Home: On #159 - Pre-gaming CES with Jimmy Hawkins
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
Each year at CES, before the actual show opens, the media has multiple opportunities to get ahead of the show’s news. Three “preview” events and numerous press conferences offer journalists, bloggers, podcasters, and influencers a peek under the tent—mostly before the show even starts. Smarthome influencer and DMZ contributor Jimmy Hawkins joins Richard in person for this episode to talk about the companies and products that caught their attention in their CES pre-gaming.
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Home: On #158 - Smarthome Quibbles with Allison Sheridan
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
Allison Sheridan from Podfeet Podcasts joins us to discuss the more problematic side of home automation—when things don’t work as expected or desired. What’s annoying us in our respective smart homes and how do we deal with problems when they arise? Why do we even put ourselves through all this? We also touch on a few interesting smart home stories from the past few months. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:02:42 News and updates 00:11:53 Discussion 00:45:02 Closing
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Home: On #147 - Pondering HomeKit with Jeff Butts from The Mac Observer
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
Jeff Butts, Managing Editor at The Mac Observer joins us. We ponder why Signify would want to get into the security game (and why consumers would want them to), discuss some updates on previously reported news, and dive into a discussion about the current state of HomeKit. New architectures, Shortcuts, and Matter…and what’s with this Works with Apple Home thing? It’s all getting kind of messy.
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Home: On #156 - The Accessible Smarthome with Dustin Boggus
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
A few months ago now, MyHomeKithome YouTuber and podcast host Dustin Boggus joined Richard to talk about accessibility in the smarthome. Sure, it’s fun and futuristic to have lights and digital assistants that obey your commands and react to your presence…but what if your ability to work and live safely in your own environment depended upon it? Dustin shares his experiences with specific technologies and products and shares some thoughts about what more the industry could be doing. Oh, and they also talk about some now fairly old industry news.
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Home: On #155 - Restarting Insteon with Richard Sudek from Insteon Technologies
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
Amazon makes an infuriating money grab for Ring app features you’ve been using for years, Sonos is expected to use a product launch as an opportunity to raise prices again, and Leviton will be rolling matter support out to 2nd generation Decora Smart products with a firmware update. Finally, several quarters in now, what’s Insteon Technologies up to? Co-founder Richard Sudek joins us to share the latest on Insteon products and services, talk about some new products, and give us a glimpse at what’s in their sights for the future. Cue Richard Gunther’s standard Insteon disclaimer.
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Home: On #154 - Fireside 2022
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
Richard once again joins other hosts from the Technology.FM podcasts to share in their annual tradition of the fireside chat. What caught their attention this year, what do they think will be big next year, and how did they fare with last year’s predictions? As always, this special DMZ mix offers fewer ums, fewer digital assistant triggers, and–perhaps most importantly–blocks Mike’s valiant attempt to trick your Echo into sending something very expensive to your home.
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Home: On #153 - Sending Signals with Matt Corey
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
Chamberlain killed its overpriced, unreliable HomeKit Home Bridge, Tado has a money-saving program that might actually use more energy, Lutron adds to its Caséta lineup, and everyone’s getting into Matter (hopefully). We review all this slightly late news and more with HomeKit developer Matt Corey, then talk with Matt about some of the ways he’s using HomeKit, Shortcuts, and even the Mac to help HomeKit users do more with lighting in their smart homes.
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Home: On #152 - Starting Fresh with Kent Fellure
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
You’re moving into a new home, and you want to do things right from the start. Where do you begin? This is the situation Richard’s friend Kent Fellure finds himself in, and we’re delighted to talk with him about some options for security, lighting, HVAC, and more. And of course, Kent joins in some banter about this month’s smart home news from Wemo, Twinkly, and LIFX.
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Home: On #151 - Some Help with Robert Spivack from DoItForMe Solutions
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
What do you do when you hit a wall on your smart home projects? You can’t do something, don’t know something, or just don’t have the time. Robert Spivack of Do-It-For-Me Solutions is here to help! That plus, of course, we discuss the latest news and updates from Philips Hue, Insteon, and Wink. Yep, Wink. They’re down. Again. Is it for good? They say No.
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Home: On #150 - Decora Smart with Greg Rhoades from Leviton
Home: On from The Digital Media Zone
IKEA has a new smart home hub in the wings with yet another name we’ll all be trying to pronounce, Amazon ditches its old Cloud Cam but makes good on customers’ investments, and Insteon is back and under new management. Greg Rhoades from Leviton joins me on this episode to discuss all this plus his company’s recent push into the smart home with their latest generation of Decora Smart products.
info_outlineIt’s that time of year again! It’s time for the Technology.FM year-end fireside chat, featuring HomeTech hosts Seth Johnson and Jason Griffing plus Richard's Smart Home Show co-host Adam Justice. And this is the DMZ’s um-free super-edit with 12 fewer minutes of vocables. What are you going to do with all that extra time!