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The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

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Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#31

Post by ghaff »

dyauspitr wrote: post #30
ghaff wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to have a very specific house layout. My brother does. I don't. A Dyson stick vac is much more useful for me than a vacuum robot would be.

It doesn’t need to be that specific the only problem I can foresee is that it cannot go downstairs. In my case, I just got two of them one for my upper floor and one for my ground floor. If you get some of the more advanced ones now they’re not particularly affected by wires, tassels, etc.

It's a very old house with lots of transitions over the years. Benefits from a few stick vac sweeps now and then but a robot vac wouldn't work well.

Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#32

Post by AlanYx »

mikestew wrote: post #28
AlanYx wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's been my experience as well... it's a downward trend of reliability. Forty years ago my parents had a bunch of Radio Shack home automation stuff that was actually reliable, though functionally simple. Apart from Philips devices attached to a Philips hub, everything else I've tried in the last decade has been flaky in some way.

Apart from Philips devices attached to a Philips hub, everything else I've tried in the last decade has been flaky in some way. Everyone says the Philips bulbs are so reliable, yet they are the 2nd flakiest devices in our house (2nd only to those complete shit Leviton light switches that lose their minds once a month). One more “no response” when I open you in HomeKit, and I swear…

Are you using them with the Philips hub, or on their own?

Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#33

Post by joloooo »

alistairSH wrote: post #9
ghaff wrote: post #4

For me, pretty much none of the "smart home" stuff with rare exceptions (e.g. my bedroom was never updated with a light switch) actually does anything that saves me any real effort. There are a ton of things I'd like to just wish away but they require manipulation of the physical world.

I've found the same. I've been interested in smart homes stuff for 10+ years. My dad had z-wave in his beach home 15 years ago (not exactly an early adopter, but it was pre-HomeKit and pre-influx of cheap wifi devices). Between flaky software/firmware, fear of network security, device incompatibilities, and the slow but steady enshitification of all the things, the industry has been a real let down. I have a Smartthi…

I'm in the same boat as you around Sonos. Find any alternatives that you're considering that aren't HomePod?

Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#34

Post by ishtanbul »

There is potential for an excellent experience but it is far from the average one. If you have a technical person set up home assistant and keep physical switches (eg lutron caseta), everyone can win. But most people who buy a smart bulb have never heard of home assistant and may not have the patience or ability to learn. I think HA could do a better job at attracting and onboarding the average consumer.

Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#35

Post by dyauspitr »

ghaff wrote: post #31
dyauspitr wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn’t need to be that specific the only problem I can foresee is that it cannot go downstairs. In my case, I just got two of them one for my upper floor and one for my ground floor. If you get some of the more advanced ones now they’re not particularly affected by wires, tassels, etc.

It's a very old house with lots of transitions over the years. Benefits from a few stick vac sweeps now and then but a robot vac wouldn't work well.

I would reframe what you said as it doesn’t work for specific house layouts. The vast majority should be able to use them with no problems.

Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#36

Post by ghaff »

dyauspitr wrote: post #35
ghaff wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a very old house with lots of transitions over the years. Benefits from a few stick vac sweeps now and then but a robot vac wouldn't work well.

I would reframe what you said as it doesn’t work for specific house layouts. The vast majority should be able to use them with no problems.

In my experience, most houses have transitions between sections that are probably more than a robo-vacuum can easily handle.

Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#37

Post by mikestew »

AlanYx wrote: post #32
mikestew wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from Philips devices attached to a Philips hub, everything else I've tried in the last decade has been flaky in some way. Everyone says the Philips bulbs are so reliable, yet they are the 2nd flakiest devices in our house (2nd only to those complete shit Leviton light switches that lose their minds once a month). One more “no response” when I open you in HomeKit, and I swear…

Are you using them with the Philips hub, or on their own?

Philips hub, latest hardware, reset multiple times. There’s just something flakey about our setup. It might even be that the bulbs are, what, going on ten years old? Maybe newer ones are more reliable.

Or I’ll just replace them with Nano bulbs that use Matter. Those have been rock-solid.

Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#38

Post by alistairSH »

joloooo wrote: post #33
alistairSH wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found the same. I've been interested in smart homes stuff for 10+ years. My dad had z-wave in his beach home 15 years ago (not exactly an early adopter, but it was pre-HomeKit and pre-influx of cheap wifi devices). Between flaky software/firmware, fear of network security, device incompatibilities, and the slow but steady enshitification of all the things, the industry has been a real let down. I have a Smartthi…

I'm in the same boat as you around Sonos. Find any alternatives that you're considering that aren't HomePod?

Nope, nothing easy. I went with HomePod Minis since we're not audiophiles and almost everything else in the house (laptops, iPads, phones) is Apple.

My only complaints are - lack of Spotify integration (you can AirPlay it, but not play it "natively") and you need an Apple Musi sub to play any alarm sound that isn't the default ear-splitting noise (it'll wake you up, but it's jarring - I prefer some "yoga" music or similar).

Sound quality is good enough for background music. If I wanted higher quality, I guess I'd get full-size HomePods.

Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#39

Post by doctorhandshake »

dylan604 wrote: post #14
doctorhandshake wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the one irreplaceable ‘smart home’ feature is circadian lighting. There are ‘smart’ fixtures that will do this themselves but I’ve found scheduling on a per-room basis to be workable (albeit at times a maintenance headache) for coming on 12 years now. Absolutely can’t live happily with dumb lights only. It’s not just aesthetics - I believe it has a major impact on my sleep health.

Are you considering as circadian lighting the control of just the brightness and when they come on or also including the change from cool to warm light color as well? The ability to change the color temp of the lights is the killer point for me. Anything above 3600K is a no go for me after sunset

Both! My lights go dim and deep red after sunset but very bright and cold mid-day.

Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

#40

Post by dyauspitr »

ghaff wrote: post #36
dyauspitr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would reframe what you said as it doesn’t work for specific house layouts. The vast majority should be able to use them with no problems.

In my experience, most houses have transitions between sections that are probably more than a robo-vacuum can easily handle.

Interesting, that’s not what I’m used to. What sort of transitions are you referring to because these things can get over a half inch hurdle.
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