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[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Quoth

There is even an IoT toothbrush! At least it works without the Internet.

There's IoT... things that I shouldn't post on a family-friendly website

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

There's IoT... things that I shouldn't post on a family-friendly website

Oh yeah, famously one was hacked.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Asawi

LOVE my smart thermostats! I have two (small, old...) houses that I go between so one can be empty for weeks. With smart thermostrats I can keep temperature down in the empty one and the turn up temp the day before I go there.
Smart lightning though... Not that useful for me.

Either way, I wouldn't want stuff that couldn't be handled manually, without Internet, as well.

I like smart lights. They've been very helpful for my mother who has limited mobility. I have several throught the house and for the porch.

I also find smart plugs useful. I've use them for a panic alarm, squirrel deterent, christmas lights, adding bluetooth to my older reciever, ...

I could see myself getting a thermostat sometime in the future. I regret that I didn't get a smart minisplit.

[DiapDealer]

Ima hook it all to the internet. Mind your own privacy/security and allow others to do the same. We're not all idiot babies who need to have the dangers preached at us constantly. The user in the article was clearly a careless moron. There will always be unfortunate consequences for careless morons. Live and learn.

Note that I would never leave control of my lights, outlets, thermostats, garage doors (garage not connected to house), sous vide, 3D printer, air fryer, etc... to the mercy of something as fickle as a working internet connection. Like I said... not an idiot.

And no. I'm done downloading, removing the drm from, and curating a library of ebooks I've already read. I wouldn't cry over a single lost Amazon Kindlebook in my online library.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

I can understand smart lights. Sometimes when I'm out later than expected I come home to a dark house & it's nice to be able to turn on a light before I get out of my car. But a smart thermostat? If my HVAC is working properly then it maintains the temperature where I set it-so I rarely change it. For the few times I do it's no problem to walk over to the thermostat & do it.

I have had a smart thermostat in my store since about 2008 or 2009. I could set it before I left the house, and it would be nice and cool or warm when I got to the store. Also if I forgot to turn it off after work I did not have to go back and turn it off. In a jewelry store it is a big no no to return to your store after hours. Most insurance companies will not cover you if you do this. I have two HVAC units in my house, and I added smart thermostats about three years ago before my wife had hip replacement surgery. This allowed her to set the thermostats without having to take the chance of falling. My mother has advanced macular degeneration and I put one in her house along with an echo so she can set the thermostat without having to struggle with trying to tell what it is set at. Just because you can't see why you want one doesn't mean someone else needs one.
Apache

[ownedbycats]

Likely just an urban legend, but the rumour is a lot of those "as seen on TV" devices with the commercials of people randomly dumping things on the floor or flinging drinks everywhere were actually designed for disabled people but marketed towards the ableds (to avoid the licensing hassles of 'medical devices', I think).

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

If my HVAC is working properly then it maintains the temperature where I set it-so I rarely change it.

Yep. And imagine if one left one's home for more than a few days. An extended family visit, or per chance even a vacation. Could you imagine someone in that situation setting their properly working HVAC to a more efficient--less comfortable--setting while they were gone? If so, then it shouldn't be that much of stretch to imagine the joy it might give someone to be able to gradually bring their home to a more comfortable temperature on the drive/flight back, so so they don't have to come home to a chilly or sweltering house.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

...

Note that I would never leave control of my lights, outlets, thermostats, garage doors (garage not connected to house), sous vide, 3D printer, air fryer, etc... to the mercy of something as fickle as a working internet connection. Like I said... not an idiot.

...

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yep. And imagine if one left one's home for more than a few days. An extended family visit, or per chance even a vacation. Could you imagine someone in that situation setting their properly working HVAC to a more efficient--less comfortable--setting while they were gone? If so, then it shouldn't be that much of stretch to imagine the joy it might give someone to be able to gradually bring their home to a more comfortable temperature on the drive/flight back, so so they don't have to come home to a chilly or sweltering house.

So they would experience joy (and probably save some money, some energy, better for the environment), but be an idiot? I'm assuming they would need an internet connection.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah. I don't plan to have any internet-based home appliances, ever. If your connection goes down, you'll sit in the dark or what? Besides, I don't like to talk when I'm alone. Give me old, mechanical, foolproof ways to do things in my home. Or at least any smart gadgets regulating temperature etc. should not need an internet connection.

If our net connection goes down, I just toggle (off/on) the lamps I want on.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

I like smart lights. They've been very helpful for my mother who has limited mobility. I have several throught the house and for the porch.

I also find smart plugs useful. I've use them for a panic alarm, squirrel deterent, christmas lights, adding bluetooth to my older reciever, ...

I could see myself getting a thermostat sometime in the future. I regret that I didn't get a smart minisplit.

We have a smart thermostat. It's very useful. Saves us a lot of money on our heating.

[JSWolf]

I do have a 4G router I can use as a backup. Just take one of the sims from out cell phones and use that until the Internet comes back up.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by John F

So they would experience joy (and probably save some money, some energy, better for the environment), but be an idiot? I'm assuming they would need an internet connection.

You misunderstood me. I said I never leave myself at the mercy of devices like that which require an internet connection to work. I have local network access to my lights and such. When the internet goes out, I can still turn the lights and plugs on and off. I never said I don't avail myself of the internet convenience when it's available.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

You misunderstood me. I said I never leave myself at the mercy of devices like that which require an internet connection to work. I have local network access to my lights and such. When the internet goes out, I can still turn the lights and plugs on and off. I never said I don't avail myself of the internet convenience when it's available.

Exactly, optional additional use under your own control is fine.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

You misunderstood me. I said I never leave myself at the mercy of devices like that which require an internet connection to work. I have local network access to my lights and such. When the internet goes out, I can still turn the lights and plugs on and off. I never said I don't avail myself of the internet convenience when it's available.

Yup, my misunderstanding.

I think all my smart devices can also be dumb devices.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by John F

I think all my smart devices can also be dumb devices.

Most of them should able to be. But I'm also talking about still being able to use a browser/phone/tablet to finagle my smart devices --smartly -- over my local network while the internet is down. I'm not talking about resorting to using the manual sneaker-net method. All my scheduled events fire locally (from a Home Assistant server) rather than "in the cloud" via a particular device's branded management software. Losing the internet might be a minor inconvenience for me (RE home automation), but it's still not going to force me to have to do something drastic like walk across the room to turn lights on and off. I'm not an animal.