Here we go.

So the Annual CES Conference https://www.ces.tech/ is about to wrap up and some of the big news from the conf is the Home Smart stuff. Lots of stuff coming - tonnes of it.

At present, for general all in one voice control we really only have Google at the moment in Australia (Amazon not launched here yet I believe) and Apple losing market share by the minute since the sad departure of Steve Jobs.

Not a lot of it is connected yet but that is changing.

The easiest move into the Smart Home, though not the cheapest, first cab off the rank is the Smart Light Bulbs.

So after bath time and dinner you sit down ready for the next Ray Donovan and you've forgotten the mood. No problem "Hey Google - Dim the lights"

So lighting - Phillips is the marketters favourite right now. Not the cheapest that's for sure.

Has anyone installed Smart Lighting yet? (Garry for sure)

Of course.

I've LifX bulbs (RGB direct wifi connected) in living area. Good for dimming and watching movies, etc.

I've also got multiple mains switches, IR controllers, Chromecast, Kodi, etc. and both Alexa and Google Home. These all integrate via a Home Assistant instance.

Could do a lot more, but there are definite problems with Australian houses and proprietary stuff you can't integrate easily. Would like to get the HVAC under smart control, and hook into the security system too - however those proprietary interfaces are a pain.

Forget Philips - Lifx is the way to go

Yes. Hubless.

Yeah the proprietary stuff sucks. Trying to get Samdung to understand that my 3 year old telly, which is internet connected, turns on and off through Chromecast, even has voice control through the remote, should be able to hook straight into Google Home with the need for a resolution killing Chromecast. Falling on deaf ears.

I'm into tech and gadgets but when it comes to home automation, I'm kind of ambivalent

It will be a sad day when I can't walk over to a switch and turn the lights off.....

For those looking to draw together a smarter house, worth putting some attention on Home Assistant

https://home-assistant.io/

You can run it on a Pi, or in a docker, and it can integrate a silly number of devices. Techie coding type of automation, but will even do Bayesian stuff if you want, and will integrate with location so the garage door opens as you approach and turn the lights on if its dark, etc.

And it's free.

My smart home is 2 PHD's

I have 12 Philips Hue bulbs at home.

10 of them are in carriage lamps on the exterior of my house. I've used If This Then That (IFTTT) so they come on automatically at sunset, dim to 5% at 10pm and switch off at sunrise every day.

IFTTT gets the sunrise and sunset information for Perth each day so the time they come on and switch changes on a daily basis.

Because they are LED they use very little power and my house looks AWESOME!

At Christmas and Halloween I use apps to control the lights to put on a colourful display, again it looks fantastic.

I remembered there was someone in Perf who had a lighting setup, just couldn't remember the name.

BTW in the 'adding control to existing stuff' stakes there's now a newer player in the game, SONOFF. These are little, inline, wifi controlled, switches - that can switch on/off virtually anything, and cost $5 a shot. People have hacked the firmware to make them talk to more things, nicer.


https://www.superhouse.tv/21-six-sonoff-secrets/

Smart Home gadgets; another way for companies to make sure gadgets are made obsolete by a date effected by them by switching them off via the nett.

Amazon Echos & Dots are up for pre-sale on Amazon. Delivery 1st Feb.

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B078GH9T4R

Interesting. I noticed on Google Home a song request where you default to youtube now requests a signup to youtube red, and a subscription. Painful.