Discussion about 'smart' appliances

Would definitely need some required expressions for late night "events" that I did not want to trigger any automations... :wink:

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I've done the same type of reminders for my home-brew smart cooktop, but also find a visual indication is very helpful, so I mounted an LED strip on the kick-plate below the kitchen cabinets that lights up bright red when any burner is on. You can see it from different areas in the kitchen and family room, bright enough to be easily visible during the day. Very helpful.

I'm not sure I'd feel so very smart if I paid $1K for a mixer...

The GE Profile Smart Mixer retails for $1,000...

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I just replaced a jurassic Kenmore washer & dryer with a smart LG set. No major complaints; I like having Echo announce the cycle completions and can now retire the two vibration sensors and app I used with the old pair to generate notifications. Supposedly the washer communicates with the dryer, giving it hints about drying requirements, and there's 24 downloadable wash cycles (the skeptic in me would love to know if there is any difference between the 'collars and cuffs' cycle and the one for 'collar stains').

But how ridiculous that on the new dryer the interior light is programmed to turn on only when the door is opened within a couple of minutes of the end of cycle.. if you miss that time window, the interior stays dark when the door open is open unless you turn on the dryer and then click on the drum light switch on the control panel, holding it for three seconds. Evidently in response to the bafflement of users, LG needed to create a 50 second YouTube video specifically to address this process.

No way an automation will fix that... heck, even in 1999 it was obvious that 'light on when door open' was a good idea.

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Geez man - it's not about YOU being smart - it's the appliance, silly.

Also:

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IF $pee changes (peeing) turn on all lights
Then exit

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Not really in this market segment. Very few consumer level devices support POE, and that is what this is targeted at.

Adding POE increases size (for heat dissipation reasons) on passively cooled devices (which this is), and adds cost for a feature that will only be used by a small % of target customers.

Shoot, outside of the "pro-sumer" or professional installer market, how many average consumers even have POE switches? Not many. Yes, I could use POE if it had it, but the average home user wouldn't.

Now, if they wanted multiple SKU and made a "pro" or "installer" version (at a commiserate price point of course), then yes I think that version should have POE.

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I saw an article this morning about a Smart Dog collar that monitors your dog's health?!

Don't tell my wife!

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Well that could be good for monitoring things like getting out of the yard, sustained injuries, overheating, exhaustion etc.. depends on what the device can check for I guess.

I use this with my beagle, FitBark GPS Dog Health Monitor. Great peice of mind if she ever gets out of the fenced in yard.

Here is the article. Doesn't seem to have GPS . Life360 does offer a device that you can attach to a collar that does, and isn't Bluetooth dependent.
CES 2023: AI smart collar aims to take the guesswork out of your dog’s health with real-time alerts | Fox Business

I'll have to look at that when I get home. It may be something to recommend to the rescues we work with for dogs when they are on transport. My personal dogs are too lazy to leave the couch much less the yard!! although it would be cool to ask Siri, Alexa, google "where is fido?" ... "Fido is in the back yard". Who wants to write that app?? :laughing:

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I've applied for the FitBark developer API but haven't heard anything back, lol.

It seems more like it would be better as a temporary monitoring solution for a veterinarian after a dog's surgery or during recovery.

Without GPS it's kind of useless day to day.. so you know your pet is in trouble but don't know where.

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AirTags work well for dogs, I hear. (not a dog owner)

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Works alright, Airtags and the general location services for Apple in a "Family" are a little silly. For example my kids have Airpods, they are attached to their account which is tied to the family group. I can literally see the location of their airpods any time I want, as can my wife. BUT if we travel somewhere together for a while I will start getting alerts that "someones" airpods are following me.... like really.

So yeah for Airtags, they can ONLY be joined to a single account and are not shared. To prevent stalking (I guess) if the airtag is separated from the owner and is moving around and near other iphones it will start making noises to alert people, in case it got tossed into someones bag I suppose.

Now put that on a dog, and then travel away for work. Thing will go off randomly alerting my wife that the dog is stalking her because I am not there.

As far as tracking, it should work but of course since we put it on her she has not gotten away at all.

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KitchenAid® 30'' Smart Commercial-Style Dual Fuel Range with 4 Burners Stainless Steel KFDC500JSS | KitchenAid?

A note regarding "smart" anything:

I do not own, nor know any specifics, about the appliances mentioned here but with anything that has connectivity you can safely bet that YOU are the product.

I think by now most in this community know that some of our electronics have been "reporting home" whatever the manufacturer wants to know as a standard "feature". Automobiles since '09, TVs for many years now, have cellular chips in them that communicate even if you don't allow Internet access from the device's IP address. My CPAP machine does this too. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if all the appliances mentioned above don't also include such snooping. Short of a Faraday cage I don't know how to block the cellular comms.

Some have suggested disabling the cellular chips in some way or disconnecting it's antenna but many of the systems that include cellular communications (vehicles, at least) have them tied into essential functions, rendering the system non-functional without the comms.

YMMV

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Possibly, though I think unlikely in this case. The saying goes "If YOU didn't pay for the product, YOU are the product." Google is pretty upfront that the arrangement is "free search for the price of us knowing everything about you and selling it to the highest bidder." It's why I think in general Alexa is preferable to Google Home. Amazon has a business relationship with you that they know they can damage by abusing. Google's business model is abusing you. In this case the appliance companies pretty much know that if they are caught using your data unscrupulously, you're not likely to buy their appliances any more. My two cents.

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