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?

So is the Hue lighting worth it then?

And while I'm here is the standard Bayonet cap things called B22? I can't work out what I'm mine but I guess that is the standard?

Dothehokeykokey Your set up sounds sensible. But others do have a hotchpotch system and they can be hacked and have been hacked. Why do hackers hack anything? Just to show they can it seems more often than not.
As long as people change the default passwords etc they should be pretty safe, but just on this thread you can see how confused some are by the whole idea.

YANBU, my DH used to work on smart home technology (a well known brand, though I don't want to out him), and we notably don't use it at home. When we needed something similar for our house, he created it (hardware and software) from scratch, because then he'd at least have a chance of solving bugs with it.

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

Of course shouldn't, unless you cook like I do

And it doesn't go off any longer. It says in a very nice stern and loud voice that there is smoke in the kitchen (or hallway) and that the alarm is going to go off and it nicely reminds you that the alarm is very loud. It's a shame that it doesn't apologise for the inconvenience but I guess it was designed outside of the U.K.

All I have to do is hold down a button on my smartphone for 10 seconds, it disables the alarm and keeps me updated as to the dissipating smoke.

With 3 teens in the house occasionally on their own, I am quite glad that I would be notified on my phone if there was a fire when I am out.

I use mine to do a couple of things. So in the morning I leave for work before DS leaves for school, so the lights flash when it's time for him to grab his lunch and go. They also turn themselves off when all the mobile phones have left the house so that's handy.

I have a trigger using IFTTT so when I say to Alexa "trigger bedtime" the lights slowly dim and my sleep tracking app starts EXCEPT it there is still something on my daily to-do list (like make the lunches for tomorrow), in which case Alexa tells me what I need to do, and I can just remove stuff from my list by asking Alexa to check it off. I have a smart plug on my kettle too so if I remember to set it up at night (it's on my to-do list!) the kettle turns itself on in the morning when my watch notices I'm about to wake up. My other favourite is the shopping list feature because all week I walk around my house going "Alexa, add tomatoes to my shopping list" etc and then, when I go shopping, I just tell it to 'trigger shopping' and my shopping list gets sent to my wireless printer and prints out, and my phone sends my mum a text telling her I'm on the way.

My watch is super handy because it means I have my phone 'on me' at all times, so I don't have to stress about not knowing whether DS's school need me. I can't make or receive calls, but it vibrates to let me know my phone is ringing and who is calling.

I love all my dumb gadgets and only wish one day I can afford a roomba

I have a colleague called Alexa. One day I asked her, "Alexa, play music by Dizzee Rascal." She was not amused.
I was

One day we'll forget how to do things ourselves

YANBU. I worry that it's reducing people's skills to think for themselves. In 20 years how many people will be able to find their way if the SatNav breaks, go for a few hours with no phone, or realise they need to order milk if the fridge forgot to let them know?

Alexa open front door. Click. Great for my very disabled friend? But completely negates home insurance.

I was unimpressed until dh set up Alexa to switch on the Christmas tree lights when I asked her to. Made my Christmas .

One day we'll forget how to do things ourselves

The next generation always forgets things as technology advances, hardly a new thing, how many people know how to light a paraffin light these days.

Earlier today I read that people needed to update their sat navs before Monday or else those who rely on them to know what the speed limit is would get more speeding tickets.

I was .

Sadly I could never find my way without a sat nav. I have some sort of direction blind spot. I cannot read a map and never have been able to. It was a real hardship when I was young. SatNavs have set me free not made me forget how to do something useful.

I have a colleague in his late 20s who cannot believe I can find the way to our clients offices hundreds of miles away without a sat nav and he does know I have been there about 20 times.

I cant even find my way around the wards I work in all the time.

I always end up getting confused and having to really think where I am going. It's very embarrassing and very funny to other people. I always end up walking the long way around, or going into the wrong bay or room. It's awful.

Without a sat nav I would be doomed.

Is that talking smoke alarm real? It would have been on the floor and hammered into a million pieces in this house, I can't think of anything more irritating.

I understand that if you have kids you do need a voice, not an alarm. But you are a bit stuffed if you havent charged your smartphone within the last few hours ( I was staggered when I found out how crap they are) so I hope you have a pointy stick handy to disable the alarm. Assuming the workie that designed it remembered to include a button.

It is real and I'd rather it give me a polite warning than start blaring alarm. I donscrambke to get my phone but I usually have it nearby anyway. I'm one of those horrible people who has it attached to myself at all times. I keep it in the kitchen as I add to grocery order when I am cooking.

I can see how some would find it annoying - for a long time I didn't have a smoke detector but then a friend died of carbon monoxide poisoning so we had our place fitted out properly with joint cm/smoke detectors.

I am just waiting for the introduction of microchipping babies at birth. As for the rest, smart home functionality isn't that new, but is being pushed now to "streamline" suppliers' costs.
I was quite keen to have a wifi facility on my new boiler last year, but decided that I wouldn't actually use it and the holiday programme would do the job just as well, as I am away a lot for work (not holidays, sadly).

I'm generally a tech enthusiast but I'm deeply suspicious of smart devices. I'm sure some are useful but for the most part I think they just add an unnecessary layer of complication to stuff that's otherwise pretty straightforward to use - plus I'm concerned about privacy settings and the fact that companies have more and more data on our habits than ever before. They aren't marketing this stuff to make our lives easier; they're essentially making it normal to install invasive spyware around our houses.

Also makes me wonder about hackers.

A friend of mine was shopping for a fridge and a pushy salesman tried to sell her a 'smart fridge' - she asked what happened in a power cut and he had to admit he had no idea what would happen!

The talking smoke alarm is real because supposedly children cannot hear a shreeking alarm in the milddle of the night but they can hear a shreeking woman (ie their mother trying to get them up and out of the house when it is on fire).

I agree with cellorama. Already lots of proven examples of smart technology being used as spyware and listening in on conversations. How much does it actually help people with busy lives. I have 3 DC's and work full time so guess have a busy life, but I can manage a light switch and thermostat in the second it takes to operate them.

Dothe Couldn't be doing with pressure pads next to the beds....the cats are up and down all night.

This all reminds me of a very famous graphic novel story where a chap lives in a smart house where everything is controlled by robots and technology.

One day, the system malfunctions and won't let him out of the house but the robots continue to follow their programming.

Ten years later, he's still there with the robots getting him up, out of bed, running a bath, making his breakfast, only the last panel spans out to show.... he's a skeleton!

Be warned!

Loads of was to program around the cats.

Set a motion sensor in an area the cars wouldn't activate but you would so it responds to a double input (motion and pressure) that way the motion sensor doesn't activate if you move in bed and the pad doesn't activate when just a cat comes in.

These smart gadgets which are insecure are being hijacked to perform DDOS attacks (the sort of thing Jeffrey did to bring down MN).