Automation and AI in our Homes

[Cmaier]

First let me say I have plenty of "smart" home tech but don't rely on Siri or Alexa for any of it. HomeKit may connect but mostly I just use the proprietary apps.

Having said that, I was going to post this in the pet peeves thread. It seems plenty of my "smart" tech isn't smart enough to handle a power outage. When the power comes back on it can't seem to reconnect to wifi or remember a schedule and I have fuss around with apps to reconnect.

On the dumber end of smart tech I have some tech that works on an internal timer and doesn't connect to anything outside itself. When there's a power out half of it just forgets everything and I have to set it back up. The other half remembers time intervals but not actual time. So when there is a power outage it resets the interval clock from when the power goes back on. I have a mister setup in my bedroom set to go off for 10 seconds every 12 hours, normally 7 AM and 7 PM. The motor is pretty loud. So if there is a power outage and the power goes back on at 2 PM, at 2 AM it scares the shit out of me when it goes on. The only way to fix it is to physically reset it at 7 AM or PM.

Annoyed.

We had a blackout in my house yesterday, and everything came back and remembered all its settings. Since automations (like timers, and one switch controlling multiple things, and motion sensing triggers) all live in homekit, it’s all persistent across power outages.

The only problem I have is that sometimes things can’t connect to the network after a power outage; this has more to do with my network than with homekit, I suspect. I have a mesh system, and stuff comes up in random order, so a switch connects to the first mesh point it sees, even if the mesh point is far away, and then trouble ensues. And I have a bunch of HomePods and Apple TVs, and the one that homekit selected as the ”hub” after the black out was a terrible idea - it’s in a remote room and not connected by Ethernet cable. As a result, even when everything was connected to the network, homekit still had troubles (I just unplugged the Apple TV for a second and homekit picked a better choice and all was well).

 

[Huntn]

Nov 2023- Alexa or Siri?
I’ve been visting my son who has Alexa, and uses it for setting timers, turning on lights, and playing Amazon music. I’ve become enamored with this device, but I got a lot of iOS stuff back home. Which is superior?

One thing, I’d like some personality. Alexa is all busines. I asked her if she enjoys teaching, and I got “not in catalog”. Come on, you can do better than that… The other thing noticible, as a basic Alexa unit, the sound is crappy.

How long before something ChatGPT appears on this scene?

From 2020: https://www.lifewire.com/siri-vs-alexa-4800418

 

[Huntn]

Well, I just told Siri on my phone to set a timer which it did. I have this old Bose speaker iPod setup, I may configure for music with a new iPod via an updated cable and I like the idea of telling it to play music, which I assume I could do via the iPod, Siri, and Apple Music.

My question is with Alexa it appears you have wide access to Amazon music for free. Is this the case with Siri and Apple Music?

Also can your iPhone, iPad, and iPod be linked together to relay music play commands to the iPod with Apple Music?