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Someone needs to end this madness. This insanity. This horrifying trend of smart speakers that look like trash cans.

Ahead of CES,Watch D Cup Girl Real Naked Kidnapping Case Online LG announced its upcoming ThinQ smart speaker with built-in Google Assistant. I haven't seen it in person, and I have no idea how large (or small) it is, or even how it sounds, but I already can't stand it because its designers couldn't come up with a more imaginative look.

It's time for this trash can aesthetic to end.

SEE ALSO: Amazon's Echo Spot is the blueprint for all future smart speakers

It took a few years, but smart speakers with voice assistants that play you music, tell you the weather, control your smart home devices, and order you pizza, are officially a thing now. There's a good chance you have one in your home.

And we're only going to see more smart speakers -- regardless of whether they support Alexa, Google Assistant, or Cortana -- over the next the year. Hell, we expect to see a lot of these me-too devices in a few weeks at CES. Ugh.

It's not that I don't like smart speakers -- I really like them and own three now (I just recently added a Google Home to my Echo and Echo Dot, thank you very much) -- but the better ones with louder, clearer sound all look so B-O-R-I-N-G.

Amazon's Echo was never a looker, and it basically resembled a black Pringles tube more than a trash can, but just look at the LG ThinQ. It's a black tube with a flat top and micro-perforated sides. Sorry, maybe you think I'm stretching a bit too far, but it looks like a garbage can to me.

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And when you've seen as many smart speakers as I have, it's hard not to think "Is this it? Is this the best designers can come up with?"

Here's a short list of smart speakers that look like trash cans that I can recall off the top of my head:

  • Amazon Echo 2

  • Amazon Echo Plus

  • Sonos One

  • 808 Alexa Bluetooth speaker

  • Sony LF-S50G

  • Apple HomePod

  • LG ThinQ

The list goes on and on, and you're welcome to find every single one on your own time. Surely, there are ways to design a good-sounding smart speaker with its own unique design, right?

Thinking back on the last few years, I can't help but notice tech companies all taking inspiration from trash cans. It's unsettling and I'd probably lose my mind if I owned a Mac Pro, a Google OnHub router, an Echo (or any of the smart speakers above), andan actual garbage can.

This tweet from when I reviewed the OnHub router back in 2015 was a scary foreshadowing of this awful trend to come:

The only major smart speaker that seems to buck this awful industrial design is the Google Home Max. It's a big block with rounded corners and it looks like a badass speaker. One look at it and you knowit'll bring the bass (it really does). It's a speaker, and it's not really trying to be anything else.

I'm praying to the tech gods Samsung's rumored Bixby-powered smart speaker doesn't look anything like a rubbish bin. I know the company can come up with something better-looking.

Tech companies, take notice! There's nothing wrong with following trends, but ones that are inspired by trash cans are, well, trash.


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