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. . . from WeMo and Sonoff, and
. . . then to get those plugs online with their apps, and
. . . then to get those apps to talk to the Alexa app.
The first night I said,
. . . “Alexa, turn on the Christmas lights,”
. . . they all turned on in sparkly synchronicity, and
. . . it was magical.
But, one day,
. . . Alexa stopped recognizing “Christmas lights” as a group, and
. . . I could not figure out how to fix it,
. . . so I had to ask Alexa each night,
. . . to turn off the lights one-by-one.
. . . . . . (“Turn off kitchen Christmas lights.”
. . . . . . “Turn off living room Christmas lights.” “
. . . . . . Turn off bookcase lights.”)
. . . . . . This was way more annoying than turning them off manually.
The fantasy of the smart home is,
. . . that it will save us time and effort,
but, the friction involved in
. . . getting various devices,
. . . from different companies, to work together,
. . . meant that many things took longer to do.
Almost every TV on the market now is connected,
because otherwise how do you Netflix and chill?—and over
. . . 25 million smart speakers were sold last year alone,
. . . with Apple soon to release its version, the HomePod,
. . . meaning a good percentage of American homes,
. . . have or will have an internet-connected assistant waiting patiently,
. . . for someone in the house to say their wake word.
When you buy a smart device, it doesn’t just belong to you;
. . . you share custody with the company that made it.
That’s not just a privacy concern.
. . . It also means that those companies can change the product you bought,
. . . after you buy it.
. . . So your smart speaker can suddenly become the hub of a social network, and
. . . your fancy smart scale can have one of its key features taken away,
. . . in a firmware update.
The Roomba did what robots do best:
. . . easy, boring, monotonous work.
But, it didn’t do so independently; like my other “smart” products,
. . . it used its internet connectivity to pop up notifications on my phone.
Being smart meant it could nag me:
“Roomba requires your attention: Your Roomba is stuck.”
“Roomba requires your attention: Your Roomba’s bin is full.”
“Roomba’s cleaning job was canceled.”
I thought the house would take care of me,
but, instead everything in it now had the power to ask me to do things.
Ultimately, I’m not going to warn you against making everything in your home smart,
.. . because of the privacy risks,
.. . although there are quite a few.
I’m going to warn you against a smart home,
. . . because, living in it is annoying as hell.
2-10-2018 Source: #IOT $27 billion market by 2021
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