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I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

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Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#91

Post by BrandoElFollito »

btreecat wrote: post #84
jimmcslim wrote: post #76

What are the open, easy to install and use, and sustainable alternatives? It feels like enough work has been done on the margins of replicating some of the capabilities of Alexa and Google Nest hardware and software, but it’s not packaged up in an accessible way for the mass-market?

I've been running home assistant for years now.

To be fair (and I run HA for years with an extensive set of devices), the voice part works best with Google (or probably Alexa, but I do not use Alexa).

I tried Mycroft a few years ago but for one it was a hit or miss, and two there are no simple hardware devices to use it with.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#92

Post by bell-cot »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #62
bell-cot wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A js-blocking browser extension makes the modern web far more user-friendly.

Or pihole / adguard, which retains a level of usability that's unfortunately not present when blocking JS . (I block JS by default, but have to allow it for so many things).

Yes - though any decent js-blocker should allow selective enabling (by domain of origin or whatever).

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#93

Post by briHass »

zamalek wrote: post #67
toyg wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Google Hub and 2 Minis , would I be able to repurpose them for HA or do I have to start from scratch...? If they can't be reused, I might as well stick to Google until they get bricked (which I'm sure will happen at some point).

I use Google devices with my HA setup just fine (although I want to move away). HA just added integrated assistant support, so I'm keen to try that out when I get back from vacation.

Does the HA voice assistant support require HA Cloud or whatever they're calling it? The price for that $6/m felt a bit steep for what it provided, though supporting HA development is appealing.

When I started to read through the non-cloud option, I saw some analog telephone and POTS modem requirements and my eyes glazed over.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#94

Post by BrandoElFollito »

c4mpute wrote: post #37
gondaloof wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What can HA do that Google/Alexa can’t?

Break even faster. Upgrading HA is a chore, it frequently breaks, ceases to understand its own configuration, drops integrations.

"frequently"?

I upgrade it automatically for years and they royally fucked the upgrade only once (I had to spend an hour to bring it back to life). Otherwise I never had an issue with my set of devices.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#95

Post by leipert »

Bluecobra wrote: post #56
leipert wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jup. A family member has Nest thermostats. Server went down. The thermostats cranked up to 30C / 86F as the failure mode. Just makes no sense. I get that you don’t want freezing pipes, if the server goes down, but come on.

That sounds a bit far fetched to me, I have had my Internet go down multiple times and never have a Nest problem. In fact I don’t even think an Internet connection is required if you just want it to be a dumb thermostat. The default safety settings on my nest is 45F for heat and 95F for AC. This setting is user adjustable so maybe your family member override it.

You are probably in the US. In Germany usually each radiator has a thermostat and you usually do not have wall thermostats unless you have floor heating.

That being said, I’ve double checked and it is Netatmo [0] and not Nest. The point still stands, that some cloud based home automation devices behave stupid if they cannot talk to the server.

[0]: https://www.netatmo.com/en-gb/additional-smart-radiator-valv...

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#96

Post by nbzso »

The biggest unanswered question for me in recent years is how educated people with a tech background have trusted a big corporation which publicly stated years ago that they existence goal is to build the digital GOD (AGI). It's beyond my imagination. The same with OpenAI craze now. Why I would give my personal or corporate information to them or Microsoft? To learn more about my process patterns and RLHF their models for free? I understand the normies, they have no clue. But this?

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#97

Post by bombcar »

knolan wrote: post #41
Corrado wrote: post #2

I feel like this is just one more thing that Google leadership is failing at. I have some similar examples to the ones in the article. I recommended that my brother-in-law get a Google wifi AP some years ago. Recently, I got an email from Google saying that they are no longer supporting it and after a certain date you will no longer be able to make changes to it. WTF?!? My Apple Airport Extreme is older than the Goog…

I love my Time Capsule. It worked flawlessly for a nearly a decade when the disk inevitably failed. I still use it in my office for backups with a new disk. I wish Apple still made them and made swapping disks tool free.

I had an AirPort Express as an audio bridge to my stereo for years, maybe a decade? Thing was bullet-proof and the only reason I finally put it down was all the new stereos have built-in casting of some sort.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203874699472 was great, had everything you could want in a compact size, and was compatible with the power adapter cables (which are still the same these days)!

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#98

Post by bombcar »

timellis-smith wrote: post #51

For me this is also a major failure of poor competition policy. If Google's smart home system were an independent company, it would love or die by its ability to do its job. But Nest can just piggy back on Google's brand power.

BestBuy killed their IoT HomeKit compatible switches and stuff years ago, but they 1. still work and 2. still work with HomeKit if they were installed/connected before they took down the IoT servers.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#99

Post by bombcar »

visarga wrote: post #52
Sosh101 wrote: post #15

I can't understand people that want to wire up every aspect of their home to big tech cloud companies. There are plenty of options for self-hosted smart home setups.

When I realized I need to register all my light bulbs and appliances and control them by janky wireless signals, with reconnect issues from time to time, I just gave up and use physical switches. They work all the time. Why would I want to open or close a light when I am 100 steps away from the button?

You can get physical switches that are ALSO software controllable, which can be nice. Things like these: https://www.lutron.com/en-US/Products/Pages/SingleRoomContro...

So you can do "Siri turn all lights off" or whatever, and still be able to turn the lights on and off if the Internet is down.

Still on the fence if it's worth the cost.

Re: I'm never investing in Google's smart home ecosystem again

#100

Post by eimrine »

nbzso wrote: post #96

The biggest unanswered question for me in recent years is how educated people with a tech background have trusted a big corporation which publicly stated years ago that they existence goal is to build the digital GOD (AGI). It's beyond my imagination. The same with OpenAI craze now. Why I would give my personal or corporate information to them or Microsoft? To learn more about my process patterns and RLHF their model…

There is a good article [1] just has been spawned on "New", maybe it answers your question.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35850843

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