To be fed up with "smart home" technology already?

[Shitalopram]

Over the last year, various "internet of things" devices have found their way into this house (not my idea!) and one by one they have all malfunctioned, failed to talk to other smart things or just plain smashed to pieces (£90 smart bathroom scales )

There seem to be so many devices and apps competing for my time and attention and I find it all unhelpful, expensive and unnecessary.

Am I just an old gimmer?

As with anything else, the technology is not the problem, but more how've it's used.

We have a hive, and I love it. It was so useful when DD was tiny and I could pop the heating on for an hour whilst trapped underneath her and stuck to the sofa!

GiantDuck.. tell us more...

We like tinkering with electronics so got lots of home build raspberry pi things , magic mirror, motion cctv, homemade tablet, soil mostire checker that emails us when our plants soil is too dry.
Then got bought stuff for lights, heating, doorbell etc

Did you see the 'juicer' for £350 advertised this week, where you have to buy prepared 'pouches' of fruit for it to squeeze.

Dumb tech companies have invested $120m apparently

We have none of those things because I can't be arsed.

I would be interested in some sort of remote monitoring of the cats so I might worry less about them when I'm away (maybe information about the last time they went through the cat flap and are they in or out, we already have the chipped cat flaps that only let our cats in so it wouldn't be impossible to invent). But then I might get obsessed about it and worry if one had been out all night and I couldn't do anything about it.

What I want to know about those wifi kettles that you can switch on remotely is 'don't you still have to get up to put water in it anyway'?

I'm not sure I trust a fridge that can allegedly do the shopping for me though.

I have a Roomba, who is genuinely useful, even if I have glued a Lego figure on top. The doorbell might interest me. The rest, not so much. Ex-IT support. Give me that old time charm.

i don't even know what most of these things are so figure I don't need them.

You don't HAVE to set timers either. Alexa turns my lights on when I ask her to. If I want them on when I get in I can do it from my phone.

I love being able to turn the heating on/off from my phone too. Much easier than getting out of bed and messing with the thermostat.

I might like a roomba too...

I have a roomba, it's awesome.

I shop for food at an outdoor market. Technology will have zero impact on my shopping capabilities. My heating is very very old and there is no thermostat for our apartment - the thermostat works is operated centrally, for the whole building. We were rewired last year and it's all manual.

I'm not sure what the Internet of things is going to do for me!

You sound like me BoboChic. My central heating boiler was installed in the 1970s. Supplementary heating is a couple of coal fires. The wifi works only in one room. The music system is also 1970s. I did recently add a CD player to it though

My landline phone in the sitting room was made in the 1930s and my bedside phone in the 1950s. I have one of those tone generators if I need to "speak" to an automated system.

I don't watch TV

Technology isn't really a lot of use to me!

We have Internet everywhere and plenty of Apple and B&O. And open fires!

I haven't got much now but I'd like the hive/similar when I get my own place as I work odd hours and regularly go away for a few days, not so much point if you have a very set routine, I don't see the point in Alexa/dot though, I'm happy with just my smartphone!

I have a front door video - a piece of glass in the door. No power or internet needed. I have £20 straighteners with auto shut off, but I just unplug after using.

And a smoke alarm shouldn't go off when cooking.

But the fire clean/set/light app would be brilliant. Although if mn wrote it, it would stop the fire working until I opened and closed the door, and would email the whole world whether I liked it or not...

Is it not possible to hack all these things, though? And what about if your 'phone is stolen? Or the network goes down for an extended period? (Like happens in the aftermath of a terrorist attack) Does everything have some kind of manual over-ride?

Yes, it is possible to hack them. Just google 'internet if things hackers'

Code42. You're right that we need to be security conscious. Cyber protection is v important in a tech world.

Those of you who have Alexa's/dots.. what do you use them for?

My ex would buy all new tech. I don't understand most of it so when his heating was "broken" over the Easter bank holidays despite it being hive or sommat like, I had a little chortle.

like the OP, my DH has installed a number of these items - Alexa, hue lightbulbs, and, I think, dots (although I have no idea what these do). He talks about the Hive thing and so far I have put him off. The lights are fucking annoying - how hard is it to switch on a light after all? It takes longer to switch on the hue lights, fiddle with the brightness, mybe press several times till it actually responds. Those I would throw out. Alexa is ok, but frequently doesn't respond to my voice, and has an unfortunate habit of playing BBC radio essex when I ask for Radio 4. She also goes off line at random. I would like to know what my DH did with my nice blue radio that previously sat on my beside table - it wasn't very onerous to press an on button, I was able to manage fine thank you. I think when I am old all this stuff will make me very confused and I will find myself unable to do the simplest things because I've forgotten the commands.

Samsung make a smart fridge that allows you to see what's in your fridge on your phone. Although I thinks it's about 5k

Our house if is fully automated. Lights, hearmting, music, cctv, TVs, curtains, blinds, Hoover, door access, watering garden etc.

Last one out presses one button by door (or sets alarm) and depending on time of day lights either all go off or set to a scene to make it look like we are in if it's after sunset. All the TVs and music go off, the Hoover goes to work, and if any doors or windows are open we are notified.

Curtains open and close as required, blinds close of the sun is out and temperature of a room gets to high.

I can see who is at the front door and remotely open the porch to let them drop off a delivery, or open the house to let them in wherever I am. I get a notification when they leave.

If the kids get up in the evening and we are still up (lounge lights on, not bedroom) then the lounge lights flash to let us know.

Once in bed there is a low audio notification.

Doesn't matter how load the tv or music is, the speakers announce someone at the door.

Anyone gets up in the night the pressure pad by their bed activates the real net low level lighting scene to guide them to the bathroom.

All completely customisable

All susceptible to hacking.

I quite like my hive as I'm incapable of remembering to turn the heating off before we go away for a holiday or weekend so do it after we've left. Probably saves us quite a lot over Christmas and our ski holiday.

"All susceptible to hacking."

It's not a hotch pitch of random products plugged into our home network. It's a purpose built system from a leading manufacturer of home automation and all sits on a separate IP range to to the of the home network and behind a firewall.

Plus, people go on about hacking, but why would someone want to go the effort of hacking my lights? Even if they did I would just turn the system off and go back to the switches which also work perfectly well

What if someone hacks my toothbrush? They'll know i missed a brushing a couple of weeks ago when I was pissed