Considering how few posts there is in this QOTW compared to normal I'd say it's safe to assume nobody gives a toss about smart home stuff
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Considering how few posts there is in this QOTW compared to normal I'd say it's safe to assume nobody gives a toss about smart home stuff
Spot on, I'm one of them. I can't imagine any aspect of my life that would be improved by anything "smart". My thermostat works well and in combination with the programmable timer on the boiler, I haven't ever gone out and left the heating on in my 10 years of home ownership. And if I did, it's not going to be running constantly and it'd be a nice treat for the dogs.
My lightbulbs are the boring old, switch them on and they light up type. I have a couple of dimmer switches, but it's easier to just twizzle the switch than mess about on my phone.
I have a "Smart" TV, which isn't smart at all. It can run a few apps on a wannabe Android OS but 99.9% of the time it's literally just a screen for the AV Receiver. the other 0.1% it's using screen mirroring to throw photos up from my phone.
Plug sockets that I can turn off with my phone? They might be useful if I was physically unable to reach the sockets due to disability, but even then I don't often need to turn my sockets off at the wall unless I'm unplugging something.
I did used to have one of these robot vacuum cleaners (ex bought it on Groupon). That wasn't smart either. I'd often find it wedged under the sofa, batteries drained, it'd spend most of its time banging repeatedly in to doors and I got sick of doing its job for it with a "dumb" hoover, so it got sold.
Thinking of it, I haven't experienced a smart device that is less stupid than the technology it's meant to replace. I think that the sooner the fad is over, the better.
Oh please, use your imagination! :)
I'm waiting for the integrated smart toaster. It would work with specially baked bread that has a bar code baked into each loaf so that each slice is bar codes during manufacture.
The toaster scans the slice and communicates with the bakery data base that has recorded the manufacture date and the humidity of the bread at the time it was packaged. It then uses that information, couple with information it has learned about my toast preference, to make a perfect slice of toast. Using the time of day, and the date, it would know if I was making toast to go with marmalade, or for cheese on toast and adjust the toasting accordingly.
A future refinement when edible electronics are developed would be to have temperature and humidity sensors built in, so it can tell the toaster the precise details, making toasting even better.
Now tell me that you life wouldn't be enhanced by such a system, Grommit!
My Central Heating System is a Honeywell Total Connect Comfort but apart from that not a lot.
I do try! I've just always looked at smart devices as overengineered wastes of effort and resources, ever since I saw that fridge that ordered your shopping for you when you were running low on something on Tomorrows World!
I think I'd enjoy the thrill of not knowing exactly how my toast is going to come out each time, how depressing would life be where everything becomes so perfectly consistent and predictable?
When will the 'smart' buzzword go away? lol :P
There's a lot of negative comments on this thread - Some smart devices are pushed on us by profit hungry corporations but aren't worth our money while other smart devices make our quality of life better. It's up to us to be tech savvy enough to decide which is which.
I have a Robot vacuum cleaner that hoovers while I'm out and I think that's brilliant.
Next on my list to get will be a robot lawnmower (when I can afford it)
I think my amp might be classed as Smart, it's got the internet plugged in. Apart from a few minutes of 'oh look, it does this!' I haven't used it other than as a device to make big sounds from little disks.