[couto27]

TV needed ON for Spot to audibly respond?
Ie, will the spot include built in speaker to talk back to you or will it come out the shield/TV speakers.

Anyone know yet?

Spot its a always-on Microphone & Speaker built-in.
The TV dont need to be turn on.

Search for Home Automation, IoT, SmartThings, IFTTT etc etc.

After the Firmware upgrade the shield will have new features & Hardware compatible.

Nvidia Spot is the equivalent to Amazon echo´s Dot
Nvidia + usb extender is the equivalent to Samsung SmartThings Hub
Nvidia + Google assistance is the equivalent to Amazon Echo Alexa/Google Home

Do your mathematic for smart Home:

Amazon Echo Alexa - 179$ + Amazon echo dot - 49$ + Media player
Google Home 129$ + Samsung SmartThings 99$ + Media player
Nvidia Shield with Google Home/assistance Built-in 200$ + Nvidia Spot 49$ + USB extender z-wave/Zigbee (25$ )

If you already have a Shield and want some Home Automation features for +75$ its small price to pay.
If you thinking to buy the New Shield the 275$ investment continues to be small price to pay for Home Automation startup , unless you buy some cheap media player and lose all the major streaming services in 4K HDR DTS-X & Dolby Atmos along with Plex server, Gaming, Remote + game controller etc etc etc.