macgui

I have some Hue kit in the house. I had some trouble a while back but getting an additional Hue bulb to extend the mesh network clear it up and with HomeKit, Siri, although limited, works flawlessly.

So that I didn't have to depend on my 5s, I got an Amazon Dot. The idea of just calling out instead of having to have my phone on AC or continually use my Watch, appealed to me.

Alexa has been nothing but Siri's dumb little sister. All Alexa can to is tell me the weather and Chuck Norris jokes. She's been a major disappointment as far as trying to stream music or do anything else.

Almost very time I try to get her to do anything  basic, she call time out and takes a break. She frequently tells me she lost connection with the Internet, even after I moved her to within 2' of the router. I ask her something, she very often lights up, blue goes to red, and she makes an excuse to not do what I said.

One thing that bugs me though, is the requirement to give Amazon my WiFi password. In the setup process amazon 'explains' that if you store your pw with them, you won't need to manually reset all your Echo stuff in the event of a problem. Amazon will be able to restore all that for you. It's not an option. It's not stored on the Dot but on Amazon.

Now your credit card is stored with Amazon and we assume they take great care to protect that data. It just bugs me that amazon doesn't need your password on their severs. they're just keeping it 'you know, just in case something happens we can help'.

I packed Alexa up and sent her back to her mother.

sog35 said:
It really isn't.

It really is. Unless and until Apple is going to revamp from where it collects it's money along with the ELUA etc., so it's fair to everyone. I'm no fan of Uber, but fair is fair.

Not to mention to just charge Uber would be seen a greedy cash grab by 'evil' Apple can't objectively be justified. Revenge/punishment wouldn't satisfy a court.

asdasd said:

so no iPad?

The iPad Air 2 has been replaced with a new iPad that's just called iPad.

A9/M9 instead of the A8x/M8, nothing else jumped out at me.

Metriacanthosaurus said:

Something is fishy about this. 

Mulder is on the case. And his post goes downhill from there.

There are two McDonald's near me and they are both jammed up at the end of day commute hours and on weekends. During those times they add someone outside taking orders in advance of the speaker/mic.

Until this point or that of the speaker/mic, they're only making an educated guess based on experience as to what sandwiches to run. Knowing exactly what to expect from an in-app order further refines their production.

So far, McDonald's is the only chain I know of that provides for Apple Pay to be used in the drive-thru.

Another chain, El Pollo Loco, was taking AP but seems to have stopped (or it may be just one store) but you can only use it at the counter.

What about Chick-Fil-A? I've only been to the counter since the drive-thru is always far too long.

I'm glad to see home automation finally, really start to take off at the consumer level. I've only just dipped my toe in with a Philips Hue White Ambiance starter kit, but there is a constant problem— when using the dimmer switch, Siri often fails to connect. I don't know if this is a Hue or an Apple problem. Restarting the bridge fixes it for awhile and recently I found that turning WiFi Off then On via control center fixes it for awhile. Using the Home and Hue app often work when Siri doesn't.  Then suddenly Siri is ok again. My old X-10 stuff was more reliable for years, but lacked the promise of modern day gear. Now it's time for modern gear to deliver on the promises.

The iDevices Instant Switch looks promising in a category starkly lacking in options. I tried the WeMo switches twice and they never worked. Never lit up a light. They're very cheaply made, too. Congratulations to anybody using them successfully. All I want is an On/Off wall switch, no dimmer, that I can control with the phone and Siri. This way I can control any type of bulbs use be they LED, CFL, incandescent (still have a few), dimmable or not, and a heater or something similar. There are three places where that would work perfectly.

I like the August door lock and will be getting one. I don't want a keypad on the outside to indicate it's there's a smartlock inside. As I understand it HomeKit presently doesn't allow proximity unlocking for security reasons. This may be true for unlocking as well. Maybe someone actually knows about this. Hacking a lock is a concern as well as are bump keys and kinetic intrusion. The latter two are fairly easy to mitigate. 

External video cameras may provide some level of deterrence, but there are far too many videos of criminals not seeing them or ignoring them completely. Not to mention almost as many that are of poor enough quality as to be worthless in court. Don't count on it as a deterrent and get one with very good image quality.

An indoor security camera or two stand a better chance of getting up close identification video, so a wireless, discreet camera with very good image quality is worthwhile. Chasing your dog off the good sofa is a perk. The issue is— where will the video be stored. Cloud storage costs money. I'd want an on-site, hidden receiver/drive with a cloud option. Take computers, cameras, whatever but still have the video. Burglary is such a high volume crime that without really good IDs there's a poor chance of catching someone let alone successfully prosecuting them.

We all know that enterprising criminals can get by most any security device if they try hard enough, and locks only keep honest people out blah blah blah, especially with home security. Equipment is not industrial strength and police response is often too slow. But you do what you can because something is almost always better than nothing. Otherwise, why bother locking your doors at all.