I’ve never been good with patience. Or getting the timing right around when I open a bottle of wine. So it’s quite common that we pull out the aerator at serving time. Not being aware that the the humble aerator had been smartened, our’s is still stuck in the pre-technology era. Fortunately, while wandering Eureka Park at CES 2019 I […]
Read moreAs a light sleeper the Nightingale smart home sleep system is very appealing to me, even at its $149/$249 price point. For the price you get “smarts” not found in a traditional white noise machine, like schedules and Amazon Alexa/IFTTT support. IFTTT support is particularly interesting from a home automation perspective because it means that you can tie the Nightingale […]
Read moreSmart vent systems are a tricky thing to get right. Too little modulation and they aren’t terribly useful, too much and you risk breaking the HVAC. HiberSense connected climate control system claims to strike the right balance. Energy efficient comfort control that is also sensitive to the lifespan of your furnace and air conditioner. HiberSense works by replacing the vents […]
Read moreI love building little IoT devices, so this project is right up my alley. Requiring a rPi (or similar dev board), a bit of HW, and some elbow grease you too can build your own face-recognizing doorbell. Recently, I set out to install a doorbell in my new house and thought: why doesn’t my doorbell tell me who is […]
Read moreIf you have an Amazon Echo (or Echo Dot) you can now natively control your Logitech Harmony Smart Hub via a “Skill”. It is US only for the moment (suck), but I was able to have a brief play with it anyway (shhh). Overall, it’s nice that it’s there. But, lacks some of the flexibility avaiable with ha-bridge integration (e.g. […]
Read moreWow…I didn’t expect to see something so Nest-like aesthetically pleasing from Honeywell. Checkout their Honeywell Lyric Thermostat. Smart and sex. I’ve been very happy with my Nest but I like the companion app idea for better monitoring of when we are home. Well if done right. Hopefully we’ll have a full review for you in the near future.
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We did run into Honeywell at CES Showstoppers and you are probably thinking why do I care. Well they have announced the Industry First: Voice Activated Cloud-Connected Thermostat for D.I.Y. Homeowners. They were kind enough to show us the unit with the new app for iOS and Android. It will let you control your thermostat with your voice or anywhere […]
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