Smart home essentials

[Mation]

Thirty years ago, I was chomping at the bit for all this futuristic tech stuff. Then came the realisation that, here, now, at least, it's all going to be under this fucking state of things, and decided to sulk.

My resolve is cracking now, though. [Insert excuses about ships having sailed and an easier life for the battle-weary neurodiverse here.]

I currently have nothing smart but my phone. No Alexa or similar. Don't really know what the options are, or uses for them, or how to evaluate it.

So. What do I need? What's worth doing because it's actually helpful and better than not having it; and what's just bandwagony fad?

What do I need to watch out for? Can you recommend anything?

 

[Mation]

Added a poll for no relevant reason. Just for the enjoyment of clicking stuff and looking at stats

 

[dessiato]

You've missed an option for partially smart home.

I've got smart lights but that's all, at the moment. I'm likely to increase to more integrated smart home later.

 

[weltweit]

You can make Alexa also control your lights in addition to answering your questions..

Not sure how "smart" that is though

 

[ohmyliver]

I'm going to follow this out of curiosity, and the hope that things have got better when I last looked at IoT things (I had to give a presenation on it about 8 years ago), where I discovered that in 2015 at least half a million spam emails were sent from compromised IoT things, and that Phillips (I think) had rushed to market an internet enabled baby cam where it was possible to gain admin rights on by simple unsecured API call using something like Postman.

 

[Mation]

You've missed an option for partially smart home.

I've got smart lights but that's all, at the moment. I'm likely to increase to more integrated smart home later.

Poll option added.

Tried to add another, too, but my m key or thumb action at m key is failing, and some weird post thing happened before I'd finished editing, and now I don't seem to be able to edit that bit, but it let me add fuck it.

 

[Mation]

This is all going very well

 

[Elpenor]

I have Hive for central heating which is handy, perhaps it doesn’t do anything a modern thermostat can’t do but being able to control it remotely is good.

Can’t say I’m arsed about anything else though I can see the lights being controlled by one of those things as actually quite handy as assistive technology for some with reduced mobility.

Must admit I find the whole smart speaker concept a bit frightening tbh.

 

[danny la rouge]

I’ve got a dishwasher that you can connect to a phone app but I haven’t done. Because you need to be standing next to the dishwasher to load or unload it, so what’s the point?

 

[mx wcfc]

The day my fridge adds a shopping list to my phone is the day I take an axe to the fridge.

Seriously though, I have dealt with people (at work) who were all about the "internet of things" . They were convinced we were all going to have internet connected fridges that could work out when we need more milk and send a message to a shopping list on our phones etc, but it never happened and never will.

The internet of things became a "thing" for a while but then most people realised that if it's on the internet it can be hacked so it never took off. I don't have one of those things like Alexa etc, and never would.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

there are odd occasions, like if i'm away from home in the winter, where it might be useful to be able to fire up the central heating when i'm an hour or so away from home.

the idea of needing an app to turn the light on / off rather than getting off my arse to do it seems un-necessary for most people

and i'm really not convinced i want a listening device owned by big tech somewhere at home, thanks all the same. or a fridge that can be hacked by the russians.

 

[mx wcfc]

I'm going to follow this out of curiosity, and the hope that things have got better when I last looked at IoT things (I had to give a presenation on it about 8 years ago), where I discovered that in 2015 at least half a million spam emails were sent from compromised IoT things, and that Phillips (I think) had rushed to market an internet enabled baby cam where it was possible to gain admin rights on by simple unsecured API call using something like Postman.

I understand about half of that, which is precisely why I don't do this shit.

 

[danski]

My home is decidedly dim. Most likely because I live there.

 

[stdP]

I understand about half of that, which is precisely why I don't do this shit.

I understand all of that, which is precisely why I don't do this shit.

 

[xenon]

I’ve got a few Echo devices and a couple of smart plugs. I mainly use the former for setting them alarms, and listening to radio. And turning the plugs on. Thinking about getting a hive thermostat at some point this year.

 

[Mation]

I have Hive for central heating which is handy, perhaps it doesn’t do anything a modern thermostat can’t do but being able to control it remotely is good.

Can’t say I’m arsed about anything else though I can see the lights being controlled by one of those things as actually quite handy as assistive technology for some with reduced mobility.

Must admit I find the whole smart speaker concept a bit frightening tbh.

Obvs I can look up what Hive is, but for sake of thread viewers like me, who don't want to until we know more about it, what is Hive and what does it do for your central heating?

 

[mx wcfc]

I understand all of that, which is precisely why I don't do this shit.

That is most reassuring. Thank you.

 

[Mation]

I’ve got a dishwasher that you can connect to a phone app but I haven’t done. Because you need to be standing next to the dishwasher to load or unload it, so what’s the point?

What are you meant to be able to do, if you connect it?

 

[WouldBe]

Only got a smartphone and am still mobile enough to turn lights on and off or adjust the thermostat manually.

The day my fridge adds a shopping list to my phone is the day I take an axe to the fridge.

Just wait till it starts getting deliveroo to deliver things for you. Not to mention dodgy software, you go to make a coffee and take the milk out the fridge, fridge realises there's no milk in it so 20 mins later deliveroo are at your door with a bottle of milk.

 

[xenon]

The day my fridge adds a shopping list to my phone is the day I take an axe to the fridge.

Seriously though, I have dealt with people (at work) who were all about the "internet of things" . They were convinced we were all going to have internet connected fridges that could work out when we need more milk and send a message to a shopping list on our phones etc, but it never happened and never will.

The internet of things became a "thing" for a while but then most people realised that if it's on the internet it can be hacked so it never took off. I don't have one of those things like Alexa etc, and never would.

See I find the Echo device is useful. But fuck having an Internet fridge. It’s kind of a joke item as they’ve been talking about those for about 30 years.

 

[quimcunx]

I am mostly happy with my dumb home.

What I would like are curtains that open by themselves at whatever time in the morning. The obstacle to this isn't so much not having an app but having to install electric curtains... and if I had electric curtains I would be happy enough to use a bedside switch to open them rather than an app.

 

[WouldBe]

Obvs I can look up what Hive is, but for sake of thread viewers like me, who don't want to until we know more about it, what is Hive and what does it do for your central heating?

It allows you to control the central heating and temperature using an app on your phone.

 

[xenon]

I understand all of that, which is precisely why I don't do this shit.

Yep I get it too. But I’m not arsed about smart lightbulbs or anything else. And I can always turn the echo devices off at the wall.

 

[Mation]

The day my fridge adds a shopping list to my phone is the day I take an axe to the fridge.

Seriously though, I have dealt with people (at work) who were all about the "internet of things" . They were convinced we were all going to have internet connected fridges that could work out when we need more milk and send a message to a shopping list on our phones etc, but it never happened and never will.

The internet of things became a "thing" for a while but then most people realised that if it's on the internet it can be hacked so it never took off. I don't have one of those things like Alexa etc, and never would.

How big a problem is hacking, for this stuff? Bad now? Likely to become bad? What can be done that's harmful apart from stopping something working that presumably could work again by pulling out a cable (essentially)? Is it a data thing?

(Please read ignorance and drunkenness, rather than arseiness )

 

[Elpenor]

Obvs I can look up what Hive is, but for sake of thread viewers like me, who don't want to until we know more about it, what is Hive and what does it do for your central heating?

It allows you to control the central heating and temperature using an app on your phone.

Yes this basically. IME it’s also a lot easier to use from a UI perspective than most thermostats and means for example that you can turn the heating on at home when you leave work so the house is toasty when you arrive.

 

[cesare]

I have Hive for central heating which is handy, perhaps it doesn’t do anything a modern thermostat can’t do but being able to control it remotely is good.

Can’t say I’m arsed about anything else though I can see the lights being controlled by one of those things as actually quite handy as assistive technology for some with reduced mobility.

Must admit I find the whole smart speaker concept a bit frightening tbh.

This could have been written by us.

We're loving Hive though.

Not got an Alexa or equivalent. Originally it was the listening in thing that deterred us but now we realise that our phones do that anyway

 

[Mation]

I’ve got a few Echo devices and a couple of smart plugs. I mainly use the former for setting them alarms, and listening to radio. And turning the plugs on. Thinking about getting a hive thermostat at some point this year.

Smart plugs?

 

[xenon]

How big a problem is hacking, for this stuff? Bad now? Likely to become bad? What can be done that's harmful apart from stopping something working that presumably could work again by pulling out a cable (essentially)? Is it a data thing?

(Please read ignorance and drunkenness, rather than arseiness )

I’ve got a book somewhere, which I haven’t actually read, but it’s called abusing the Internet of things. Basically a lot of this is based on really old operating systems. Not so much your Amazon or Google, but some of the smart monitoring devices. Not that those don’t have issues or potentially so. The tools to exploit vulnerabilities are quite easy to use as well. I mean for a relative nerd. You don’t have to write the exploits yourself. And they’re search engines, online port scanners, to find the vulnerabilities.
Actually I mean to sort my firewall out so my smart devices can’t get anywhere near my server. But this is probably not a concern for most people.

 

[Chz]

It allows you to control the central heating and temperature using an app on your phone.

I'd say the USP of Hive and other systems is that if you're a singleton, you can have it know your commute and be able to pop the heating on when it knows you're on your way home. And automatically know not to keep the place warm if you go on hols and forget to turn it off.

It's of less use in a 2 adults + kid household, because you can reliably predict when people are and aren't home and just set a normal thermostat timer.

As for hacking, it's been done. Unpatched IoT devices send out millions of spam emails every month. Worst case you end up getting your SMTP cut off by your ISP.

I bought some smart bulbs for the sitting room, but the smart part very rarely gets used. The dimming is occasionally useful, the colour changes never. Put me off getting anything else like that, aside from the robot hoover. Which I don't like due to how it talks to China with a map of our house, but I didn't buy that one.

 

[WouldBe]

Smart plugs?

Basically anything 'smart' can be operated by an app on your phone so a smart plug allows you to turn on / off whatever is connected to it.

Same with smart bulbs, some also have the ability to change colour via the app.