STACK #193 Nov 2020

LIFE TECH FEATURE

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Whether you’re looking to simplify your life, boost your energy efficiency or just because it’s really cool, setting up a smart home can be a very smart move. However, before you start, you need to choose how you’re going to make your smart things work in harmony by selecting a smart home ecosystem. The good news?This is not a daunting task. Words Bec Summer

ECOSYSTEM?

which, along with its applicable phone app, will serve as the nerve centre of your setup. The Google Nest Mini and Amazon Echo Dot are currently the two most popular (and affordable) options. Both boast unobtrusive designs – some might even say that they’re attractive – and they include either Google Assistant or Alexa, respectively. Before even adding any other smart devices to

choice, the relevant smartphone app will be your easy-to-use nerve centre for setting up any smart devices that you decide to add to your fledgling ecosystem. WHAT CAN IT DO FOR ME? The range of devices getting smart seems to be expanding almost daily, with some things that you may never have considered ripe for smartening up getting the treatment – even down to the humble kettle! So, accordingly, what your smart home set-up can do for you depends upon how deeply you wish to dive in. Simply automating control of some lights may be a good start, be it for convenience or even security.

An ecosystem in nature involves how its inhabitants interact with the physical environment, and it’s basically the same for a smart home. Your ecosystem here is comprised of all your smart components, plus the digital assistant that allows them all to talk effectively to each other in order to carry out their required

functions. This could be the simplest lighting switching to incredibly complicated strings of commands, or “scenes” (don’t worry, we’ll get to them soon). MAKING A CHOICE When choosing which ecosystem is right for your particular smart home journey, you may already have a head start. Many of us are already interacting with the likes of Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri via our smartphones and, along with Amazon’s Alexa, these are the three most popular digital helpers to serve as the brains behind smart home set-ups. So, if you already have an affinity for any of these digital assistants, that’s likely your best kicking off point. No matter who makes the various smart products that you invest in, your elected assistant will serve as a conduit to connect all of their individual apps in the one spot, so you can have control over them all from one place. TAKE IT EASY The simplest way to begin your smart home journey is with a smart speaker,

your set-up, with just one of these hooked into your home Wi-Fi network you

already have access to vast knowledge resources simply

by asking, everything from local weather to news, keeping track of your appointments, and answering those curly questions that kids have a habit of hurling at you... “Hey Google which would win in a fight between an elephant and a lion?” If you’re still unsure, the reassuring news is that the vast majority of smart devices play

From there you can branch out – for example, we can control our entertainment centre by voice thanks to our Logitech Harmony Elite remote connected to our smart home ecosystem, and set our robot vacuum to work with

a simple voice command. We can also monitor what’s going on at home from anywhere in the world with the security camera that’s a part of our own ecosystem. WHAT’S YOUR SCENE? A “scene” when it

Here's a handy idea to ask your Google Assistant that you may not have tried yet.

nicely with both Google Assistant and Alexa, so

you can’t really go wrong with either choice. And unlike being locked to a

“Hey Google! Find my phone.” How often do you misplace your phone during the day? No drama, as your faithful Google Assistant can find it for you. The phone will ring and then you can marvel at how on earth you left it there in the first place.

comes to smart home automation is basically a list of commands for your smart devices

system like with PC vs Mac, you can easily change assistants at a later date should you wish. Once you’ve made your initial

that’s set up via your assistant’s smartphone app.

NOVEMBER 2020

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