Everyone goes with an ecosystem for a reason. I don’t consider myself an Apple loyalist by any means. I am a fan of technology, exemplary design and quality. Some continue to use and buy every Apple product because of iMessage and not wanting to see that dreaded green bubble.
For me, the answer is different. For me, I’ve got to have Apple Watch.
Why
Apple Watch is the only relevant smartwatch on the planet aside from devices by companies such as Garmin and Fitbit — yet these are fitness trackers first.
Where is Android Wear? Stagnating because of the fact that Google isn’t doing the best job managing the platform. Samsung wearables are seen from time to time; however, the device that occupies most wrists that are charged daily is the Apple Watch. At this point, it would be difficult to move to a different platform without having a dependable form of wristwear to accompany my smartphone.
Intangibles
There are many things that Apple Watch does that you can’t see. A device that’s so reliable, you never need to worry about it working. Additionally, the safety of having a solid ecosystem behind you is second to none. Watchbands are made by Apple to the established Hermes.
Final Thoughts
Apple Watch, not only the best smartwatch but an excellent ecosystem to be apart of.
Apple’s HomePod is available for preorder now and will be shipping and available in stores on Friday, February 9th. Apple Music, home control, smarts and more are what this speaker aim to give customers.
Background
At WWDC 2017 HomePod was announced and touted to be a revolutionary speaker, that aims to use a seven tweeter beam-forming array, 6 microphones, Apple’s own A8 chip and a top loaded woofer to deliver an unmatched musical experience. Originally, the device was slated to ship at the end of 2017 and got moved, as Apple products other than iPhone, do to a later time.
That time is now.
Source: Apple
Out of the gate, Apple noted that this product is “speaker first”; however, you would interact with it through a voice layer — Siri. Apple’s digital assistant has gotten a lot of well deserved hate over the years for simply lacking in substance when compared to Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. Instantly, Apple is saying to not compare the HomePod to a Google Home or Amazon Echo product, not because they necessarily believe that their product will instantly be better — but because of what HomePod isn’t. HomePod isn’t meant to be a smart speaker, it’s meant to be a revolutionary audio device that will fill any room with sound like it’s never been encompassed before. It is not meant to knock your socks off by what Siri can do and in all honestly we know that at this point, Siri lacking in the “smarts” department is an understatement.
With that being said, “speaker first” continues to ring in my head — so what does that mean? For the price of $349, I should expect to get a high-quality audio device that can rival the king of consumer home audio, Sonos, who is known for producing high-quality, high-fidelity speakers that you can stream audio to and HomePod is coming for the throne. On the other hand, regardless of how Apple positions this product, the majority of customers will look at this as a smart speaker, rightfully so — meaning that in 2018 it may be speaker first, but at some point, it’s going to need to flex those “smart” muscles.
One central remote, sometimes it’s a dream we never obtain; however, with technology anything is possible and it’s always fun when you’re incorporating it into a smarthome setup.
Enter Logitech Harmony (model 915-000238).
Design
There are no questions to be asked about the “cool” factor, it’s on 100 and this device gives you and your household the ability to manipulate the devices that are paired with your Harmony Hub. This little guy works with TVs, Roku, Cable, video game consoles and even Phillips Hue lights (sorry I am on the TP-Link wagon) making this a solid addition to your living you and one that disappears given it’s unassuming look.
Setup
Setting up your Harmony Hub is very easy, it can be done either by connecting it to your PC via USB or simply downloading the Harmony app, which is preferred since you’ll need it to build activities and more later. Once you have the hub connected to your network and running, you connect your devices. Harmony will automatically detect devices that are connected and suggest that you add them (eg. Roku, Android TV, Apple TV and others).
Fair warning, simply because setup is easy does not mean that your activities (programmable scenes) will necessarily work all of the time. Logitech uses a Start/End Sequence builder of getting things done, which work with a wide range of electronics, the only issue that I encountered was being able to consistently turn off and on my TV, with that being said, I created a generic “Activate TV” activity that will always run so that Harmony will always be awaiting my commands. Hopefully, this is a hack that you do not need and is likely due to the age of my set, nearing 8 years.
Logitech Activity builder.
Additionally, when creating an Activity, Harmony utilizes the Start Sequence to turn on all of the devices required for completion of that activity; however, at the end, during the End Sequence it wants to turn those same devices off — which makes no sense when you are watching Netflix, then want to issue the command “Watch Youtube”, which in the background is using the same set of devices.
Usage
Once you have Harmony setup the way you want, with any hacks that were needed to accomplish this setup, you pretty much set free to control your living room via your smartphone or digital assistant such as Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa. Personally, I have my Harmony Hub integrated with Assistant so that I can utilize it with Google Home. Integrating the two is different that most Home Control devices, so to accomplish this say “Hey Google, as Harmony to link my account”, from there you will be presented with a card that will allow you to link the two.
From there if all goes perfect, perhaps you can get an experience like the below (my original video was flagged for the music I asked Google to play, it happens):
See the below example of activities I have created for my Harmony Hub setup:
Final Impressions
The Harmony Hub is very powerful, but it is not for everyone. Sometimes things work and other times they don’t….. The sequences that you do build are very powerful to accomplish tasks; however, in order to get simple things done can appear arduous and cumbersome but once things are in place, it is nothing short of magical.
Ah, Google Home and the omnipresent Google Assistant……just works and whether you are looking to get into home automation with over 1500 devices available, wanting Google Assistant smarts or wanting quality sound — you can get it from one of the Google Home options.
Left to right: Google Home Mini, Google Home, Google Home Max
Key Review Points:
How easy is setup?
How many devices should I use?
Is Google Home good for home automation?
How is Google Home for the privacy junkie (like myself)?
Background
When you receive a Google Home for Christmas, then proceed to lose your mind buying “smart” everything, a review is the least that I could do.
Google Home is currently slotted against Amazon’s Echo and the upcoming Apple HomePod in the smarthome “smart speaker” wars, although Apple is touting it as “speaker first”, so we will see how smart it is. Additionally, similar to the Echo, Google Home comes at multiple price-points with Google Home Mini ($49), Google Home ($129) and Google Home Max ($399) — enabling Google to meet the needs of many different consumers and their underlying budgets.
Google Home.
The key features of Google Home is that it gives you and other Google accounts that are linked access to all of your personal calendars, lists, music accounts and all of the smarts of Google itself through the phenomenal Google Assistant. Yes, Assistant is better than Siri in every way Apple fans.
Setup
The first thing that you’ll need to do to get started on your Google Home journey is download the Google Home app, which serves as the primary landing spot of every Google home and entertainment product, including the Google Home, ChromeCast and ChromeCast Ultra. Setup is simple, requiring you to connect the device to your home wifi network and your corresponding Google account. (Note, the first account used will be the primary account on the device, with other accounts being referred to as “linked accounts” that can also operate on the device and receive personal information such as calendars, reminders and place phone calls.)
One thing of importance, is that if you’re wanting to take full advantage of Google Home by controlling wifi enabled devices throughout your home, customizing news and getting personalized results, you will additionally need to download and use the Google Assistant app.
So, now that your Google Home is all setup, likely in your living room, what happens when you go into the office? What happens when you go into your kitchen….. You know where I’m heading with this.
Enter Google Home Mini (or Max). First, let me state that having one Google Home product is enough; however, Google Home Mini devices are very affordable and can be thrown just about anywhere to ensure that your Assistant is always at your side. Additionally, for the audiophiles out there, Google Home Max is nothing short of a complete and utter monster, delivering superb audio quality and rivaling the sounds of Sonos.
Day to Day Usage
Get used to this phrase, “Hey Google” because it’ll be around for a while. Using the Google Home, irregardless of flavor (eg. Google Home, Mini or Max), is simple and straightforward and you’re always pleasantly surprised at things just working great. The microphones are incredibly receptive and can pick up your voice from varying distances away even while the speaker is actively playing something. At times there are hiccups or occasional network blips and that should be expected with any product. The hits are far more than the misses. So what will you ask it on a day to day basis? Some of my most used phrases are for:
Weather
Lights and home automation
Timers
Music
Additionally, Google has added support for voice calls, I’ve tested this with my Google Voice account and it works flawlessly.
What are you asking your Google Home?
Home Automation
As I noted above, there are literally 1500 devices that can work with Google Home and allow you to control them all with your voice. The way that this is accomplished is that first (unlike with HomeKit enabled devices) you must download the app from the manufacturer, create any required accounts and setup the device there. Afterwards, you link that third party account with your Google account inside of the Google Home app. This is done by going into the hamburger menu and tapping “Home Control”, this will open the Google Assistant app (on iOS), press the “+” button and find your manufacturer there. Login with your account (similar steps to adding and linking accounts in IFTTT) and those devices will appear in Home Control and be at your beck and call.
Google Home, Home control.
Privacy
Being a privacy nerd is tough while utilizing Google Home because in order to work properly, Google will need to know a bit of information about you, from your location to your search and web activity; although, there are ways to circumvent this, without exposing all of your data. Google is not some evil company that just wants to know everything about you, the information you give it, is vital to the services and information that YOU get out of it, so when certain aspects of data collection are removed some services may or may not work properly. With that being said, I do not believe in giving entities your real location, so I chose to not give Google Home/Assistant my real address and let it triangulate it by where my wifi router is. Additionally, apps that use your location, depending on what they are, can be nefarious — so I’ve turned off all location services from Google.
I let Google keep 3 data points:
Web and search history
Youtube watch history
Youtube search history
Web are search is the only option that is crucial for Assistant to work properly, so in this case with the only queries I push to it being voice, I deem this as acceptable and manually delete things that I do not wish for it to have. An additional way to remediate this data grant is simply to not use the Chrome browser. I have proudly switched back to my once favorite web browser, Firefox. This allows me to more consistently use my search engine of choice, Duck Duck Go and limit the data that I pass into Google. Lastly, just mute the darn thing!!! This is something I certainly do when I am not using it for an extended period of time or if talking about sensitive things.
Final Thoughts
Google Home is fun, exciting and ever growing. Regardless if you’re part of the Google, Amazon or Apple ecosystem — if you have a Google account, this could be an excellent tool for you to use. Additionally, barrier to entry is very low with the most economical option, Google Home Mini, starting off at only $49. Buying one smart device will certainly lead you down the path of “home automation fever”, but it’s a fun one and one that hopefully makes your life a little bit easier.
It’s never a good thing to suspect that a company, especially one as large, controlling and expansive as Apple, could be doing something nefarious. This certainly is not the case, Apple is not doing anything to make consumers purchase new devices or give up on their old ones. However, what they did do, in traditional Apple fashion, is lack tact in delivering information to consumers, who just so happen to be the ones making them billions.
What is happening?
Over time lithium-ion batteries degrade. It has become common knowledge that your smartphone battery (any rechargeable battery for that fact) will hold less and less change as it only has a lifetime of so many charge cycles. With that being said, given the fact that your smartphone battery has limited life, develops wear and tear and will hold less and less charge over time it might make sense to slow an older phone down, right? Smartphone apps are not getting any less demanding nor are the mobile operating systems that contain them.
Due to the systems and applications that are on our mobile computers needing such power, they simply strain the battery too much for them to remain properly functional, meaning that Apple will throttle the performance of your CPU when it detects that the battery has a certain level of wear. When CPU spikes occur, sometimes we feel our phones getting hot (it simply means that it’s working hard under load); however, when you’re dealing with sensitive internals of a device — if your battery already a tremendous amount of wear, spike after spike of the CPU could have your device shutting off because it simply cannot handle the operations (we’ve seen this on iPhone 6), have it’s battery life plummet or worse, mechanical failure of the internal components. Users noted that after they got a battery replacement on their device it seemed to function normally presumably because no throttling was needed at that point because the battery in the device was of good integrity.
Remember the Galaxy Note 7? You don’t want mechanical failures like that in your precious iPhone.
Apple’s Response
Since the fallout, Apple has publicly acknowledged that this was happening and reportedly has been occurring since the iOS 10.2.1 update when it was noted that the iPhone 6 battery issues had been resolved. This comes as somewhat of a surprise to Apple loyalists when some enthusiasts have been suspecting Apple of “planned obsolescence” or intentional slowdown of older devices in order to get the user to purchase a new one. Additionally, Apple has noted that a future software update will give users insight into the health of their battery, this will come in early 2018.
My unbiased opinion
The issue that I have is that Apple did not tell customers that this CPU throttling was happening and honestly, they have a right to know, especially with newer phones costing $1000 and more. Don’t just sit back and apologize for Apple (or any technological company) over and over again when they make a mistake — this is wrong and cowardly when you hold such a compelling grip on your customers and can lead to consumer backlash. Perhaps that’s exactly what the company needs to stop being so secretive and oftentimes ignoring what their customers want and think.
Tech for the masses, meant to empower, educate and inform by Dexter Johnson.
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