The Google Home Hub was worth the wait, the White House is looking to recruit tech employees and Super Mario Party is a real party. Here's your Daily Crunch for October 22, 2018.

1. Google Home Hub review

Brian Heater says there are still some kinks to be worked out — but overall, it's a piece of hardware that takes advantage of Google's strength in software, and it comes in a compact package with a low $149 price tag.

It may seem strange that the Home Hub doesn't include a camera, but a blog post from Google executive Diva Jolly said, "We consciously decided to not include a camera on Google Home Hub, so you feel comfortable placing it in the private spaces of your home, like the bedroom."

2. Apple Watch Series 4 is the most accessible watch yet

More thoughts on new hardware! This time, we're focused on the Apple Watch's utility for disabled users.

3. The White House hopes tech employees will drive government innovation

In a meeting at the White House today, officials will ask Amazon, Microsoft, Google and IBM, among others, to make it easier for employees to do stints in the government

4. Pulumi raises $15M for its infrastructure as code platform

The Seattle-based startup that lets developers specify and manage their cloud infrastructure using the programming language they already know.

5. Super Mario Party is Nintendo Switch's best game

Maybe we should set up a few stations for competitive play at the next TechCrunch party?

6. Blood money

More thoughts on accepting money from ethically questionable sources.

7. A lonely podcast says hello

This week, the team at Equity discusses the latest venture-related news, including Twilio's acquisition of SendGrid.