The Mac Observer’s Kelly Guimont, who you can hear regularly on TMO’s Daily Observations podcast, joined Chuck Joiner this week on MacVoices. Chuck quizzed her about Internet of Things, backup strategies, upgrading your tech gear, favorite iOS apps, and more. MacVoices is a video podcast, but there’s an audio version available, too. You can check out Chuck’s interview with Kelly at the MacVoices website, or on Apple’s iTunes Store as audio or video.
Kelly Guimont Talks IoT and More on MacVoices
I agree that Wemo is a good first step. I bought one for just that purpose. What I’ve found, though, is that I wouldn’t use it for something that I can more easily turn on by hand. It’s clunky to pull my phone out to switch something on in the same room I’m in. So I use it for outdoor lighting. During the holiday season, I ran an extension cord from my (weather-protected) shed to a set of laser lights. Then I set up the schedule to turn on automatically each day. In the non-holiday season, I have it hooked up to an outdoor floodlight (on that same shed) as auxiliary light for my driveway. This was wonderful. I could easily turn on or off the shed light with my phone.
It wasn’t exactly my first step though.. I have Philips Hue lights as well. For the same reason that I won’t use the Wemo for some stuff, I’ve found that those are not much fun to use my phone to control on a daily basis for. The hue light switch has been a terrific addition to that system. It’s simple to tap a light switch (or tap it a few times for different scenes).
My only complaint about Philips Hue lights is that there is (currently) no option to have the light return a custom setting after losing power. This means that when the power flickers in the middle of the night, the lights come on FULL BRIGHTNESS. We have one in our bedroom. You can imagine how fun that is… especially because the router would also be rebooting… so the switches/hubs also won’t work. I have to unplug the lamp or switch it off at the lamp.