Good Evening everyone! It’s the holiday season and bought our Christmas tree yesterday and full family around to help me get it set up and twinkling later this afternoon. Speaking of Christmas 🤶 very little news emanating from the smart home industry players this past seven days. Here are a few snippets I gleaned this awesome Sunday Morning:
New Sound Notifications 🦗
According to Alexa’s Monthly Roundup: November 2021, their smart speakers sound detection capabilities have been expanded to include support for:
- Triggering of notifications when it detects dripping water.
- Triggering of notifications when it detects beeping sounds.
From a practical perspective, these new capabilities will allow you to set up a routine to send you an alert when a leak is detected or when the washing machine is beeping to indicate your clothes are clean!
Twinkle Twinkle HomeKit 🌟
Really tempted to pick up one of these smart festive lights for the Christmas tree. The fact that Twinkly announced support for HomeKit makes this proposition even more likely. The new capabilities are realized through a recent firmware update and setup on your iOS device is straightforward according to this iMore article.
This Weeks Blog Post ✍️
Honeywell and Nest are without a doubt the most popular manufacturers of smart thermostats. The two companies have been known to manufacture smart thermostats that are both energy efficient and convenient to use. Among the best-selling smart thermostats from each brand is the Honeywell RTH9580WF Wi-Fi smart thermostat and Nest Learning thermostat. These thermostats have a lot in common and some key differences that appeal to some homeowners. To get you acquainted with these specific differences and similarities, here is a comparison between the two smart thermostats. >> Read the complete article on the blog
Another Thermostat HomeKitified! 🌡️
Better late than ever, Honeywell Home T9 smart thermostat will now work with the Apple Siri and the Home app. Aptly named the Honeywell Home T9, this smart thermostat is sold under the Resideo brand. Confusing or not. However, it is great to see the expansion of HomeKit enabled smart thermostats. You can check this product review if you want to read more about the T9 smart thermostat.
Weekly Smart Home Voice Command! 🎤
Hey Siri, Set ceiling lights to 50%
This is it for today, See you next Sunday 😉. If you have colleagues, friends, or neighbors that would benefit from knowing about smart home devices, please consider sharing them.
They can sign up for the newsletter by going here.
– Gerard