- 6 weeks ago
Here at The Vergecast, we get a lot of questions. Questions from you, which we love! Questions that, for some reason, often tend to be about the smart home and why it’s often not so very smart. So on this episode, the first in a two-part series, The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy helps us answer a whole bunch of your questions. Questions like: what’s Apple’s deal with the smart home? Are there any good smart faucets? And what’s about to happen to my robot vacuum cleaner? Jen helps us wade through all that and more. We also go on a long diversion about smart smoke detectors, which are pretty awesome.
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TechTranscript
00:00:00support for this show comes from the Home Depot this holiday season you can take advantage of
00:00:06holiday savings on a wide selection of top smart home security products from the brands you can
00:00:11trust and you can do it at the Home Depot the Home Depot has everything you need to make your
00:00:16home smarter with the latest technology and products that let you control and automate your
00:00:20home so you can protect your peace of mind whether you're away or at home this season
00:00:24the Home Depot smart homes start here
00:00:30welcome to the Vergecast the flagship podcast of light switches the ones just like over there on
00:00:37the wall that you just go over to and you flip it up and the light goes on and you flip them down and
00:00:42the light goes off unbelievable technology we love it very much I'm your friend David Pierce and we are
00:00:47here today to talk about the smart home so we have the Vergecast hotline 866-VERGE11 call us and ask us
00:00:53all your questions we have an email inbox vergecast at theverge.com we're all on social and we get tons
00:00:57of questions about everything all the time but I think the number one subject people call and write
00:01:03in about is the smart home people have product questions they have big philosophical questions a
00:01:08lot of people are like why do I need a smart home in general so we're gonna spend this whole episode
00:01:13just answering your questions Jen Tui on our team is gonna come on and she is going to help me we're
00:01:17gonna go through as many questions as we can and just try to figure out some smart home stuff here on
00:01:23the show together this is the first episode in a two-part series that we're doing next week Jen is
00:01:28going to help me personally specifically figure out a bunch of stuff at my new house if you're
00:01:33watching this on YouTube this is only going to be my background for another couple of weeks and then
00:01:37I'm moving and I need some serious smart home help in the new place all of that is coming this week
00:01:43and next week we're gonna get to Jen in just a second but first I'm gonna go flip that light switch
00:01:47a bunch because it makes me feel good and a lot of smart home technology does not make me feel good
00:01:51so I'm gonna go flip light switches because it works this is the verge cast we'll be right back
00:01:55all right we're back as promised Jen Tui is here hi Jen hi David I'm very excited I'm like I'm having
00:02:04a lot of feelings about the smart home today yeah yeah is that because you're moving into a new home
00:02:09I'm I'm moving into a house which is just an awful process that no one should do and also we've been
00:02:14we've been compiling these questions over the last few days and the number of people who basically are
00:02:20just like why am I doing any of this is all of this just a total insane process that is designed
00:02:27to make me hate myself is like it's been very validating to me personally I can sympathize yeah
00:02:32you you have to live this harder than anybody like anybody who is like Jen is just a true believer in
00:02:37the smart home and thinks it's wonderful like no no no you you have not spent any time talking to
00:02:42Jen about her house setup uh what are you testing right now what's what's the wildest thing in your
00:02:46setup right oh um oh gosh right now it's a little crazy I have the switchbot robot from CES that was
00:02:54my pick at CES the like multi home helper robot and my husband walked in the other day and go
00:03:01he was like what is that it's like I mean that and for him that isn't reaction because he is he's used
00:03:09to seeing crazy things in the house so yeah that's uh that's one of the crazy things I also have a very
00:03:15cool garden at the moment an indoor garden I'm growing a smart garden which is fun and it's
00:03:20growing a sunflower so that's I'm getting some pretty smart home which is which I enjoy so okay
00:03:26I'm going to need you to store the garden one for next week because next week you're going to come
00:03:31back on the show and you're going to help me smarten up my new house and one of the things I need
00:03:36from you is a way to make the like essentially windowless basement that I'm going to be working in
00:03:42every day feel less like a hole in the ground and okay uh I think I've been thinking about like maybe
00:03:48I do some kind of like living wall so we're going to have to talk about that next week so hold on to
00:03:52that one for me that's a good yeah that's a good challenge actually a basement is is a place where
00:03:56you feel like that smart tech can really help especially smart lighting which is which is my
00:04:01favorite um so we have a mix of questions from people that are like kind of all over the place
00:04:08some are very tactical like I have a specific problem that I need solved and uh Jen is the
00:04:13person to solve it some are very kind of galaxy brained there are I was serious when I say there
00:04:18are a lot of people who kind of look at a smart home project and are like what am I doing what is
00:04:23any of this for why do we exist as humans and so we're gonna we're gonna talk I tried to kind of
00:04:28bounce around the spectrum a little bit here but we're just gonna get through as many questions as we
00:04:32can before we both completely lose our minds and start yelling at each other about matter does this
00:04:36sound good okay yes no yelling promise I want to start with I think the most popular question we
00:04:44got um this came in a bunch of different forms but I want to just I just want to attack it head on
00:04:49um and this version of this question comes from Brendan who says I have all of the Apple home stuff in my
00:04:55tiny New York City apartment all of my lights are from their overpriced brand Nanoleaf editorial note
00:05:00that's a fascinating point Nanoleaf not an Apple brand but we should talk about it um I have the
00:05:04HomePod mini and I have the Apple TV uh all these Apple home accessories are fine nothing spectacular
00:05:09it all works I suppose that's good but I want better tech in my home that would be on par with
00:05:14my new M4 MacBook Pro in space black great computer is that too much to ask I mean it's Apple basically
00:05:20why can't we upgrade the Apple TV or improve upon the HomePod why does Apple not seem to care all that
00:05:26much about the smart home this is this is truly the if I had to put all of the questions together
00:05:30this is the one we got the most often is why is the Apple version of this ecosystem which seems very
00:05:38sensible and like it could be sort of a complete thought about the smart home why does this feel
00:05:43so half-assed from Apple and is it likely to get any better so I'm just curious your thoughts
00:05:49yeah this is a common question uh because I would say amongst my you know amongst most of our readers
00:05:56and people I interact with around the smart home Apple home is one of the preferred platforms for
00:06:03using the smart home it's well known for being private and has a lot of local control which people
00:06:11like and then it has its HomeKit secure video platform which is end-to-end encrypted and processes
00:06:16things locally so it has a lot of things going for it what it does not have going for it is much
00:06:21choice much variety and it doesn't have a smart display which a lot of people are very unhappy about
00:06:27um although there have been a lot of rumors around this to answer that overall question does that why is
00:06:34Apple not done more in this space I don't think it was really a priority for them at all for a very long
00:06:40time um we got a little bit of update in the last few years where they revamped the home app
00:06:46made it a lot more usable um I think there has been I mean originally the Apple TV was called a hobby
00:06:54project correct if I'm recalling my Apple law many many years yes so they kind of stumbled it feels a bit
00:07:02like they stumbled into the smart home it wasn't really a direction they chose uh but I do think
00:07:09they are focusing on it a lot more I mean we've heard rumors that they have pushed I think when the
00:07:14Apple car project sort of wound down a lot of people were moved over to the home I think there's a view
00:07:23that the home is now an area that Apple could be doing more in there's a lot of rumors around them
00:07:29moving into cameras and maybe some other sort of products outside of the home pod and the Apple
00:07:36TV I think the big frustration we're seeing right now from a lot of users is everything in Apple
00:07:43home that's Apple based not connect not things that you connect to Apple home is relatively old
00:07:49getting a bit long in the tooth um Siri not an excellent experience um in the smart home it does
00:07:57it's the nicest thing anybody's said about Siri on this podcast in a while I mean the reason I'm
00:08:02being a little bit nice is it it does do what you tell it to as long as you it's capable of what you
00:08:09tell it to do which is not an experience I'm having right now with with some of the new smart home
00:08:14assistant uh revamped smart home assistants which can struggle to do some of the basic stuff but yes
00:08:19it's it's limited it's very command and control it doesn't have much imagination um but I do think
00:08:24we're gonna see a big shift and I think it's been a long time coming I think Apple is working behind
00:08:31the scenes on on this we've there's again lots of leaks around home robots smart displays um I think
00:08:38that's all coming one of the reasons they've taken this long I believe is the shift to matter and see
00:08:45we got matter in there right at the beginning I know this is gonna be the shortest episode we've ever
00:08:49done this is this is crazy because I don't think Apple really wanted to build and maintain a back
00:08:54end for their smart home I think it was I think HomeKit was sort of an experiment and that HomeKit
00:09:01was the framework that developers could use to bring their devices into Apple Home and it required it
00:09:08was a very slow ponderous process to get devices certified with HomeKit I don't know maybe there's
00:09:14just one guy in a basement at uh in Cupertino authorizing it is honestly how it felt it probably
00:09:19was yeah and I heard from a lot of developers they would complain incessantly about how they couldn't
00:09:24get anyone to respond or do anything or you know every update would take six months to go through
00:09:30and that's not what you want and with smart home devices you want to be able to update and innovate
00:09:34and iterate as much as possible uh so with matter which they if for some law here if you don't
00:09:41remember HomeKit Apple donated the framework of HomeKit to the CSA for matter so matter is really
00:09:48the foundation of matter is HomeKit and now that's sort of taken away that load from from Apple and
00:09:55it's put it on another organization although a lot of the Apple engineers are involved with matter
00:10:00um and they're so that they don't have to worry about that now I think what they're going to do is
00:10:05start working towards that layer that layer that makes the smart home valuable and use usable so
00:10:13things like energy management we're already seeing hints of that Apple released energy kit quite
00:10:18recently very quietly at WWDC actually which it will should help being able you know be able to use
00:10:25energy management tools in your home which I think is going to be a huge part of the smart home going
00:10:29forward um so it's just there are parts and pieces and parts coming together and I think they're just
00:10:34taking that slow and steady tortoise and the hare approach um and I I'm hopeful because I'm an
00:10:40optimist that this that you know they're going to come out at the end with something that's going to
00:10:46be solid reliable and work very well um I just don't know how long we're going to have to wait for
00:10:52it and that is frustrating I know but that I think is is the reason people want Apple to be more
00:10:59involved here right because I think yeah what you said about sort of the the scope of the project I
00:11:05think is exactly right and seems to be what almost every company that isn't Amazon encountered where
00:11:10you start doing smart home stuff and then you sort of peer through the door and you realize how
00:11:15big and messy and like infrastructural this thing is and you have to look at yourself as a company and
00:11:21say okay do we want to be in the business of water sensors like is that a thing we want to do
00:11:26yeah and honestly in so many ways kudos to Amazon for really like rolling up its sleeves and being
00:11:31like we are going to completely do this project which I think it has it has done in a bigger way
00:11:37than any of its competitors uh for Apple like probably the right call to be like we are not going to be in
00:11:43the business of making and supporting water sensors like but now we have matter which is in theory the
00:11:48sort of underlying infrastructure of this it's like it if matter is the internet all you have to do is
00:11:54build stuff on top of it now right and that's where that's where a company like Apple which is
00:11:58historically very good at things like user interface design and and making things work
00:12:03well across different devices like that's the kind of thing Apple seems uniquely positioned to do really
00:12:08well here which I think is why so many people even who have been burned by HomeKit even who bought
00:12:13HomePods that sucked even who think Siri is terrible like you can still see why there is something
00:12:20Apple could do here that is different and better and again the question is there is this like
00:12:26mythical home device Apple's been working on for a while and you keep writing about you know new iPads
00:12:31come out with with thread chips and it's like okay we we could do this it's all the puzzle pieces are
00:12:38sitting right there Apple just hasn't put them all together yet and I don't know how long we're supposed
00:12:43to wait for that which is a question we're going to come back to a couple of times in in this yeah I
00:12:50think this spring is when we're going to start seeing some some movement in Apple Home which will
00:12:56be potentially a new HomePod I would definitely expect a new Apple TV but I just don't think we're
00:13:02going to see new hardware until they've got the new Siri kind of nailed down and you know we we've seen
00:13:08that that's the system that we've seen with Amazon and to some extent Google like they need
00:13:13the hardware to support this but to support the new AI features that they want to bring into the
00:13:19home and I think we know that Apple's been struggling with bringing Siri to that level so I think and I
00:13:27don't think we'll get the fancy stuff right away I think it's going to be a while until we see the
00:13:32cameras and maybe the the robot arm smart display if that really is a thing I think we'll get a night
00:13:38maybe a nice update to the HomePod because what the mini is five years old now um and then we'll
00:13:45yeah at least and then a new Apple TV I think they may change the name too but I think Apple Home Hub
00:13:52would make a better better name especially now they renamed the TV right historically speaking all
00:13:58that's going to happen is Apple is going to name more things Apple TV so give it a minute the HomePod
00:14:02is going to be called the Apple TV the iPad is going to be the Apple TV like this is just this is what
00:14:07we're doing here um all right let's let's get to the next question I think we're we're going to come
00:14:11back to Apple I think a couple of times here uh which is surprising given the actual reality of
00:14:17Apple Smart Home but uh let's move on to the next question Brendan says we often hear and talk about
00:14:21smart home automation products from Philips Hue, LIFX, Google Nest and several other consumer tech
00:14:26companies but is there anything beyond those types of companies is there maybe a more professional
00:14:30level of smart home automation out there and if so how does it compare to the Hughes and
00:14:33nests we often hear about this question really like jumped out at me because I remember years
00:14:38ago when we were first talking about smart home stuff there were these like high-end sort of custom
00:14:44install somebody will come out to your house and like build a whole thing for you and there was a real
00:14:50sense of like maybe this is a version of the smart home that is going to be meaningful to lots of
00:14:54people I haven't heard about any of those companies recently are they still out there does this kind of
00:14:58high-end custom install professional smart home world still exist oh definitely um but there has
00:15:05been a big shift for sure so there are you probably remember some of these names that control four
00:15:11crestron savant and then lutron um those are sort of those were the high-end home systems from
00:15:21the 90s and the 10s and the noughts and the 10s and they still are around um they are very expensive
00:15:28although some especially around control four pricing has come down because what's been happening is
00:15:33there's been so much interest in the diy smart home so as the diy smart home has kind of risen the
00:15:39the pro install smart home has become is trying to kind of come down so that that it can attract a
00:15:46broader audience so one of the problems used to be with these systems is that you would pay someone
00:15:51an awful lot to come and install everything and then you would have to pay someone every time you
00:15:55wanted to change something which got very expensive so like if you wanted to change your routine you would
00:16:01have to pay you know 150 dollars an hour for someone to go and do it for you that they've started to
00:16:08sort of phase out and now you can control it a lot more yourself there's this kind of do it for me
00:16:13middle ground that's sort of emerging as well so what's what is interesting about this space is
00:16:19it often trickles down to the smart to the diy smart home really high-end custom systems are pretty
00:16:28awesome i'm not gonna lie but we're talking like 50 to 100 000 to have everything in your home
00:16:35lighting shades heating you know probably radiant flooring heating like everything to be working in
00:16:43sync and no you know all very automated sensors voice control without having to sort of troubleshoot
00:16:52yourself or set things up it's all done for you but that that is that is a small market um very expensive
00:16:59market there are some really interesting things that happen in that space like for example like circadian
00:17:05lighting that's something that sort of trickled down from high-end systems so that's when your lighting
00:17:10adapts during the day like crestron is one of the sort of more high-end options and they have this
00:17:16sort of solar sync system where they actually have like a photo sensitive like a little device that
00:17:22actually measures the light outside and changes your lights inside to how you know so that you feel like
00:17:28you have natural light throughout the day and your shades and everything will sort of work in sync and
00:17:34it's all it's all very seamless but very expensive um so as i said there are those systems have become
00:17:42i think control four in particular and then also savant which is another one that's been around for a
00:17:46while have become more approachable you still have to pay a custom integrator so the so with these
00:17:52systems you don't like go to crestron and buy their system you normally would hire what's called a home
00:17:58integrator and i actually spent a really fun week a couple years ago at cedia which is the custom
00:18:04electronic design and installation association trade show and got to sort of see and play with
00:18:10all the neat gadgets that they have in these systems these high-end systems and these custom integrators
00:18:16you know that this is the show for them they get to see all the new tech coming out and i so like
00:18:22we're probably all familiar if you're into the smart home with lutron crusader which is one of the
00:18:28more rock solid smart diy smart home lighting systems but lutron has a whole other line actually
00:18:35three lines of high-end professionally installed systems and they had like a whole room with buttons
00:18:42and labels and gadgets and gizmos and i just spent like an hour in there it's like oh this is so cool
00:18:47i want all this in my home um but we don't get any of that fancy stuff um but you can if you can but
00:18:55you have to go through a custom integrator and are these things mostly like a totally different class
00:19:01of gadget or is it really like i think the word integrator there is so fascinating because it seems
00:19:05like a big part of what these people do is they build the system for you in a way that works which
00:19:10is such a like damning critique of the diy smart home yes but that in many cases at least from what i
00:19:16can tell it's it's like the kind of thing you could in theory figure out how to do for yourself it's just
00:19:21that somebody can build a system for you that works a lot better because they've developed software
00:19:25that makes more sense and all this stuff um or am i like do you go to cedia and there's like a whole
00:19:30class of gadget that is not even available to the the normal public the second okay so none of that
00:19:37lutron stuff you can get unless you get it through an integrator i see um josh ai would be another
00:19:43example of something that's very cool that you can't get unless you go through a professional
00:19:48installer that's a um voice control local voice control system um i've written about it a couple
00:19:54times on the verge um and they have like um they can put microphones sort of like throughout the home
00:20:00so you have this sort of more ambient computing which is you know something that a lot of the diy
00:20:06systems are trying to achieve um and it's all local and it can connect to the cloud but it all
00:20:12work you can have it all work locally and this probably will feed into other questions that we have
00:20:16later but one of the benefits of these systems is they are you know ad free largely cloud free you
00:20:24can have cloud connections but you don't really need them because the system is set up to work the way
00:20:29you want it and that's that's why you hire the integrator they're able to program everything for you
00:20:36again for a very large price it's going to cost you um but it's not i mean it's not just lighting
00:20:43you've it's also and i'm actually where most of this starts is home whole home audio and video so
00:20:49like um high-end speaker systems throughout a home home theaters they'll also set up your networking
00:20:56so you've got a solid foundation before you start your smart home and then security is another big
00:21:03part of this and there are some kind of in-between systems like vivant is one which is a security
00:21:09company but they also do smart home and they'll come and install everything for you uh but yeah
00:21:15it's what it is an interesting space to see sort of i said some of the tech sort of will trickle down
00:21:21um like remotes smart remotes that you can control your whole home from and the josh josh ai actually
00:21:28showed off one a couple years ago that had a full touch screen it was like i really wanted this thing
00:21:33but i think it was about five thousand dollars or something so everything's very expensive i will
00:21:38say i just googled the savant remote because i remember the first time i learned about savant i
00:21:43think it was because they had this cool like if you imagine a tv remote smushed with an ipod it looked
00:21:49like that and i love it very much and i have to stop looking at this web page or i'm going to end up
00:21:52like ruining my whole life with smart home stuff uh let's move on to our next question let's do one
00:21:56more and then we're going to take a break uh this is a question this is a delightfully specific
00:22:01product recommendation question let me play it for you hey y'all this is evan uh i've got a question
00:22:09for jen uh i have a smart house that my friends compare uh to the titular disney channel original
00:22:16movie smart house and almost everything is automated using a patchwork of home kit home bridge and home
00:22:24assistant my kitchen faucet is on the way out and i'd really like to replace it with a smart faucet
00:22:31that can interface with siri or at least apple shortcuts and can dispense an exact volume on
00:22:39demand asking like you know for a cup of water or a liter of water to make my weekly chai
00:22:45the idea of you know not having to fumble for a measuring cup absolutely sounds amazing um but my
00:22:54question is are there any smart faucets out there that are really worth the money i haven't found any yet
00:23:01and it seems like they're all kind of limited to some extent or another it seems like a no-brainer
00:23:09that somebody would build this but i've really learned the hard way that yeah home tech doesn't
00:23:15often conform to normal life thanks i just want to say first of all the idea of a faucet connecting to
00:23:21apple shortcuts fills me with both glee and rage in a way that i cannot describe uh but jen i brought this
00:23:29screaming at the last episode like when are you going to talk about siri shortcuts no i can't i can't
00:23:35can't do it jen uh but i brought this to you because i remember you at one point not that long
00:23:40ago being very excited about one of those like faucets that you just sort of tap on with your
00:23:45arm to get it to turn on and off and i think that is like a genius innovation in kitchen gadgets uh
00:23:51how far have we gone with smart faucets is there a good one out there what do you have for evan
00:23:55we have not gone far evan i'm very sorry um it is not you will not find what you're looking for
00:24:02sadly really just blanket statement it's not out there no not not that works with apple home
00:24:08or serious shortcuts you would have to go to google or amazon voice assistants to get this functionality
00:24:16but it does exist um for from both cola and moen uh but it's it's interesting his comment about why
00:24:23hasn't more happened here these both of these devices have been around for several years moen is
00:24:29on its like second or third generation now so is cola and there hasn't really been a lot of innovation
00:24:35here and not many other people following suit also kind of like appliances there are only a couple big
00:24:41brands in this space anyway uh but both cola and moen have the automated faucets which you know you
00:24:50wave to turn on and off and i have a moen one and that's my favorite feature just wave on and off
00:24:56and i'll like go when i go visit someone's house or go to an airbnb or something i find myself doing
00:25:01this the faucet looking like a fool and i love that feature but you don't need a smart faucet to do that
00:25:09you can just get a motion activated faucet the dispensing the exact amount of water is neat
00:25:16especially if you have specific use cases for example baby bottles you can you can have you can
00:25:22sort of say hey moen dispense you know 12 millimeters in 75 degrees and get the exact
00:25:30which is that is cool that's kind of neat but you can't do it with apple home uh moen does not work
00:25:36with apple home it works with amazon and google cola used to but no longer does and i think this goes
00:25:42back to our apple conversation apple's moved moving away from home kit towards matter this is
00:25:47not part of matter yet and it may be in the future but i i don't think it's going to happen anytime soon
00:25:55so if you want to use it through apple home i don't really think it's worth getting either of these
00:26:03they're very expensive like eight to eight hundred to a thousand dollars you might be able to get one
00:26:09for around six but faucets also nice faucets are expensive it's not just the smart that you're
00:26:15paying for but because they're it's all the high-end ones so it's not your sort of bog standard delta that
00:26:20you go and buy from home depot for you know 150 these are these are fancy faucets but the moen is
00:26:27great you can do gesture controls to turn it hot turn it cold and one of the places in the home that is
00:26:35most handy to be hands-free is the kitchen um so yeah i mean i love that functionality but i said
00:26:42you don't necessarily need a smart faucet for that hands-free you can just use a motion activated
00:26:47faucet uh so unless you're willing to switch voice assistants i'm afraid you're not gonna find a
00:26:54solution here and i'm sorry not to have i'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news yeah no i think i think
00:27:01that's that's good advice and i do think the idea of uh sort of how smart is it useful to be is forever
00:27:08a great question in a smart home right so like yeah wave activated one good idea yeah uh do you need
00:27:14to jump through all the hoops required to do the next step maybe not yeah i don't find myself using
00:27:20that feature much and it's complicated nomenclature again and i haven't tried it since i've been using
00:27:25the newer voice assistants but it's like hey a ask moen to dispense one cup of hot water at 85 degrees
00:27:35and it's like but one feature i do really like about the moen is it has a freeze feature and this is
00:27:43this is one reason especially if you live in a very cold climate that it would be worth um maybe even
00:27:49putting these in all your rooms if you can um all your bathrooms um and kitchens is as soon as the
00:27:56temperature drops below a certain level it will just trickle automatically trickle water out of
00:28:00your taps for you oh that's handy that is handy that sometime sometime a fun smart home thing we
00:28:06should do is all of the like unknown unseen really useful smart home things right because i think like
00:28:13going all the way back to the nest the idea of this is a thing that you are not going to have to baby
00:28:18but what it's going to do is actually use power at the cheapest times to use power is like
00:28:22perfect smart home right like i think we should eventually get to the point where the answer to
00:28:27why do i need smart home stuff is because it is completely invisible to you and just does things
00:28:31that are cheaper and safer and better and easier and you don't have to worry about them anymore and i
00:28:36think sometime we're going to do the most boring verge cast episode in history that is just about all
00:28:41the useful smart home stuff that you will never ever see again and is useful nonetheless that i mean
00:28:46that the functional side of the smart home really is where the value lies outside of the kind of fun
00:28:52gadgets um but yeah it's not the sexy side that's for sure but it's the side that could save you a lot
00:28:57of money in the long run yeah indeed i mean that was the whole case for the nest right it was like
00:29:01this thing will pay for itself over time and that was the it was a pretty true story in a lot of ways
00:29:05yeah um all right we're gonna take a break and then we're gonna come back uh and we have maybe the
00:29:09question i'm personally most excited about to do next we'll be right back support for this show
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00:29:44this season the home depot smart homes start here
00:29:47all right we're back time for more smart home hotline questions uh jan here is one i've been
00:29:58thinking a lot about uh and a thing we've we've sort of talked loosely about before but we're just
00:30:03going to get into it right now this question comes from ollie who says i'm curious about starter
00:30:07packs for smart homes i have basically nothing save a home pod mini can i buy like two or three
00:30:12smart bulbs and do some magic without anything else what else could i get without a big infrastructure
00:30:16investment i only want the gadgets i love this question so much and i think i don't i think there
00:30:23are probably a lot of ways into this but i think a useful place to start is like i don't want to plug
00:30:29anything new into my router i don't want to buy any more equipment i don't want to put a raspberry
00:30:34pie in a closet anywhere what what is the like what is the most sort of off the shelf like if i'm just
00:30:40a person who wants to start doing some smart home things do we have good ways into it without doing a
00:30:47bunch of sort of extra infrastructure investment well yeah especially as he already has a home pod
00:30:52mini that definitely helps um because most of most systems require some kind of hub or controller
00:31:00in the home right um and the home pod echo or a nest something or in this case a home pod mini yeah
00:31:05yes that's fair um or like a bridge um there's that that's and that's even with matter that's
00:31:12something that we're still going to need but because he has the home pod mini he can easily
00:31:16buy smart lights that is you know smart lights are like the gateway drug to the smart home
00:31:21it's the type of device that you don't really realize you sort of think why do i need smart lights
00:31:26i can just flip a light switch but it's great once you have great point
00:31:31once you have them you don't want to go back this is like my family my husband is on record
00:31:38as not being a huge fan of the smart home but we will go to a hotel and he'll be in bed and he'll be
00:31:44like hey turn off the lights it's not gonna work here do you just lie there next to him in bed and
00:31:52just laugh so yes that and they're so easy all you need to do with the home pod mini you can just
00:32:01pick up smart bulbs they will connect directly to the home pod mini you don't even need to download
00:32:06separate apps or anything and you can have smart lighting if you want to get fancy with your smart
00:32:12lighting and it does sound like he might want to get a bit fancy because he says he wants the gadgets
00:32:16you might want to then download the app for the smart light bulb so that can give you a bit more
00:32:21control especially if you want color changing um i did actually bring some show and tell so these are
00:32:29the newest hue smart bulbs okay i was just about to ask is hue still the kind of if you don't have
00:32:36any follow-up questions you just want some smart lights buy hue lights so it's like the safest the
00:32:42caveat always used to be you need the bridge right which is a pain and that's sticking something in
00:32:47your router but these are the new line of hue lights that work over the thread so you can now
00:32:53just pair this directly with apple home without using a bridge you used to be able to you could
00:32:58also do that with alexa using bluetooth prior but now with thread you're able to pair this directly
00:33:06to apple home which you didn't used to be able to do without the bridge and these are their new
00:33:10essentials bulbs which are much less expensive um i think for a four pack it's 60 dollars um and then
00:33:19it's a lot less expensive it's a lot less expensive they're not as like they don't have as strong
00:33:25color like cri and they don't get as bright but for just some fun color changing lights something like
00:33:34these new hue essential bulbs these are 60 watt so 800 lumen not super super bright if you want to go
00:33:40super bright there are other options like um there's a brand called lincoln l-i-n-k-i-n-d they have a ton
00:33:48of matter of matter lights uh govi if you want some really fun stuff because they they're the ones with
00:33:54the crazy light shows that you can do um because you know if you want that's the fun part about
00:34:00smart lighting if you're using color and govi has also has some really fun like smart lamps
00:34:07so if you don't necessarily want to stick a smart light bulb into your existing lamps you can sort of
00:34:12you can buy light strips or smart lamps um to sort of for fun i think the govi jbl speaker is a really
00:34:19fun device that we reviewed recently um that's a smart light that will connect to matter and add a little
00:34:25fun gadget nice gadget niceness to your home and then motion sensors would be another thing that
00:34:31you might want to add because that is where smart lighting kind of feels quite magical is when you just
00:34:37walk into a room and the lights turn on um as long as it's when you wanted them to turn on
00:34:41um but so i mean in terms of a starter kit though like it that and for fun stuff i mean we just talked
00:34:50about how there's the boring stuff like the locks and the thermostats and the freeze the leak detectors
00:34:56and such um but for the fun stuff that's kind of kind of wow visitors and guests um then you know the
00:35:03lighting is definitely where it's at also smart plugs so you can automate things in your home that's
00:35:09always fun like a coffee machine and smart shades are another kind of fun wow factor um those you
00:35:17generally smart shades is a good one yeah smart shades and there's a really nice convenience in
00:35:22your home you you won't again it's one of those things until you have it it doesn't really sound
00:35:27that much doesn't sound like that necessary but it also can save energy it helps with lighting
00:35:35throughout the day there's a lot of real benefits to smart shades um robot vacuums would be the other
00:35:41kind of fun one i know it sounds sure sound fun but they are um and especially if you now with matter
00:35:48you can connect several brands to apple home so he'd be able to control everything using one app
00:35:56which is nice um and then smart locks smart video doorbells are also those would be all things i would
00:36:03sort of consider as part of like if i want to get started with a smart home those are sort of the key
00:36:08elements that people would probably want to add and then a thermostat if you're in like a home where
00:36:15you can install your own thermostat that's not always possible for some people but i think my my
00:36:21read of things is that lights is definitely the one to start with that seems that seems true like if you
00:36:27just want to do a thing in your smart home that is fun and useful lights is probably the place to start
00:36:31i think i'm starting to realize like smart plugs might be the next one that actually there's a
00:36:35there's a sneaky number of things you can do just by having a pretty useful smart plug uh and then i
00:36:42think after that like sort of the floodgates open but in terms of just like i just want to do a couple
00:36:46of things and make my house more fun it seems like lights and plugs i think are the are the are the place
00:36:51to start definitely and they're easy they're inexpensive and then if you get kind of excited and like
00:36:57like them then like say you've got sort of a foundation and you can start doing more
00:37:00um i mean with plugs as well like things like fans um space heaters for safety elements i would i
00:37:09always used to plug my like hair devices hair irons and curling irons and things into smart plugs so
00:37:15that i make sure they turned off because you can set them to turn turn off like 30 minutes after
00:37:20something turned on which is a really neat feature and space heaters is that's another good example
00:37:25because then you don't have to worry about having left it on and burning your house down
00:37:30yep i have a space heater that lives right here next to me for like seven months out of the year
00:37:35uh that more times than i'm proud of i have like woken up in bed at like two o'clock in the morning
00:37:42being like oh my god the space heater's still on did i just run downstairs to turn it off and make
00:37:45sure i didn't burn the house down yeah uh that's a good one um all right let's move on to the next one
00:37:50uh another very straightforward gadget recommendation um this is from cameron cameron i'm sorry for butchering
00:37:58your name but it says good morning this is morning good morning jen uh i had a smart home question uh
00:38:04the nest protect has been discontinued with first alert supposedly filling the smart smoke detector
00:38:08gap have you reviewed and or used the first alert solution it's gotten mixed reviews uh any help
00:38:14would be appreciated what do we do with smart smoke detectors jen this fits theoretically perfectly
00:38:19into the like deeply unsexy but very valuable smart home gadget right i am on the record many times
00:38:26saying i think this is actually one of the most valuable smart home devices you can have so there
00:38:32have been some sort of innovations in this space where you don't necessarily need a smart smoke alarm to
00:38:37know that your alarms are going off at home there's like smart smoke alarm listeners smart speakers can
00:38:43listen for your smoke alarms now like a home pod mini will send me an alert when i'm away if one of my
00:38:48smoke alarms goes off and oh that's clever which is neat but ultimately if you want to know for sure
00:38:54whether it's a smoke alarm going off versus just some other noise that your smart speaker thinks is
00:38:58a smoke alarm which has happened a few times to me um smart smoke alarms just make an awful lot of
00:39:04sense because if no one hears your smoke alarm they are not going to help you save your home from
00:39:09burning down unless you have a professionally monitored security system so you want to know
00:39:14when your smoke alarms are going off if you're not home i was at disney once and my neighbor called me
00:39:19and said your smoke alarms are going off and it's like ah if i'd had a smart smoke alarm at the time
00:39:23um i did but i'm not going to say which one it was um because it didn't work um but uh and in anyway
00:39:32she had heard that my alarm's going off but you know you want to know if you're not at home and your
00:39:37smoke alarms are going off so the nest protect was one of the best smart home gadgets ever made
00:39:45and i don't think you'll find many people that disagree with me on that and based on my inbox
00:39:50since nest google discontinued it many people are very sad about the fact that it has gone away
00:39:57and it was they never really did much with it they didn't it had a second generation because
00:40:04the first generation got in trouble for being do you remember you could wave to silence it
00:40:09and that was considered not smart because people often wave when they're worried or upset
00:40:17oh no the house is on fire and the smoke alarm would stop anyway um so they had a second generation
00:40:23after that but since then it's never really been updated and then for some reason google decided to
00:40:29get rid of it they discontinued it this year and they are they only last 10 years that's a sort of
00:40:35federal law i think about smoke alarms with um sealed batteries so everyone's a slowly dying
00:40:42that they bought you know in the last six or seven years after they first came out um mine gave up the
00:40:49ghost in august my last one i was i was sad because what was so great about it was it was a smoke alarm
00:40:56smoke alarms are boring you're moving into a new home david you are going to have to buy new smoke alarms
00:41:01for every room in your home they're ugly they're annoying you have to stick them somewhere that kind
00:41:07of is quite obvious so they're quite an eyesore nest protects were very nice looking comparatively
00:41:15they had this lovely what was called path light feature so when you walk under them at night you'd get
00:41:20this gentle glow that just kind of lit up your hallway or whichever room you were in and they just and
00:41:26they had this lovely method of being able to alert you to the smoke alarm going off before they started
00:41:32blaring um it would just be heads up there's smoke in the living room and you know so you could get
00:41:38the app out and anyway well this is good now that we've suitably made everybody feel bad about these
00:41:43things being gone uh is there any good replacements no yeah really well so this is the most google thing
00:41:51ever they're like we made a product everybody loves and has come to rely on literally to stay alive
00:41:56and then we've taken it away yeah thanks google i know so what happened was they partnered google
00:42:02partnered with first alert um which was the company that used so they actually released a smart smoke
00:42:09alarm many years ago called the one link one link brand so you had the one link smart smoke alarms they
00:42:15worked with apple home and alexa one of them actually had an amazon assistant built in so it was a
00:42:21speaker and the smoke alarm on your ceiling and you could play music and podcasts through your smoke
00:42:26alarm that was uh that was a bit of an over engineered piece of tech i'm not gonna lie um but
00:42:32those those were all being discontinued and google partnered with first alert and they've released a
00:42:38product that's similar to the nest protect but it doesn't have the path like which is probably the
00:42:44feature people enjoyed the most it's also quite expensive 129 dollars which is a lot for a smoke alarm
00:42:51considering you can pick one up for about 40 at home depot um it doesn't have present sensing which
00:42:56the nest protect did but it does have a neat feature where you can just swap out your old one
00:43:01your old nest and leave the mounting plate up there and just stick the new first alert i think it's called
00:43:07the sc5 is the brand you can just stick it back on the existing mounting plates so they've taken that
00:43:15annoying step of having to drill holes in your ceiling um out but it doesn't it doesn't replace
00:43:21the protect in the same way um it does have the heads up early warning and i have tested that
00:43:27and it hasn't worked for me so that's a bit yeah i've um they've sent me a new one because they thought
00:43:33mine might be faulty um i would get an alert in the app but it didn't actually i didn't get a
00:43:40the audible noise which is what you want the voice that says heads up the smoke levels are rising do
00:43:46something before the alarm goes off um it does have the feature that can trigger a live feed from
00:43:51your google nest cams though which is nice so if you connect it to your google home smart home and
00:43:57you have any google nest cams if the smoke alarms go off it automatically will start recording footage
00:44:03in your home so you can check in and see what's going on um that's a good idea but it only works with
00:44:08google it doesn't work with any other smart home platform which to be fair the nest only worked
00:44:14with google so that's not a difference there um but then that another there are a couple other
00:44:19options out there the kiddie which is the other big brand in the smart in the smoke alarm space
00:44:24there's a little bit of a problem that's not a difference there's a little bit of a problem that's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a good idea but it's not a
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