
MULTIPLE REMOTE CONTROL TILES
We now support being able to always show the remote control when accessed via voice or the Home View for another device even if you have a local media session.
We will also show up to two mini tiles for remote sessions on the homescreen in addition to a local playback session.
DISMISSABLE HOME TILES
We now support the ability to dismiss tiles from the home screen. Just swipe them up!
Note, some home screen tiles are not dismissible, including:
Calendar
Commute
Explore
News, Music & Video Recommendations
Upcoming Reminder
HEAT/COOL THERMOSTAT IMPROVEMENT
Heat-cool is one of 5 mode options on the Nest Thermostat (heat, cool, eco, off, and heat-cool) that “will create a schedule that will switch automatically between heating and cooling on the Nest thermostat to keep your home within a preferred temperature range.” The mode is particularly helpful during the shoulder seasons in regions that have cold nights and hot days.
“Turn on heat/cool mode.”
“Set heat/cool mode to 68 and 72 degrees.”
“Set the [thermostat name] between 68 to 72.”
“Turn off the [thermostat name].”
INDIVIDUAL LIGHT CONTROL (within a group)
When the user is shown a group light controller (e.g. Living room lights) they’ll be able to control the brightness and on/off state for each light within that group.
