£219 / stuff.tv/NestHubMax
■ The future never did bring us a teleportation pad in every living room… but you can have a disembodied voice reminding you to buy toilet paper. This, and turning off your bedroom light while you’re under the covers, is a big part of the reality of digital assistants – but the Google Nest Hub Max does more than that.
■ As well as being a great host for Google Assistant, this gadget jacks up the ‘virtual butler’ experience with sound good enough to make it the only speaker you need 95% of the time, and a big screen that’ll make waiting for pasta to cook a lot more enjoyable.