
Interesting. El-Reg stance that it's Internet Of Shit, until they get lots of free stuff to review, then it's all brilliant...
Are you not even remotely concerned about your credibility?
Typically when reviewing new electronic products – especially if it's a system of interacting components – you start from a very positive place. You imagine you could have in your hands the next big device – the thing everyone will be getting excited about in a few months' time – and then slowly, as you find its bugs and flaws …
One massively important detail missing from this article, does it require internet access to function?
If the internet is only used for updates and anything the user chooses to transmit (in my case that would be nothing) this is interesting. If it is yet another set of paperweights when the lines go down or the company titsup then, well, you guess.
No idea about this specific one, but there are heaps of open source software running on commodity ARM that can handle a few different systems - mainly popular ones like Z-wave or Zigbee and similar, which are all meant to run locally and integrate any cloud services only as an option. The downside is that while commercial systems (all of them meant to log to cloud) tend to work moderately seamlessly at the very least for the more common things, OS alternatives are a guarantee of ending up elbow-deep in system entrails, not if but when, and rather sooner than later; oh, and if something isn't supported, you're pretty much SOL with either, because it will stay unsupported for at least five times as long as you're willing to wait for it - but if you're up to it, you can try to hammer it home yourself with OS (fair warning: 95% that it _will_ require coding / recompiling the whole thing).
I bought a wifi pan tilt camera for security and left it pointing out of the window at the gate into the tiny front garden of my house. I can use this to see who is coming to the door from anywhere in the house. I had a few options for which camera to get but most were clones/rebadged. Of the shortlist several wanted a permanent internet connection which I balked at. One of them had very negative reviews at how slow viewing via the cloud was.
The one I settled on (a foscam) had it's own wifi built in but also accepted an ethernet connection. I hooked it up to a spare router with a suitable password and the system is self contained. Works on all my tablets and if I can be arsed one day I'll add something to allow it to be connected to the telly in the living room. Then I'll be able to have it as a second picture (picture in picture) in the top right hand corner whilst watching something else. Handy for the pizza deliveries.
This seems to be a very good device for doing all sorts of things that simply don't need doing.
I like having discrete remote controls. They work far better in a multi-person house with levels of techo-savvy ranging from the couldn't-care-less to the <ahem> uber-geek.
And as for the rest, all I ask of a "smart home" and its lighting system is that it turns on the light when the first person enters a given space and turns it off again after the last one leaves. A truly smart home would know what level of lighting is appropriate at each juncture and would therefore not need programming.
The same philosophy applies to all other "smart" functions. To live up to the name, they should be smart enough to work out for themselves what needs to be done. Simply trading a switch on the wall for one on a phone or web interface is not my idea of progress.
Not going down the 'Smart Home' route as, to my mind, Amazon and Google should be online shopping portal and search engine respectively and certainly not have control of my home.
My 'Smart Home' consists of Mk1 WiFe with an uncanny ability to sense from the drawing room when a Teenager has left his/her room without switching off the light. She can probably do it a lot faster than an 'all-in-one smart home system'.
"My 'Smart Home' consists of Mk1 WiFe with an uncanny ability ..... " ......
Sounds like my Mk1 WiFe needs a software update. In our 30+ years of marriage the only light she ever switches off is the bedroom light just before she goes to sleep. If I go to bed first, when I get up I find all the downstairs lights burning brightly. Consequently home automation is something I need to look at and it's probably cheaper than upgrading to a newer Mk 2 WiFe, but I guess it all comes down to which will be most fun to play with.
Hello:
"This seems to be a very good device for doing all sorts of things that simply don't need doing.
...
Simply trading a switch on the wall for one on a phone or web interface is not my idea of progress."
Finally !!!
Some common sense.
Have one (or as many as you wish) on me.
Cheers.
"No more scanning bar codes and typing in codes, or connecting your phone to its WiFi signal, typing in your WiFi password and then returning back to it via an app. Just wave the parts close together and you're done.
People will appreciate that until the moment the system gets compromised by 3rd parties. And considering the lack of required human interaction I can't help question the security aspects of this thing, especially considering all the comments in the article about "buggy software".
Security or ease of use - pick one.
Personally, I'm reasonably happy that my Hue system doesn't require me to somehow enter a long password into a light bulb in return for the slight risk that when I initially plug it in, someone in Zigbee range of my house can potentially hijack it if I don't pair it with my bridge within the first hour.
@Charles 9
Since when are security and ease of use tied to the laws of physics?
It's all to do with quantum.
The weakness with your example is the glass window a few feet away, which means security is an illusion, and ease of use is compromised when you lose your keys while out for a walk. (At which point you welcome the window).
Ease of use? Don't lock the door - but then security is imperfect (but may actually be perfectly adequate in a bothy in the Western Isles)
Security? Weld a steel plate over the doorway and all the windows. Then it's easy to sleep in the garden shed.
Yep, One or the other.
"The weakness with your example is the glass window a few feet away..."
With burglar bars on them. Anyone determined enough to wrench burglar bars out of the studs are willing to just tear the place down and would be better served just ramming through the wall.
"and ease of use is compromised when you lose your keys while out for a walk."
Which is why I keep them in the same place in my pocket every time. And if I lose track, I can retrace my steps. Could also employ a key alarm as an alternative. All else fails, fail safe. Better NO ONE gets in than EVERYONE. You can always call the locksmith or wait for your significant other.
"I can't help question the security aspects of this thing, especially considering all the comments in the article about "buggy software".
Likewise the authors apparent unconcern about over the updates that "just happen" and change functionality. Surely the app ought to tell you about updates and what functions they may change before you then authorise them.
Me No...
But I volunteer as a puppy walker for a charity that trains Assistance Dogs for people with mobility disabilities. Even though the Dogs are trained to press light switches, pickup phones TV remotes etc a system like this would be a boon for many people with such problems
Also if the system has a water flow sensor and maybe a power useage sensor it could easily provide safe oversight for a vulnerable person living on their own. Has the Loo and kettle been used? according to the normal pattern or should it raise an alarm.
@kmac499
Some good use cases. And once I'm older and more decrepit I may want something like this, but for now they're not really needed by the mainstream
And when I AM o & d I'd prefer to have something simple and solid that lasts until they put me in my box, and which doesn't need upgrading/replacing every couple of years.
I have a girlfriend so I can change the lights from the sofa via voice control, although can only be used sparingly, as can prove temperamental if used too often. But on a good day can get a cold beer out of the fridge, opened and delivered to the sofa. Similar appliances called boyfriends can also be similarly programmed. I bet Oomi can't deliver an opened cold one to the sofa.
Dimmer switches are fine if you just have one or two lights in a room. I have 9 lights in my lounge so I used to have a scene dimmer until it died one day. A replacement would have cost £350, but a Hue setup even with a few fancy colour lamps thrown in cost less.
So yes, of course I can control it from my phone instead of the wall switch if I want, but that that's not all it can do. I've extended it through the house, so the landing light is motion-controlled, the hall light comes on when the light level drops, and I don't need to put timer switches all round the house when I go on holiday to make it look like I'm still there.
I've got dimmer switches, little knobs on the wall that you turn
Mine are IR controlled. It means another remote but I don't have to get up. I would like to avoid the clutter of remotes, have a universal remote, but, when I prototyped that, it really wasn't half as convenient or as useful as I thought it was going to be.
The benefits of full home automation have proven over-rated to me; as fun and as long lasting as watching an electricity consumption meter. One doesn't need the control it can provide. I'll turn lights on as I enter a room without difficulty. If I accidentally leave one on then I consider the unnecessary walk to turn it off part of my 'five a day'.
I don't need bright red lighting one day, pale green the next. I don't know when I last switched anything at the mains. I have to take the bread out of its wrapper to toast it and out of the toaster to butter it. The kerfuffle of making the perfect cup of tea is not that onerous.
It's great if it suits you, what you want to spend money on. But to me it's mostly unnecessary and expensive gimmick. It has some good features but doesn't justify its cost. I am going to leave 'never having to leave my chair again' until I'm in a nursing home.
I’ve been livin the dream with John Lewis/varilight IR dimmers and a harmony remote for years now.
The newer Harmony hub is a thing of joy - it has so many ways of spaffing out EM radiation you can probably use it to self tan. All it’s really missing is a zigbe bridge and it would have the fully monty.
The lovely thing is the state syncronisation I can have the remote and the app open on a phone and an IPad and it all just updates.
Recently picked myself up some kit called MiHome, really well priced, but another system that requires an internet connection.. so I've got it running on a DMZ.
I installed door sensors and sockets etc.. now find myself sitting looking at useless alert and data, trying to figure out why I need it.
So in reality, the kit is pretty useless!
I've rarely seen a better example of Betteridge's law of headlines
I've got a Hue system for one reason.
We rearranged our lounge and ended up with a lightswitch for one end and another for the other end. So, going to bed, we'd forget to turn off one or the other (depending on which door we used). With Hue, we have one dimmer switch and the controller which turns off all lights at 1am if we forget.
And yes, it was much cheaper than replastering the walls after we'd moved the light switches.
Of course, now we have the system, it has expanded into other areas.
Alan
"The smart plug glows a low purple when not turned on and a brighter green when it is"
I am fed up with everything having to have bloomin lights on it. Some things have more than 3. I understand if it's a standalone device but If I have something plugged into a plug then the thing plugged in being ON will let me know if the plug is on or I can use the big tablet thing to tell me. Any smart device with an led should give me the ability to turn off said led.
When considering devices that physically interact with my home environment, there is one single overriding consideration that trumps everything else:
Privacy.
I have backed away from Nest and other similar products because they communicate my private data from my home back to the vendor.
I get that the system is connected to the internet. I get that this is a feature because it means I can monitor it remotely. But I object very strongly to the possibility of anyone else being able to monitor it remotely.
The only IO between my home and the vendor should be software updates.