Is Smart Home tech a fad or the future?

Grumpysally

YellowCarBlueCar said:

TELLIT01 said:

Internet connected fridge and kettle - why??????

More to the point, there is a pretty compelling "why not" to have a smart appliance which adds little benefit.  How many of these, especially cheaper devices from obscure makers, ever get security updates?

Ok so if someone hacks your kettle would you care? Well in fact you should, as this can be (and historically has been) a way into a wifi network by revealing WPA keys, after which more extensive breaches can be made.
https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/new-wi-fi-kettle-same-old-security-issues-meh/

In another case malicious code has been put onto smart appliances to act as DDOS sources to attack other legitimate systems.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37504719

I've got a few smart devices, but as a telecoms consultant, do so with my eyes open.

I get Which? magazine and it seems to alternate between saying how wonderful this, that and the other smart home device is, and the following month carrying warnings about how their experts were easily able to hack in to this, that and the other smart device. It's not something I'm in a rush to embrace just yet 

another_casualty

Slinky said:

We have smart cat flaps. These are great for knowing whether the cat is in or out, and which direction she left the house. They work off reading microchips so help to keep other cats out. The timers are programmable so as it gets darker, I adjust the curfew times. Every time she passes through the catflap an app on my phone miaows. It provides reassurance when we are away on holiday that we can see she is in the house overnight.

you just reminded me of the time I was staying over at a friends.
At about 2 in the morning we heard loud thumps in the kitchen. The cats were head butting the cat flap.
It was a magnetic cat flap which my friend forgot to activate, or the battery needed charging..

twopenny

The only thing that sounds really smart to me is the cat flap. Thats brilliant!
Otherwise more time improving memory and less looking it up on the net

Another_Level

Was told by a smart tech top boffin of a european hvac oem manufacture.  Smart home tech is excellent if it pays for it self and reduces fuel consumption, other than that its a tech toy.

  

strawb_shortcake

The term Internet Of Things (IOT) was first coined in 1999 so the premise of smart homes has been around for quite awhile now. 
The first thing to be connected to IOT was actually a toaster which seems quite bizarre. 

With the increase in WFH smart homes may well have their pitfalls, I'm not allowed to work in a room with Alexa type devices and I don't think I'm alone in that though I'm sure many of colleagues pay no heed to the rules.

Dandytf

I've only started with Hue Bulbs, though enjoy controlling light levels via iphone.
Not sure where to continue, maybe next year some kind of Security.

thanks

Dandytf

Another_Level said:

Was told by a smart tech top boffin of a european hvac oem manufacture.  Smart home tech is excellent if it pays for it self and reduces fuel consumption, other than that its a tech toy.

  

In effect it does, 15% late afternoon E14's are amazing and cost effective, compared to old school bulbs.

ashe

We have echo devices in every room

all lights are hue, nanoleaf or govee

we have nest cameras, smoke alarms, heating 

Sonos speakers 

harmony 

few other bits and bobs.

nothing to do with being lazy, it's convenience, peace of mind and quality of life. Doing repetitive tasks every day isn't something to be lauded, work smarter not harder. 

Heating allows us to control it from anywhere in the house, or remotely e.g if coming back from a weekend away warm the house when we are heading home in winter.

if we are burgled then we have video evidence but more importantly we can speak real time to couriers and know they're coming to the door, and if one says they delivered a high value parcel and no one has been we have the evidence. If it sees someone we know who they are as it does facial recognition so we know it's the post man or the woman at number 23. 

Lights, we like colour, so love hue etc, but even without the colour we no longer use light switches but they're still there for appearances. Everything is voice, motion or routine controlled. In our living room we have accent lighting, main lighting, lamps, tv lights etc controlling them manually would be a madness. Having some lights turn on when we Get near home is useful, as is turning all lights and devices off when we go to bed apart from turning on the route to, and including, the bedroom for 5 minutes. If starting to watch something on tv or a media device if have to set up the lights, turn tv on, turn av receiver on, set to right inputs and channel, set volume, turn on the media box etc but we can do all that in one simple voice command, likewise other uses like switching all the sonos devices on as well as the device that connects sonos to the main speakers

If we are out of the house and a mile alarm goes off, we know about it.


In general I use Alexa a lot for looking things up, setting timers, reminders, doing basic calculations, conversions etc and my dyslexic girlfriend finds it invaluable for spelling words for her. 

FreeBear

annabanana82 said: The term Internet Of Things (IOT) was first coined in 1999 so the premise of smart homes has been around for quite awhile now.

A bit longer than that. The original "smart home" would be Cragside (built 1869-1900). It made full use of electricity (from a hydroelectric plant on the estate) and had a range of labour saving devices scattered around. Voice control also available by way of servants.

I have a few "smarts" in my home - Light switches & heating control - None of it linked to a phone "app" or the internet.

Ganga

annabanana82 said:

The term Internet Of Things (IOT) was first coined in 1999 so the premise of smart homes has been around for quite awhile now. 
The first thing to be connected to IOT was actually a toaster which seems quite bizarre. 

With the increase in WFH smart homes may well have their pitfalls, I'm not allowed to work in a room with Alexa type devices and I don't think I'm alone in that though I'm sure many of colleagues pay no heed to the rules.

May i ask why ? just being curios.