Voice controlled home automation thingy

UndercoverMum

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I really like our Google home. It works well for us because we both use lots of the Google products like Keep, calendar etc. The shopping list function is useful. It can also control our Nest and I use it a lot for the radio and Spotify. We have Vera automation for the lights and my enthusiastic husband has programmed different voice commands to turn various lights on and off. He uses an app for writing the programs. I think it's called Tasker.
 

Jon

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I really like our Google home. It works well for us because we both use lots of the Google products like Keep, calendar etc. The shopping list function is useful. It can also control our Nest and I use it a lot for the radio and Spotify. We have Vera automation for the lights and my enthusiastic husband has programmed different voice commands to turn various lights on and off. He uses an app for writing the programs. I think it's called Tasker.
Crikey that is quite the smarthome!

Does the Nest system not do lights / bulbs as well then?
 

UndercoverMum

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Crikey that is quite the smarthome!

Does the Nest system not do lights / bulbs as well then?
No just heating. They have other products though. My in laws have the fire alarms which self test and send you monthly reports. Cameras and smart door bells are the latest thing they do I think! We already have a clever dog bell though which is much cheaper than Nest! It rings our phones if someone is at the door and we can see on the camera who it is. We can also talk to them through the door bell speaker. It means I can dodge the timewasters which is a big plus in my book! Or I can tell delivery people where to leave a parcel until I can come out and get it (if I'm in the middle of feeding the baby for example).
 

Jon

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I may have bought 4 new smart bulbs today...
 

katykicker

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I love Alexa! I love the 7 minute workout option too lately as I'm not allowed to do much with my blood pressure.
 

Jon

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It's Amazon Prime Day today and word on the street is that the price on all the dots / echos will drop at midday ;)
 

hayleymay

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On the Echo - Great

On the Top - Fine

On the Sonos - Bloody amazing lol

We bought a Sonos last Christmas and it is great! We were thinking about getting a dot for upstairs. My husband has just got a smart thermostat thingy which he's really excited about, but I don't really get the excitement so much!
 

Jon

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We bought a Sonos last Christmas and it is great! We were thinking about getting a dot for upstairs. My husband has just got a smart thermostat thingy which he's really excited about, but I don't really get the excitement so much!
As a man, it's one less thing for us to get up and do.

I understand his excitement lol
 
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David Says...

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Ha! Totally understand the laziness - but also the POWER OF CONTROLLING WITH MY VOICE!!!!!

I occasionally think of 2001: A Space Odyssey to temper my meglomaniacal thoughts.

Alexa's response to "Hello, Hal" is quite disconcerting :eek:
 

Jon

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If you are thinking of getting an Amazon Dot then I would hold off for a few weeks as they ALWAYS reduce the price of them during Black Friday week!
 

The Reverend

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Just ordered the HIVE heating thermostat thing. My current Thermostat is borked and its £85 for a replacement (+ Fitting).

Got the Hive with installation for £112 from Amazon


£145 but 20% off warehouse items so a billy bargain!

My understanding is I don't need to connect it to the internet so less likely to be 'hacked', but really just got it because it worked out a little cheaper than getting a like-for-like replacement and paying someone to install it.
 

Jon

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Just ordered the HIVE heating thermostat thing. My current Thermostat is borked and its £85 for a replacement (+ Fitting).

Got the Hive with installation for £112 from Amazon


£145 but 20% off warehouse items so a billy bargain!

My understanding is I don't need to connect it to the internet so less likely to be 'hacked', but really just got it because it worked out a little cheaper than getting a like-for-like replacement and paying someone to install it.
You should connect it to the internet. Then you can control it via your smartphone / smartspeakers at home.

We use that functionality if we are out in the cold and heading on home. Tap on the app and it will turn the heating on for us before we get home!
 

The Reverend

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You should connect it to the internet. Then you can control it via your smartphone / smartspeakers at home.

We use that functionality if we are out in the cold and heading on home. Tap on the app and it will turn the heating on for us before we get home!

Its up and running.

Next stop is a load of Apple Homekit bulbs and sockets. They were supposed to arrived yesterday but I was out so they'll come tomorrow.

Currently looking at room thermometers/humidity monitors.
 

Jon

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Its up and running.

Next stop is a load of Apple Homekit bulbs and sockets. They were supposed to arrived yesterday but I was out so they'll come tomorrow.

Currently looking at room thermometers/humidity monitors.
Aren't all smartbulbs compatible with Homekit..

Well except Hive ones, no idea why they aren't. There are tons of complaints about them.

Which smart speaker are you hooking into with all this?
 

The Reverend

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Aren't all smartbulbs compatible with Homekit..

Well except Hive ones, no idea why they aren't. There are tons of complaints about them.

Which smart speaker are you hooking into with all this?
No smart speakers yet. Got a Sonos 1 (the non-alexa version) but trying to avoid having Alexa/Google always listening so trying to find apple versions of things.
 

Jon

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No smart speakers yet. Got a Sonos 1 (the non-alexa version) but trying to avoid having Alexa/Google always listening so trying to find apple versions of things.
Ah man I LOVE my Sonos! Got it cos @katykicker said how good they were and I've got the version 1 as well (Think it's £129 now!) but it's perfect for the Conservatory.

We've got a mishmash now with Amazon Echo downstairs Google Mini upstairs!

I personally wouldn't worry about the speakers 'listening' to you any more than I would worry about cookies from websites or your smartphone apps like Twitter and Facebook doing it! Heck half the people on here helped Appen with the dreaded OK GOOGLE task a few years back so if anyone is gonna hear what you say it will just be one of us anyway lol
 
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