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Cauldron, fondue pot, grill? No, it's the Galaxy Home smart speaker

The squat, three-legged design of Samsung's just-revealed device has Twitter users cooking up plenty of comparisons.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read
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Sarah Tew/CNET

Looks may not be everything, but they definitely matter. On Thursday, Samsung unveiled its first smart speaker with the Bixby virtual voice assistant, the Galaxy Home. The speaker's quirky, three-legged appearance soon had Twitter users comparing it to everything from a fondue pot to a witch's cauldron to a backyard grill.

Wrote one Twitter user: "No. This isn't a joke. This is actually what Samsung's #GalaxyHome smart speaker looks like. I can't decide whether to throw a steak on top of it or whip up a batch of witch's brew inside of it. What I definitely wouldn't do is put it in my home."

The witch's cauldron comparison was popular, with Harry Potter references a natural. One Twitter user pasted an image of the new device into a photo of Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) looking puzzled, with the caption, "This thing is useless."

For many though, it looked like something a little less magical: A backyard home grill. One Twitter user posted a photo of a round black grill, with the caption, "Just ordered my #GalaxyHome and it was a lot cheaper than expected. This thing is gonna be hot! Like the Note 7!"

Others thought it was more like that 1970s classic party appliance, the fondue pot. Wrote one user, "LMAO Samsung. You getting ready to make fondue with this thing?! It's definitely *NOT* elegant design."

Other comparisons included everything from furniture to soft-boiled eggs in egg cups. Wrote one Twitter user, "I thought it looked more like the back of this IKEA chair."

Samsung didn't announce pricing or availability for the new device, promising more details at a developers' conference in November. The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Watch this: Galaxy Home: Samsung's answer to the HomePod

Samsung's first Bixby speaker, the Galaxy Home, revealed

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