The Dark Side of WeMo

Belkin's WeMo products are really popular ways of getting into home automation, but they do have a downside.

Almond Routers

Most home automation systems follow a certain formula: You have smaller devices that do things, and they are all controlled via a hub that plugs into your router. The hub is your gateway to your devices through your phone, tablet, what have you. That formula is starting to change, however. A company called Almond has released two wireless routers that are home automation hubs.

On the router side, these are fairly standard, top of the line wireless access points. They broadcast the latest spec of Wi-Fi, 802.11ac, which is blazingly fast if your devices support it.
On the home automation side, they're a bit more interesting. The lower end model supports the ZigBee home automation protocol, which quite a few devices are starting to support. The higher end model adds support for Z-Wave, an older, but much more common way to communicate with smart devices.
To program the automation, you can either use the Almond app for your phone or tablet, or use the built in touch screens on the routers themselves. They can control sprinklers, lights, climate systems, even security cameras.
Considering that most home automation hubs are at least $100, the pricing for these routers is actually fairly competitive: $100 for the low end model, $200 for the high end model with Z-Wave. Remember that if you get these hubs, you also get a router, so you're effectively getting two devices for the price of one.

The Ottobox

I talk about Kickstarter a lot on here. But the reality is that Kickstarter is a great place for home automation devices to start, because most larger companies aren't willing to take a risk on the kinds of devices that can change the way we live our lives. One of those devices that's taking a risk right now is the Ottobox, which was unique enough to catch my eye when I scrolled past it on my Kickstarter feed.

The Ottobox at first glance is very similar to other home automation products, like the WeMo switch. It's a small box that plugs into an electrical outlet in your home, while an appliance plugs into the Ottobox itself. You can then control the Ottobox from your phone, turning it on and off remotely. So, what makes it different from every other smart switch device out there? It's smart. Really smart. So smart in fact, that it will learn your schedule within the first two weeks of being plugged in, and start to predict what you want it to do.
Here's an example. Say you hook it up to your coffee pot. In the first two weeks, you use your phone to turn your coffee pot on in the mornings, and off when you go to work. That's a pattern the Ottobox will start to learn. So before you know it, the coffee pot is turning itself on in the mornings on weekdays, and off when you leave the house.
Now, there are some limitations here. It's only going to work for something that plugs into an outlet, though they say a light switch version is in the works. Also, if your schedule changes, it will eventually relearn it, but that could take some time. So it's not quite the fully automatic system of our dreams, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
Oh, and did I mention the inventor came up with the idea when he was 16? Suddenly, I feel old.

The Updated Echo

You may recall a few weeks ago I talked about the Amazon Echo, Amazon's eerie attempt to listen to your every word. Just kidding, it's actually their voice controlled Siri clone that sits in the middle of a room and answers questions, like "What's the weather like?" and "Do I have any appointments tomorrow?" At the time, I said the main disadvantage of the Echo as a home automation device was that it couldn't be used to control actual devices around your home, like lights and appliances. Well, that all just changed.

Amazon has pushed out a software update for the Echo that allows it to be used as a voice activated remote control for various home automation devices. When I say various, unfortunately, I mean very few. It only works with the WeMo switches that Belkin makes, and the Philips Hue lightbulbs. I like those devices, but it is a bit limiting as far as choice goes. The good news is that it seems like Amazon wants to support more devices in the future. The voice command to pair your Echo with these other devices is "Discover my appliances," which is a pretty vague command. If Amazon wanted their selection to be so limited, they could have gone with a command like "Discover my lights."
The Amazon Echo is $199 from Amazon, though you need to request an invitation to buy it.

Controlling Your Home With Your Voice

Part of the pipe dream of home automation is the ability to talk to your home and have it obey your commands. I talked a little while ago about the Amazon Echo, which offered a sort of watered down version of that. It responded to voice commands, but only in the way something like Siri would. No real home control there. Now, there's a new home automation hub making its way through Kickstarter called Zenno, which offers something a lot closer to the dream of true voice control.

On the surface, Zenno is just another hub that connects your smart devices to the internet. The difference is that instead of just allowing you to press buttons on your phone or tablet to control your home, the Zenno app will actually respond to voice commands. This is different from the Amazon Echo, which had microphones built into the device. The advantage of using the microphones inside of your phone is that the mic is always with you, so you don't need a device in every room of your house to listen to you. The downside is that you'll still need to take out your phone and launch the app before you can say a command.

The other problem that I see with Zenno is that it doesn't use any of the standard protocols for communicating with smart devices. Instead, each unit is actually an IR blaster like you would have in your media center. That means that Zenno can only control devices that respond to an IR remote, like your TV or your stereo. There are very few smart devices out there that respond to IR signals. It also means that you need one of these Zenno hubs in every room of your house, at least every room you want to be able to control. So the fairly attractive price of $70 per hub is actually deceiving, because you're going to need more than one hub. And so we keep reaching for the pipe dream...

Upgrading Switches With Switchmate

Another day, another light switch. That's what it starts to feel like after writing about home automation for a while. There are so many "smart" switches out there that a company has to do something fairly unusual to catch my attention. As it so happens, a company called Switchmate has done just that. Their idea is to create a device that can be added to existing light switches to make them smart, rather than buying a completely new switch and installing it yourself.

What they've come up with is the Switchmate, a small block with a button on the front, and essentially a mechanical finger on the back. The whole thing attaches to your light switch plate with magnets, so you don't even have to break out the screw driver. Once it's in place, pushing the button on the front will move a piece in the back that flips the actual switch up or down. Then, of course, you can connect to the Switchmate from your phone and control your lights remotely, or set up timers and triggers to automate things.

So what's the downside here? It's easy, it's simple, and it's relatively cheap at $50 per switch. Well, honestly, it's not the prettiest of solutions. Yes it's fairly small and sleek looking, but it's still a strange looking block hanging off of your wall. And because it's not connected to your home's wiring at all, it has to run off of batteries, which will need to be replaced from time to time. So it's not quite as "set it and forget it" as most home automation systems could be. But if you're a renter, it's one of the only smart light switches out there that don't require breaking out the tools and going against your lease, so it could be a nice starter for someone wanting to break into home automation. If this isn't your thing? Well, another day, another switch.

Make Your Smoke Detectors Less Dumb

If there's one thing that's absolutely necessary in every home, yet is always annoying, it's a smoke detector. Sure, they can be life saving, and usually you don't even know they're there. But whenever they need their battery replaced, they start making that annoying chirp sound. And if they go off and no one's home, who's going to call the fire department? The smoke detector is in dire need of a smart upgrade.

There's actually already a solution to this, and it's the Nest Protect, a smoke detector made by the same people that make the Nest thermostat we talked about last week. Unfortunately, it's really, really expensive. I mean, I'm all for peace of mind when it comes to fire safety, but $100 for a smoke detector? No, thank you.

But there's a new device up for pre-order right now that offers most of the benefits of the Nest smoke detector, but only costs a fraction of the cash, and uses your existing smoke detectors. It's a smart battery called The Roost. Essentially, it's a standard 9 volt battery that connects to your home's Wi-Fi network. From there, it connects to an app on your smartphone that will alert you when the battery gets too low, or when the alarm goes off. The batteries cost between $30-$40 depending on what package you get, and the convenience could be well worth it.