11–20 of 42 posts
These houses with smart locks etc scare me.
Article is kind of light, but there is a surprising amount of work that comes with smart technology. Now, when I visit my parents, instead of getting asked to help fix something physical, I get asked to help diagnose smart light bulbs that for some reason have a single bulb that works but won't connect.
That’s why we are living like luddites. During house renovation nothing smart comes inside despite complete new electrical installation. There come thick cables for wallbox and heat pump, but that’s all. I am so tired of barely working apparently simple electronics.
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.
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.
Article is kind of light, but there is a surprising amount of work that comes with smart technology. Now, when I visit my parents, instead of getting asked to help fix something physical, I get asked to help diagnose smart light bulbs that for some reason have a single bulb that works but won't connect.
That’s why we are living like luddites. During house renovation nothing smart comes inside despite complete new electrical installation. There come thick cables for wallbox and heat pump, but that’s all. I am so tired of barely working apparently simple electronics.
Am I just so old to know that tying a permanent house control to a platform that can go away like say palm or blackberry or windows xp (vista driver signing) or support for the current wifi standard is slightly ridiculous? Especially for a 30 yr+ purchase?
If I want to be positive about smart home stuff I just share my confusion that the industry didn't standardize on PoE(power over Ethernet) and just give the end customer an Ethernet switch or switches that most novices can figure out and is trivial to transfer to the next homeowner.
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…
Article is kind of light, but there is a surprising amount of work that comes with smart technology. Now, when I visit my parents, instead of getting asked to help fix something physical, I get asked to help diagnose smart light bulbs that for some reason have a single bulb that works but won't connect.
That’s why we are living like luddites. During house renovation nothing smart comes inside despite complete new electrical installation. There come thick cables for wallbox and heat pump, but that’s all. I am so tired of barely working apparently simple electronics.
Just look at my TV, for example. The way TV used to work was that you turned it on and the TV was on. Now, even though I've got a relatively friendly setup with an Nvidia Shield, a "user" still has to navigate through some menus to get what they want to watch on the TV.
And of course, every so often, one of the various streaming services will log out, which will take some manual intervention to get back up and running. There are three TVs in my home, so between them all I'm playing tech support on a TV at least once or twice a month.
And don't even get me started on the rigamarole involved with getting my kids set up with Minecraft. Servers, Realms subs, linking Nintendo and Microsoft accounts... I don't know how anyone without some tech in their background can even navigate that mess.
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…
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.
I haven't really gotten into "smart home" stuff, but I can definitely relate to the idea that the modern tech landscape can often create a ton of busy work. Just look at my TV, for example. The way TV used to work was that you turned it on and the TV was on. Now, even though I've got a relatively friendly setup with an Nvidia Shield, a "user" still has to navigate through some menus to get what they want to watch on…
I'm annoyed, though, that streaming app hide "purchased" and rented content in favor of their recommendation lists. If I just rented a movie from Amazon Prime, and immediately open the Amazon Prime app on the streaming box, I don't need recommendations. If anything, I need to be nudged to watch the thing I just bought!