IOT and You: Upgrades You Can Make Today
Today we’ll talk about IOT and how it can impact your everyday life in both big and small ways. The IOT market has come a long way in just a few years, what initially seemed like a far away pipe dream has turned into a booming consumer market currently worth $248 Billion dollars and projected to be as much as $1.5 Trillion within 5 years time. It more than doubled in just 3 years from $110 Billion in 2017.
But before we go any further let’s make sure we are all on the same page. What exactly do I mean by IOT anyway? Well I find that the definition Google provides nicely encompasses everything I mean to address today and more: “The term “Internet of Things” applies to any nonstandard computing device that connects to wifi and can transmit data. Well-known examples of IOT devices include smart speakers like Amazon Alexa or Google Home, smartwatches like the Apple Watch, internet-connected baby monitors, video doorbells, and even toys.” Put simply anything that isn’t a normal computer but connects to and transmits data over wifi.
I recently had the pleasure of furnishing a new apartment, and one of the things I knew I wanted to accomplish from the get-go was making my home as “smart” as possible. Now this can mean a lot of things, and there were certain limits of what I could and couldn’t change or install as I live in an apartment building after all. Now there’s a variety of different devices and standards out there, thankfully over the past few years things have become much easier to figure out and all you really need to look for on any box is a Works with Google, Alexa, or Apple HomeKit depending on your ecosystem. I had been gifted an Amazon Echo, and echo dot, and got a free google home mini from spotify so I sought out devices that were compatible with both.
Now I consider myself to be something of an audiophile, though not to any crazy extreme. However this along with the numerous devices I knew I was going to have set up in my entertainment center meant that things can get a bit confusing in terms of figuring out inputs and remote controls. For context I have 3 gaming consoles (xbox, ps4, switch), a PC tower, an A/V Receiver, a Fire Stick, cable box, and record player that all needed to be set up in a way that wouldn’t make my wife pull her hair out every time she wanted to sit down to watch netflix, or simply pop on a record to listen and unwind. Additionally even being the person who set everything up and knowing which remote does what, you get tired of having to deal with half a dozen controllers. In came our savior:
Now you might be asking yourself at this point, why not use a simple universal remote control that you can get on amazon or best buy for $30 and be done with it. You might also be asking what makes this remote so special and at a starting price of $150–$250(depending on retailer and sales) you’d be right to ask those questions. But here’s the thing because I had the benefit of knowing that I wanted as integrated a smart home system as possible, and I had numerous devices that would be controlled via Bluetooth rather than standard IR signals (specifically my XBOX, PS4, PC, and Fire TV). Secondly while your normal universal remote does indeed solve my problem of having half a dozen controllers lying around it does nothing to solve the issue of my wife not knowing nor wanting to learn which inputs to turn to or which devices to turn on in which order every time she wants to do anything in our living room.
Now this is where devices like Logitech’s Harmony line really shine. They have activities which are pretty much what they sound like. You program them a single time during the initial set up then they just work afterwards, they’re very versatile and can be adapted to just about any set up. Additionally utilizing the harmony hub and harmony app you can control everything via your phone, and can control other relevant smart home devices via the hub such as smart lights, thermostat, or even smart locks. For a practical example I have my watch movie activity turn on my smart TV, launch Netflix, turn on my receiver, and turn the lights off in my living room all with a touch of a screen. And because it’s a smart remote if I press the volume button it knows to send that signal to my receiver, if I press pause it sends the signal to my Netflix app etc. All this it knows from the initial set up. Additionally I get access to all my smart lights (I have them installed in every room) and can turn them on/off from the remote or even adjust things like color and brightness. Like I mentioned earlier it’s a very versatile and robust system. Now on the subject of lighting that brings me to one of the best, and easiest upgrades anyone can make to their home smart lights.
I cannot express strongly enough what a game changer smart lights are in any home. They are probably the easiest (and priciest depending on brand, and quantity of bulbs needed) smart home upgrades you can make. I’m sure most everybody can relate to the dreaded feeling of getting into bed finally getting comfortable and wanting nothing more but to close your eyes… only to realize you left a light on somewhere in the house. Talk about ruining your night. That problem goes away with smart lights simply go on your phone turn off the offending bulb. Boom problem solved, and you never left your bed. Better yet for the truly lazy among us (and I am proudly in that camp) simply bark an order at Alexa/Google/Siri and tell them to turn things off. Additionally like many of the other items I’ve talked about they’re very versatile, you choose between 3 categories of bulbs Hue color (pictured above), White ambiance (essentially allows you to choose between a variety of shades of warm and cool whites with the coolest bordering on blue), and White which is simply a bright white light (you can adjust the brightness but not the color temperature).
Of all the bulbs white is naturally the most restrictive and appropriately the cheapest of the options. I’d recommend these for places where the smart functionality will be useful but you have no need for controlling anything other than on/off, likely a garage, or hallway light, even a closet light if you have a fixture. Places where control over the type of light is less important than just having light. Otherwise the color bulbs are strongly recommended as they’re tons of fun and cool to show off. Now there are plenty of other brands out there that do similar things often for less money, LifeX comes to mind as a popular alternative. I chose to go with Philips Hue for a few reasons, but the choice is up to you, ultimately just having the smart light functionality is a huge upgrade in day to day life, of all the changes I’ve made I use and appreciate the lights the most.
Now for why I chose Philips Hue specifically: firstly they’re backed by a large company so I don’t worry about them going under and losing a lot of functionality in the future. This is unfortunately something to keep in mind, a small start up may be attractive but they might not exist some day, and with them you might lose app functionality and any of the benefits that made you want to upgrade. Remember LED bulbs have anywhere from a 10 to 30 year lifespan depending on usage. Secondly from extensive reviews the actual light that these bulbs emit is best in class from color accuracy to brightness. This might not matter to you but it was a consideration I made. Finally they have a wide range of 3rd party developer support, not only do they integrate nicely with most major standards, most companies develop any accessories or products with them in mind as they have a large portion of market share. They also have some really cool experimental features on their app, and you can do things like sync your lights to movies, or music, or video games. They also have a wide product library that works well with each other such as light bars, and light strips, and wireless dimmer switches. Finally their app UI is excellent and receives regular updates.
Now I think most of my fellow New Yorkers will agree there are few worse things than coming home after a long hot commute on another subway car with a broken A/C and finding your apartment has become a sauna. Now unfortunately for some time there weren’t a lot of great solutions to this if you didn’t have a programmable thermostat in your home or apartment smart or otherwise. Unfortunately most New Yorkers that live in an older building likely don’t have an in unit thermostat and use a window unit like the one pictured above. Now in recent years with the advent of the smart plug which can be had for $15–$30 generally has introduced a basic solution to this problem. However not all ACs actually play nice with these smart plugs (some will read the off signal sent to the plug as if it was disconnected requiring the reset button be pressed) and even those that are compatible, by nature of simply being a plug mean you can’t change the temperature if it turns out to be a real scorcher that day, or cooler than you thought. Worse yet some units like my old one default to low eco mode when turned on which will not cool my apartment unless left on all day and at that point what’s the reason for a smart plug. Now unfortunately there’s currently only really one name in the smart ac game and that’s frigidaire but they put out an excellent product. The actual AC does a magnificent job of cooling everything down. But we aren’t here to discuss it’s cooling ability.
What makes this unit truly convenient is it’s accompanying app. Now the biggest flaw I’ve found is its integration with Alexa and Google leaves a lot to be desired. It seems to have been an afterthought in the way you connect the accounts and the way you actually use them to work with the air conditioner. Fortunately the app is good enough to make up for things. You can control however many units you have from a single app, you can create custom schedules for each one having them turn on and off at whatever times you want. If you decide to deviate you have full control over them from the app at all times, including setting temperature and adjusting fan strength. additionally it’ll notify you when the filter needs to be changed. This has been the second biggest upgrade for us as my wife seems to be chronically hot even in the dead of winter we use it, and being able to adjust it from anywhere in the house, and more crucially outside the house has been game changing. It allows you to always come home to a perfectly climate controlled home.
Now here was a fairly unexpected area of our life that was recently upgraded and enhanced by the IOT. It so happened that we were in the market for a new car after our 2004 Nissan Murano finally gave out. Turns out cars have benefited greatly from always being connected to the internet. I already knew about things like Android Auto and Apple Car Play, and more recent Amazon Echo Auto. But I didn’t know that over the past couple of years car manufacturers had been adding more and more remote functionality to their models. I’ll speak specifically to Ford’s implementation as that is the one I’ve been using and am familiar with. Their app is called FordPass and you can use it to do quite a bit from just about anywhere.
Utilizing FordPass I’m able to remotely lock or unlock my car from anywhere that I have internet (normally key fob range is between 15–60 feet depending on conditions). Additionally you can remote start and turn off your car from anywhere you have a data connection. This is exceptionally useful if like me you don’t have a drive way, and have to at times take quite a trek to your car on those cold brutal winter mornings or even back to your car after leaving the office. Well while the trek itself might not be any less brutal with FordPass I’m now able to turn my car on before I ever leave and ensure that by the time I make it to my car it’s toasty warm and ready to go. Similar benefit during those summer scorchers. There’s nothing better than getting out of that hot muggy air and stepping into a nice air conditioned car that’s been waiting for you. Additionally something that has been extremely helpful is it’s location feature. My wife and I share the car we don’t always remember where we parked. Instead of having to do mental gymnastics we just hop on the app and see where we left the car. No more going up and down a street hoping to remember where you left it. Finally it helpfully provides car alerts, from your alarm being triggered, to how much oil you have left, to recall and safety information. Overall it was an unexpected but very welcome addition to my increasingly smart lifestyle. Before I forget you can also schedule those remote starts so that you don’t have to even remember to start it in the morning if you routinely leave at the same time. Talk about convenient!
Now I’ve left the most obvious components of a smart home ecosystem for last because there’s not really any right answer here and your choice here will depend on which companies ecosystem you’re already invested in. I was fortunate enough to have both the echo and google home so will be doing more of a comparison regarding the differences between the two, as they all accomplish mostly the same core functions. Now it’s been my experience that Alexa has much more personality between the two with there being a clear focus on giving her a sense of individuality. However unsurprisingly I found that google provides much more accurate factual information when conducting search queries, and seemed better suited at providing nuanced responses. Both had decent enough speakers and notably support being connected to external speakers. Where they really shine in bringing everything together in my home is they connect to virtually everything that I’ve outlined above sans my car and allow me to control all of it with voice commands. It’s extremely convenient and you get used to being able to bark commands and have things done faster than you might think. My wife was initially resistant to the idea of smart speakers, she had privacy concerns but now shares in my frustration whenever we go someplace else and can’t use them.
Though my favorite function of these speakers is the ability to create custom routines from obvious ones like my often used ‘Goodnight’ routine which sends a power down signal to every connected device in my home allowing me to go to bed knowing everything is turned off, to ‘Good morning which turns the lights on to the exact brightness level I prefer, gives me the weather and starts playing my news podcast of choice. Additionally they can play music from your preferred music app sans apple music unless you have a home pod, and I do it more often than I initially anticipated as sometimes you just wanna listen on a better speaker than your phone without using your entertainment center. I’ve also set up some cool party trick routines, so far a favorite among my friends is ‘execute order 66’ which turns all the lights red, starts playing the imperial march, and Alexa reminds us all to ‘be careful not to choke on your aspirations’. As this shows you can really get creative with the routines you make and what you have them do.
Despite how smart I’ve made my home, and all the wonderful upgrades I’ve made to my daily life through these smart devices I’ve only scratched the surface of what can be done. For example I don’t have a smart lock, or doorbell camera, I don’t have a smart thermostat (or any thermostat at all for that matter). It seems that every year more and more devices are released from Alexa compatible microwaves, to smart sink faucets, and smart refrigerators bordering on glorified tablets. It’s truly amazing everything that can be accomplished thanks to the IOT. What seemed like a far flung pipe dream of the hardiest tech enthusiasts 20 years ago is now increasingly the norm in our daily lives. I look forward to see how things change in another 10 and even 20 years. And I hope I’ve shown you some great quality of life improvements you can make in your own home, whether you can go all in or can only do smart lighting, embrace the convenience!
