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Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

makeit.netflix.com

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Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#11

Post by blazespin »

hugh4 wrote: post #9
daenz wrote: post #2

It's really great to see a company's engineers given the time and resources to do some fun tech project like this. Sometimes it seems like unless a project is about directly increasing revenue, its incredibly difficult to get buy-in from management. These projects are great for culture.

Is it really just a fun project? Or is Netflix trying to use this as the nose of the camel to get into the house automation business? I've always thought house automation was cool, but a lot of trouble and likely to wind up a waste of my time and effort once I stop using it in three years because whatever standard I was using became obsolete. But if Netflix can start automating my house one bit at a time and slowly s…

I honestly can't attribute any profiteering here. This is pure geek fun. Reminds me of the days of the Netflix Prize. http://www.netflixprize.com/

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#12

Post by yoda_sl »

Most likely the initial prototype was done during an hacktaton... I remember many years back someone that came up with a small TV on a toaster so we could say you can watch Netflix on your toaster, later on that toaster made it into a T-Shirt for the next hackaton!

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#13

Post by aaggarwal »

daenz wrote: post #2

It's really great to see a company's engineers given the time and resources to do some fun tech project like this. Sometimes it seems like unless a project is about directly increasing revenue, its incredibly difficult to get buy-in from management. These projects are great for culture.

Indeed, this is a cool project. Netflix seems to have a great work culture. The button design is neat, it can be used for different projects. A button can do many things :)

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#15

Post by SwellJoe »

hugh4 wrote: post #9
daenz wrote: post #2

It's really great to see a company's engineers given the time and resources to do some fun tech project like this. Sometimes it seems like unless a project is about directly increasing revenue, its incredibly difficult to get buy-in from management. These projects are great for culture.

Is it really just a fun project? Or is Netflix trying to use this as the nose of the camel to get into the house automation business? I've always thought house automation was cool, but a lot of trouble and likely to wind up a waste of my time and effort once I stop using it in three years because whatever standard I was using became obsolete. But if Netflix can start automating my house one bit at a time and slowly s…

It's so far from a scalable product, I would guess it's not even a good test for market fit. Only a small subset of hackers/makers will tackle this. And, there's nothing to even buy from Netflix here...it's all stuff from other vendors.

I'm not saying it isn't on their radar, but this particular project is clearly for fun.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#19

Post by mattbettinson »

SEJeff wrote: post #17

FYI for the DIYers, there is a little project that I contribute to on the side for fun. I also use it to do things just like the title suggests: https://home-assistant.io/

Looks cool! One question - Why android switches on an iphone app? Is it just for the screenshot?

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#20

Post by Animats »

It would be cooler, easier, and would yield better battery life to reprogram an Amazon Dash Button [1] to do this. Most Samsung TVs can be controlled from the network side, as well as with an IR remote.[2]

Of course, the Netflix button just brings up power and puts you at the Netflix menu. At that point, you need another device to tell Netflix what you want. Authorized Netflix-compatible TVs already have a Netflix button.

So the logical thing is to have something listening to the TV's state to dim the lights, close curtains, and such. There are home theater accessories for that.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=10667898011 [2] http://www.gemote.org/

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