jbdragon

nunzy said:

homekit is better than any of the competing systems. In fact, homekit has no competition.

I'm a fan of Homekit. I'm a growing Homekit house,......BUT Alexa does have a lot more support. Google Home is Growing. Alexa is also over rated. Yes, tons of Skills, most you'll never use. It's kind of like early on with Apple's App store. A lot of fart apps and other crap. A lot of that has gone by the way side. That'll happen with Alexa also in time. There's a lot of crap. Things like Star Trek sound effects. The problem is trying to remember exactly how to do something. Alexa is also wordy. You have to say things in the exact right way or it's clueless.

Take for example my Ecobee 4. It supports Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, Samesung SmartThings, and IFTTT. So I happen to also have a Google Mini and a Echo Dot, which I got each for $40. This way I can compare those 2 to Siri in a number of area's that are my own needs.

First off, Even though Alexa is built into the Ecobee 4, it's clueless about it. So you can right off set a timer, or play some music, but try to set a temp, and it has no idea. So you have to setup the Ecobee Plus skill. You have to setup Siri and Google also, which isn't to hard. But you would think with Alexa built into the thing you wouldn't have to do anything else. Ops,...

So with Alexa, I have to Tell it or Ask it to do something with any type of 3rd party device. So I have to say something like "Alexa,..Tell Ecobee to set the temp to 68" I think that will work. With Siri or Google, I can just say "Hey Siri, set temp to 68" and it does it. They are smart enough to know I want to set the temp on the Ecobee to 68 and I sure as hell don't have to ask or tell it to do it.

I also got a couple of the MySmartBlinds with the Solar panels for free with a special deal back in Dec. Where I can open and Close my 2" blinds that I have. The kits were easy enough to install into my blinds. I could use a app to open and close them. That does kind of suck and a hassle compared to voice control. So they released a Hub, so currently I can use Alexa, with Google Home and SmartThings coming within a couple months. Hey had listed Siri Homekit support in the past, but then it disappeared. I hope it comes back. To use voice, I'm using Alexa and so for example, I can do something like "Alexa,..Tell Mysmartblinds to Open Master Bedroom" and my blinds open. If I don't mention a room it'll ask me what room and I can name the room or say All. Siri support would be really nice, but who knows if/when that will happen.

I have my Garage Door able to open and close by Siri. I can say "Hey Siri, Open garage" and it opens!!! I also have my garage light switches Homekit controlled. Using Apple's HOME app, I linked the light on the one side of the garage that we go though to the opener. So if I say "Hey Siri,..Open garage" the Garage door opens, and the garage lights turn ON. When the door closes the lights go off. For me, HUGE deal. The garage is how we come and go from my house. My Dad lives with me. He's left the garage wide open a few times. I get home and anyone could have robbed me blind. It's now setup to sent me and my dad a Alarm if the door is open longer than 5 minutes and 10 minutes. I can remotely close it either by the app or by Siri. Even Siri on my Apple Watch. But having the garage lights also come on really lights the place up at night. Far, far better then the lights from the garage door opener. At the same time I can also control those Garage lights with Siri at any time. Same with my outside side of the house light over my side fence. Nice to get home at night, need to drop something in the backyard and just lift my wrist and ask Siri to turn on that light.

I prefer light switches over bulbs. I started with 1 light switch to try out, then got a couple more, and just grew from there. No need to get everything at once.

stevedownunder said:

Given the enormous profits made then $275 per yer per employee sounds CHEAP when it's used to improve the area for people who live and work there including the companies and organisations. Organisations which don't make a profit or are non-profit cannot be expected to pay, that makes sense. Seriously, less than a dollar a day per employee for companies that make billions is cheap and they know it.

A tax on a person just to work.  This is beyond silly.  Apple already pays a lot of taxes.   I don't care if it's a penny a day, it's a penny too much.   Here's an idea, cut some of the waste.   Always easier for Government to just steal away more money.  Where does it end?  

deminsd said:

nemaworm said:

deminsd said:

Signed up yesterday to get my free ATV 4K and discovered dtvnow doesn't offer CBS.  They have ABC, NBC and FOX, but no CBS.  Sort of a deal breaker...

And the interface was horrible.  Just trying to figure out how to get to local channels was a chore.  Hopefully this will be better.

I have cbs and cbs sports on my app in LA area

That is odd.  I'm in San Diego, and no CBS.  I also notice that you have KCAL 9 and CBS.  How do you have both?  Isn't your KCAL 9 also CBS?  
In my guide (just updated app), I have NBC and ABC (but not KGTV or KNSD local for ABC and NBC, although I assume they are the same) and no CBS (or KFMB local).

I found the local channel lookup on their site, and from San Diego, there is only ABC, FOX and NBC available.

I feel ripped off. 

I'm going to assume CBS wants you to subscribe to their own streaming service for their Content. Pay the $5.99 to do that. Personally, I think this DirectTVNow 3 month deal is a great way to get a new AppleTV for only $105. Plus you get 3 months of service for basically FREE. In fact this is how I got my Last one, it's not 4K though. I don't have any 4K TV's. It's temping to just go ahead and get another one. Normal price is $179. That's a $74 savings. I'm using mine all the time, mainly for PLEX, and a little Youtube and Netflix. I get the rest of my TV by a Antenna.

Getting a lot of my content, OTA (Over the Air) I'm not wasting my 1TB cap streaming a lot of this. I DVR to my TIVO. All costs me ZERO per month. All these DirectTVNow, and SlingTV and others, I feel I already have way to much crap to watch on TV to pay even more money.

I just renewed my Comcast Cable bill. I didn't want a bundle and be paying for crap I'm never going to use. Paying the $8 for a transmission fee for TV I'm not even watching from them anyway. Internet Only though was a few dollars more. Better off to get the dumb bundle once again. This time I got them to drop Internet Only down $15 making it a little cheaper than the bundle. I think I now pay $79 a month for 250Mbps Down, 10Mbps Up, Internet only. Every year when my Comcast bill jumps up to the normal price, I call and get it dropped down again for another year. I'm saving $40 a month from what it jumped up to. That's a $480 savings by taking the time to make a phone call. If you're dumb enough to pay them another $10 a month to rent a cable modem, STOP IT!!! Save $120 a year owning your own. Get a cable modem. About $80, and any router you want. Don't get a all-in-One. May take you a couple years to pay off getting both, but then you're saving every year after.

You can have your Cable service for as long as you're alive, unless something better comes out. 10 years of Cable Modem rental is $1200. That really isn't a long period of time. If there's a series you really like on HBO or Showtime. For me it's Game of Thrones, wait for the season to end or ending in a week, Sign up and binge watch the whole season. Than anything else you want for the month and then cancel and wait until next year and sign up for another month. Save a lot of money doing this. Why pay $180 for the year when you can just pay $15 for the 1 month. All kinds of legal things you can do to save money.

You want to see the new Star Trek on CBS, wait until the season ends, which it has for the first season, pay the $5.99 and watch it all in a month and cancel. There's really not much else worth paying $6 a month for. If you can use a Antenna, that's the way to Go. One of the first things I did when I got my house 5 years ago was mount a large directional antenna up on top of the roof. Ran all new wires. It's grounded!!! Antenna is Grounded, the COAX wire is grounded. I get ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW, PBS all in HD and 5.1 Surround sound. This is what the Optical port on your HDTV is for. To send 5.1 from the TV's HD tuner down to your Surround Sound receiver. I also get METV, and AntennaTV and others. When I'm on my roof and there's not a single antenna anywhere in site looking all around, I laugh and think SUCKERS!!!!

There's a lot of DVR options if you're using a Antenna. I use a Tivo Roamio in my Family Room and Tivo Mini's in the Bedrooms. So I can watch in one room and continue in another. But there's also Tablo, SimpleTV, and even Chanelmaster DVR+. That's 4 DVR options to record OTA.

Are you just making this over complicated, or could you just bring a power strip with you, plug into a outlet and then have a bunch of outlets, problem solved.

It's way, way to early to go all in with USB-C. There is just going to be a very long transitional phase. USB 1.0 release date was 1996. So USB-A has been around for over 20 years. It's not going to disappear overnight. It may still be around for another 10 years. Most devices are still USB-A or Mini/Micro USB. Smartphones are making the switch, but they're not all USB-C yet either.

Even though Apple ditched the DVD drive a number of years ago, you can still buy one and plug it into your computer to use as some people still need one. USB-A is going to be around for years to come as people are still going to need it for years to come. Most people are not just going to throw their stuff away to get a USB-C version.

volganevariver said:

Homepod, just like Apple Watch, is for people who are ready to pay for letting them test infinished product for Apple. In 2-3 years it probably will be a worth buy. 

The Apple Watch is a finished product. When the Original Apple Watch first came out, which I'm still using, the software side of things have greatly changed, and for the better. Having a growing Homekit house, being able to control everything on my Apple Watch, kind of makes any of these Smart Speakers Limited and locked into a room. I can be walking back home from the 7/11 down the block, lift my wrist and go "Hey Siri, Open garage" and my garage door is open as I walk up the driveway. It's really cool with Bluetooth on my Motorcycle Helmet and I can open and close the garage, using Siri from my iPhone. Or getting home, need to drop something off in my backyard, lift my wirst and go "Hey Siri, Turn on outside garage light" and BAM, the light outside over my side fence gate turns on so I can see over there on the side of my house. So and and so on. I'm really looking forward to being able to open and close my 2" blinds that I've automated to work with Siri. Right now I use a app. Siri would be quicker and easier.

I have a Google Mini and a Amazon Dot that I play with, but Amazon is really over rated. and Siri is not as bad as some people seem to think. Siri also gets better as you use it more. Apple is always working on Siri. What may not have worked for you in the past, may do what you want now. For example, I just tried the "search for AppleInsider in the App Store" using Siri and it worked just fine.

I use the voice dictation sometimes and it works surprisingly well for me. But you need to talk clearly and not FAST. Slow down a bit and not talk like you would another human. I'll be in my room, my 12.9" iPad pro off to the side for Siri, and just start asking Siri, Google and Amazon questions and see how they all respond. Siri holds it's own. Sometimes I even like Siri's answer just a bit better as it's a bit more of a human response. They all have their Pros and Cons. Siri is also not the same Siri on Apple's different devices. From the sound of things, it seems like Siri on the Homepod is kind of limited, locked down some.

Siri on my Apple Watch is kind of poky. It is the Orignal and I plan to upgrade when the next Apple Watches get released. I know Siri is so much faster. But Siri right now will finish what you tell it and works good.