WeMo Setup

When it comes to home automation, there's one big barrier to entry: It's complicated. Even the most basic of smart devices can make a huge impact on someone's day to day life, but if it's too difficult to set up, forget it. It's never going to happen. That's why I'm very pleased to see companies like Belkin start to lean towards simplicity in their product design, especially the WeMo line. WeMo may not be the most powerful home automation tool out there, but when it comes to easy setup, it can't be beat.

The WeMo outlet switch is Belkin's most basic offering. It looks almost like an old timer you would plug into a wall to turn a light on and off at specific times. And in essence, that's exactly what it is, except you trigger the lights with your phone, not tiny plastic clips. To hook it up, you just plug the switch into the wall, and then plug your light you want to control into the switch.






The next, and final step, is to hook the WeMo switch up to your WiFi. To do this, you first install the WeMo app on your phone, and launch it. It walks you through the process of connecting to the switch, linking it to your home network, and setting up any rules you want to use to control the switch.

After that, you're done. The only thing that makes WeMo slightly annoying is that you have to start
the setup process completely over for each switch you set up. That can be quite tedious if you have a lot of switches in your house. Still, it's one of the simplest solutions out there for home automation, even if it's not the most powerful.

If This, Then... What?

If you were to ask me what I think the whole point of home automation is, I would say it's "To make things around your house do what you want, without asking." The way you typically do this is by creating rules in your home automation system, just like you do in an email client. For example, just like you might say anything from a particular email address is automatically filed in a certain folder, you could say that a particular light in your house goes on whenever a room gets too dark.

The issue is that a lot of home automation systems won't talk to each other. So if you have one brand of sensor, and another brand of smart power outlet, the two devices probably won't talk to each other, because the two brands aren't friendly with each other. So you're left with two choices: Stick with one brand of smart devices, which is fairly limiting, or find a middle man technology to bridge the gap between the two brands.

That's where a delightful service called IFTTT comes in. IFTTT stands for If This Then That, which is basically the rule system we just talked about: If This room is dark, Then That outlet turns on. IFTTT works by adding "Channels," which are different ways of triggering actions, or the actions themselves. The great thing about IFTTT is that it's completely independent from any hardware company, like Belkin or Philips. And many of these companies are including native support for IFTTT in their products. So you can have a WeMo switch control a Philibs Hue bulb.


There are endless possibilities with a system like this. You can have your lights blink every time you get an email, or have your coffee pot turn on when it gets cold. Even if you don't have any smart devices yet, IFTTT is a fantastic service, and you can browse the various recipes people have already made to get some inspiration.

A Truly Universal Remote

Even if you're not all that familiar with home automation, you're almost definitely familiar with home theater. We all have at least a handful of set top boxes, TVs and speaker systems that we've collected to make movie night as spectacular as possible. And for every new device, there's a new remote to control it. If you're a home theater power user, you've probably invested in a universal remote, a special type of remote that can be programmed to control all of your devices at once.

In this day and age, I think it's wrong to call a remote "Universal" if all it controls is your home entertainment system. In the age of the smart home, we have dozens of other devices that a truly universal remote should be able to connect to and control. Enter the new Harmony remote from Logitech.

The Harmony remotes have been around for a while, but only as home theater remotes. These new "Home" remotes have the potential to really revolutionize the way your entire house runs.

The hub itself is nothing all that special compared to other home automation hubs. It's the bridge between all of your smart devices and your phone, tablet, or computer. The only thing unique about the Harmony hub is that it can send intra red signals that can be interpreted by your TV.

The remotes are what I find really interesting. They solve an important problem with home automation on your phone: The touchscreen. Home automation isn't something you should have to think about. When we walk into a room we're familiar with, we can reach for the light switch, feel it, and flick it on, all without turning our head. But if our phone becomes the control panel for our home, we're forced to look at the screen and manually find the virtual button we want to tap.

A physical remote has buttons we can feel without looking, like a physical light switch, except one we can carry with us anywhere. If you ask me, this is a huge step forward for home automation, and an even bigger step forward for the universal remote.

Connected Bulbs, or Switches?

If you're just getting started in making your home a smart home, there's an important choice you have in front of you, even if you don't realize it yet: Bulbs, or Switches?

At home improvement stores all across the world, you can buy what they call "Connected Lightbulbs." It's their way of breaking you into home automation. What are connected lightbulbs? Essentially, they're standard LED lightbulbs that have wireless chips in them. These chips typically communicate with a "hub" that's connected to your home network, and through that, all of your phones, tablets and computers. You can now send commands to any lightbulbs in your house, telling them to turn on and off, dim, and in some cases change colors. One of the most famous (and expensive) options for connected lightbulbs is the Philips Hue, but there are much cheaper alternatives now. While a Hue bulb can cost $60 each, Cree has connected lightbulbs that are much simpler, and cheaper, only costing $15 per bulb.

The advantage of connected lightbulbs is that they're easy to setup, and require no changes to anything in your home. The light fixture and power outlets stay exactly the same. The disadvantage that most people don't think about, is that you can no longer use your home's built in light switches. Connected lightbulbs need a constant supply of power to stay connected to your home's network, so if you turn them off manually, you can no longer connect to them via your devices, defeating the whole point of home automation. To take full advantage of connected bulbs, you need to always turn them on and off via your phone, tablet, or computer. But it's very easy to accidentally turn off the light switch, and therefore turn off part of your home automation network.

So what's a good alternative? Connected light switches require more work, but can be much more Belkin WeMo Switch. While this does require breaking out the screwdriver to replace an old light switch, it gives you all of the benefits of the connected bulbs without the inconvenience of being unable to use your switches. Unfortunately, switches are more expensive, ranging from $30-$50 each. But bulbs aren't necessarily cheaper. An overhead light fixture might require three or more bulbs to be fully lit, which would require almost $50 worth of lightbulbs. But a whole room can be controlled via a single switch.
elegant. Many companies offer connected light switches, like the

So remember that while connected lightbulbs are temping because of their easy setup and cheap price, the better investment might be connected switches, and the extra work they require.

Apple TV in Home Automation?

The way your home works is changing, and the source might already be next to your TV. Anyone interested in home automation, especially when it comes to making it accessible, seems to be excited about Apple's new HomeKit technology. Originally shown off in 2014 along with a preview of iOS 8, it promises to integrate any "smart" device that uses the HomeKit technology into your iPhone and iPad.

In theory, this could be a real game changer. Apple has a way of making things very simple and easy to use, but we haven't seen any real world examples of HomeKit in action. At this year's CES, we started to see some devices that use HomeKit being teased TechHive has a great roundup of some of these. But most HomeKit gadgets aren't even shipping yet. However, we do know one tiny, yet important detail about HomeKit: The Apple TV will play a big part in it.

That's right, the set top box that Apple has constantly referred to as a "hobby" will play a key role in its home automation strategy. If you're at home, you'll be able to control any HomeKit devices you have with your iPhone or iPad, even using Siri to give voice commands. The Apple TV doesn't play a part in that. But if you want to control your devices from outside your home network,  the Apple TV will act as a bridge between you and your devices back home.

So if you're planning on investing in HomeKit devices for your home, the Apple TV looks like it could be a very worthwhile investment. And as of right now, it's one of the only HomeKit devices you can buy.