Is Google Home, Alexa, and Siri the future?

[Asclepias]

I wish to question you. I can ask a few simple questions and determine if youre lying or not.

I'm sorry - are you somehow under the impression that I care what you think?

Besides...you can't question me. You've already illustrated your complete lack of knowledge on this subject.

I understand. You were lying and wanted to impress me. Its ok. I knew you would back out.

 

[P@triot]

I wish to question you. I can ask a few simple questions and determine if youre lying or not.

I'm sorry - are you somehow under the impression that I care what you think?

Besides...you can't question me. You've already illustrated your complete lack of knowledge on this subject.

I understand. You were lying and wanted to impress me. Its ok. I knew you would back out.

I'm about as interested in "impressing" you as I am for voting for Hitlery Clinton

Now why don't you tell us again how ONLY Apple apps are available in the Apple app store? That's my favorite part Mr. Technology

 

[Fueri]

Coincidentally I just ordered the new echo dot today, which is going to be released on the 20th. This gen 2 is like 50 bucks, although it's speaker isn't as robust as the full sized echo.

I also got a few Lutron dimmers with additional remotes to control some outdoor lighting that the wife wants to be able to pop on from her car on the way home at night and retrofit the living room lighting system.

I also got a lutron bridge to control the dimmers and others we're planning on adding in the bedroom and bathroom, simply because the bridge was tossed in as part of a package for 30 bucks, although that may end up being redundant with the echo.

When I get that all in I'll decide whether or not to add a secondary hub, such as wink, that covers more devices, such as the door locks, garage door, driveway gate and security system and floodlights, as well as get more dots to put in various places around the house for more expanded voice control.

To the point of the thread I think these things are great for people that are comfortable with technology but if they don't know how to properly set them up and use them effectively it can be a bunch of junk.

I read an article when I first started looking into retrofitting my house that indicated that smart systems were not yet a selling point for homes, which I find hard to believe, but the apparent reason was that people still aren't quite comfortable with them. Maybe with these new technologies, such as the echo, wink etc, coming out to make it vastly simpler that will change.

Personally, I love this shit. Always have, always will.

So, I got my gizmos in.

Very short learning curve on the lutron app. Installation stupid easy of the switches and the bridge. One thing I do not like is that it can sometimes be difficult to back out of a screen and you have to kill the app through the applications manager.

Alexa also went in. A bit more of a learning curve, but still pretty simple. Installation itself was easy. Getting it to work with my lutron dimmers and thermostat was a bit trickier, although once I realized that the 'learn skill' function was Alexa's version of an app, and to not count on the 'detect devices' function that moved much faster.

For 50 bucks the Echo dot is a stupid deal, IMO. Worth it just as a toy. What's the weather today? here's your forecast. what was the score of the game last night? score of the Bears game was 32-12. turn on Pandora. music fills the room. Turn up the thermostat 2 degrees. Done. Set dimmers to 60%. Done. "Give me todays news" and you get a rundown. etc., etc.

you get a lot for 50 bucks. a lot of fun and and actually functional.

I've also noticed that since the release of the dot there are packages of dimmers and other devices bundled with the dot that bring the overall price down. just an FYI....

 

[Asclepias]

Coincidentally I just ordered the new echo dot today, which is going to be released on the 20th. This gen 2 is like 50 bucks, although it's speaker isn't as robust as the full sized echo.

I also got a few Lutron dimmers with additional remotes to control some outdoor lighting that the wife wants to be able to pop on from her car on the way home at night and retrofit the living room lighting system.

I also got a lutron bridge to control the dimmers and others we're planning on adding in the bedroom and bathroom, simply because the bridge was tossed in as part of a package for 30 bucks, although that may end up being redundant with the echo.

When I get that all in I'll decide whether or not to add a secondary hub, such as wink, that covers more devices, such as the door locks, garage door, driveway gate and security system and floodlights, as well as get more dots to put in various places around the house for more expanded voice control.

To the point of the thread I think these things are great for people that are comfortable with technology but if they don't know how to properly set them up and use them effectively it can be a bunch of junk.

I read an article when I first started looking into retrofitting my house that indicated that smart systems were not yet a selling point for homes, which I find hard to believe, but the apparent reason was that people still aren't quite comfortable with them. Maybe with these new technologies, such as the echo, wink etc, coming out to make it vastly simpler that will change.

Personally, I love this shit. Always have, always will.

So, I got my gizmos in.

Very short learning curve on the lutron app. Installation stupid easy of the switches and the bridge. One thing I do not like is that it can sometimes be difficult to back out of a screen and you have to kill the app through the applications manager.

Alexa also went in. A bit more of a learning curve, but still pretty simple. Installation itself was easy. Getting it to work with my lutron dimmers and thermostat was a bit trickier, although once I realized that the 'learn skill' function was Alexa's version of an app, and to not count on the 'detect devices' function that moved much faster.

For 50 bucks the Echo dot is a stupid deal, IMO. Worth it just as a toy. What's the weather today? here's your forecast. what was the score of the game last night? score of the Bears game was 32-12. turn on Pandora. music fills the room. Turn up the thermostat 2 degrees. Done. Set dimmers to 60%. Done. "Give me todays news" and you get a rundown. etc., etc.

you get a lot for 50 bucks. a lot of fun and and actually functional.

I've also noticed that since the release of the dot there are packages of dimmers and other devices bundled with the dot that bring the overall price down. just an FYI....

Yeah. I just got another Dot myself. I havent used the Lutron app. My whole thing was I wanted to not have to deal with hubs or bridges. So I use mostly the TP-Link devices.

 

[Fueri]

Coincidentally I just ordered the new echo dot today, which is going to be released on the 20th. This gen 2 is like 50 bucks, although it's speaker isn't as robust as the full sized echo.

I also got a few Lutron dimmers with additional remotes to control some outdoor lighting that the wife wants to be able to pop on from her car on the way home at night and retrofit the living room lighting system.

I also got a lutron bridge to control the dimmers and others we're planning on adding in the bedroom and bathroom, simply because the bridge was tossed in as part of a package for 30 bucks, although that may end up being redundant with the echo.

When I get that all in I'll decide whether or not to add a secondary hub, such as wink, that covers more devices, such as the door locks, garage door, driveway gate and security system and floodlights, as well as get more dots to put in various places around the house for more expanded voice control.

To the point of the thread I think these things are great for people that are comfortable with technology but if they don't know how to properly set them up and use them effectively it can be a bunch of junk.

I read an article when I first started looking into retrofitting my house that indicated that smart systems were not yet a selling point for homes, which I find hard to believe, but the apparent reason was that people still aren't quite comfortable with them. Maybe with these new technologies, such as the echo, wink etc, coming out to make it vastly simpler that will change.

Personally, I love this shit. Always have, always will.

So, I got my gizmos in.

Very short learning curve on the lutron app. Installation stupid easy of the switches and the bridge. One thing I do not like is that it can sometimes be difficult to back out of a screen and you have to kill the app through the applications manager.

Alexa also went in. A bit more of a learning curve, but still pretty simple. Installation itself was easy. Getting it to work with my lutron dimmers and thermostat was a bit trickier, although once I realized that the 'learn skill' function was Alexa's version of an app, and to not count on the 'detect devices' function that moved much faster.

For 50 bucks the Echo dot is a stupid deal, IMO. Worth it just as a toy. What's the weather today? here's your forecast. what was the score of the game last night? score of the Bears game was 32-12. turn on Pandora. music fills the room. Turn up the thermostat 2 degrees. Done. Set dimmers to 60%. Done. "Give me todays news" and you get a rundown. etc., etc.

you get a lot for 50 bucks. a lot of fun and and actually functional.

I've also noticed that since the release of the dot there are packages of dimmers and other devices bundled with the dot that bring the overall price down. just an FYI....

Yeah. I just got another Dot myself. I havent used the Lutron app. My whole thing was I wanted to not have to deal with hubs or bridges. So I use mostly the TP-Link devices.

I can see that. I went with the lutron stuff because of the Pico remotes.

I'm putting lights outside along the front of the house, and the power and hard wired switches are located in the garage, which is inconvenient relative to the location of the lighting itself. With the Pico remotes I've got switches now where I actually want them without having to hard wire them. There might be other options out there that do the same thing, but i didn't come across them when planning the project, so I went that way. So far that bridge has been simple to deal with so no problems there.

I probably won't, however, go with another hub unless I absolutely have to, as there seem to be sufficient available options without adding that. I thought I might have to, in order to operate my Honeywell wireless thermostat, which I already had, with the dot, but there was a skill existing for it, so no need at this point.

 

[SixFoot]

Coincidentally I just ordered the new echo dot today, which is going to be released on the 20th. This gen 2 is like 50 bucks, although it's speaker isn't as robust as the full sized echo.

I also got a few Lutron dimmers with additional remotes to control some outdoor lighting that the wife wants to be able to pop on from her car on the way home at night and retrofit the living room lighting system.

I also got a lutron bridge to control the dimmers and others we're planning on adding in the bedroom and bathroom, simply because the bridge was tossed in as part of a package for 30 bucks, although that may end up being redundant with the echo.

When I get that all in I'll decide whether or not to add a secondary hub, such as wink, that covers more devices, such as the door locks, garage door, driveway gate and security system and floodlights, as well as get more dots to put in various places around the house for more expanded voice control.

To the point of the thread I think these things are great for people that are comfortable with technology but if they don't know how to properly set them up and use them effectively it can be a bunch of junk.

I read an article when I first started looking into retrofitting my house that indicated that smart systems were not yet a selling point for homes, which I find hard to believe, but the apparent reason was that people still aren't quite comfortable with them. Maybe with these new technologies, such as the echo, wink etc, coming out to make it vastly simpler that will change.

Personally, I love this shit. Always have, always will.

So, I got my gizmos in.

Very short learning curve on the lutron app. Installation stupid easy of the switches and the bridge. One thing I do not like is that it can sometimes be difficult to back out of a screen and you have to kill the app through the applications manager.

Alexa also went in. A bit more of a learning curve, but still pretty simple. Installation itself was easy. Getting it to work with my lutron dimmers and thermostat was a bit trickier, although once I realized that the 'learn skill' function was Alexa's version of an app, and to not count on the 'detect devices' function that moved much faster.

For 50 bucks the Echo dot is a stupid deal, IMO. Worth it just as a toy. What's the weather today? here's your forecast. what was the score of the game last night? score of the Bears game was 32-12. turn on Pandora. music fills the room. Turn up the thermostat 2 degrees. Done. Set dimmers to 60%. Done. "Give me todays news" and you get a rundown. etc., etc.

you get a lot for 50 bucks. a lot of fun and and actually functional.

I've also noticed that since the release of the dot there are packages of dimmers and other devices bundled with the dot that bring the overall price down. just an FYI....

Yeah. I just got another Dot myself. I havent used the Lutron app. My whole thing was I wanted to not have to deal with hubs or bridges. So I use mostly the TP-Link devices.

I can see that. I went with the lutron stuff because of the Pico remotes.

I'm putting lights outside along the front of the house, and the power and hard wired switches are located in the garage, which is inconvenient relative to the location of the lighting itself. With the Pico remotes I've got switches now where I actually want them without having to hard wire them. There might be other options out there that do the same thing, but i didn't come across them when planning the project, so I went that way. So far that bridge has been simple to deal with so no problems there.

I probably won't, however, go with another hub unless I absolutely have to, as there seem to be sufficient available options without adding that. I thought I might have to, in order to operate my Honeywell wireless thermostat, which I already had, with the dot, but there was a skill existing for it, so no need at this point.

Could you show me a pic of some of these devices? Not the dot, the ones for the lights and plugs.

 

[Fueri]

Coincidentally I just ordered the new echo dot today, which is going to be released on the 20th. This gen 2 is like 50 bucks, although it's speaker isn't as robust as the full sized echo.

I also got a few Lutron dimmers with additional remotes to control some outdoor lighting that the wife wants to be able to pop on from her car on the way home at night and retrofit the living room lighting system.

I also got a lutron bridge to control the dimmers and others we're planning on adding in the bedroom and bathroom, simply because the bridge was tossed in as part of a package for 30 bucks, although that may end up being redundant with the echo.

When I get that all in I'll decide whether or not to add a secondary hub, such as wink, that covers more devices, such as the door locks, garage door, driveway gate and security system and floodlights, as well as get more dots to put in various places around the house for more expanded voice control.

To the point of the thread I think these things are great for people that are comfortable with technology but if they don't know how to properly set them up and use them effectively it can be a bunch of junk.

I read an article when I first started looking into retrofitting my house that indicated that smart systems were not yet a selling point for homes, which I find hard to believe, but the apparent reason was that people still aren't quite comfortable with them. Maybe with these new technologies, such as the echo, wink etc, coming out to make it vastly simpler that will change.

Personally, I love this shit. Always have, always will.

So, I got my gizmos in.

Very short learning curve on the lutron app. Installation stupid easy of the switches and the bridge. One thing I do not like is that it can sometimes be difficult to back out of a screen and you have to kill the app through the applications manager.

Alexa also went in. A bit more of a learning curve, but still pretty simple. Installation itself was easy. Getting it to work with my lutron dimmers and thermostat was a bit trickier, although once I realized that the 'learn skill' function was Alexa's version of an app, and to not count on the 'detect devices' function that moved much faster.

For 50 bucks the Echo dot is a stupid deal, IMO. Worth it just as a toy. What's the weather today? here's your forecast. what was the score of the game last night? score of the Bears game was 32-12. turn on Pandora. music fills the room. Turn up the thermostat 2 degrees. Done. Set dimmers to 60%. Done. "Give me todays news" and you get a rundown. etc., etc.

you get a lot for 50 bucks. a lot of fun and and actually functional.

I've also noticed that since the release of the dot there are packages of dimmers and other devices bundled with the dot that bring the overall price down. just an FYI....

Yeah. I just got another Dot myself. I havent used the Lutron app. My whole thing was I wanted to not have to deal with hubs or bridges. So I use mostly the TP-Link devices.

I can see that. I went with the lutron stuff because of the Pico remotes.

I'm putting lights outside along the front of the house, and the power and hard wired switches are located in the garage, which is inconvenient relative to the location of the lighting itself. With the Pico remotes I've got switches now where I actually want them without having to hard wire them. There might be other options out there that do the same thing, but i didn't come across them when planning the project, so I went that way. So far that bridge has been simple to deal with so no problems there.

I probably won't, however, go with another hub unless I absolutely have to, as there seem to be sufficient available options without adding that. I thought I might have to, in order to operate my Honeywell wireless thermostat, which I already had, with the dot, but there was a skill existing for it, so no need at this point.

Could you show me a pic of some of these devices? Not the dot, the ones for the lights and plugs.

Sure, here is the dimmer, remote and bridge I ordered

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MXCRAX8/?tag=usmb-20

to mount the pico remote on a wall, you need one of these per remote:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JZRAFEA/?tag=usmb-20

and you need to use these faceplates. this is a three gang, as I've got three switches, but other numbers are available. note the part number CW-3-WH. the '3' denotes number of gangs, the "WH" is the color, so you can just search for the appropriate number.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000V2UMU/?tag=usmb-20


I haven't actually mounted the remotes/faceplates yet, so I can't offer feedback on how all that goes, but it looks pretty simple.


As I mentioned, some of this stuff is now out bundled with the dot, like this package, which is 2 switches, with remotes, the bridge and the dot for 160 bucks.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LWX1PFW/?tag=usmb-20