Hiya, I hope everyone had a great weekend so far and that your Sunday is off to a strong start. There’s a lot to discuss in today’s issue, so let’s jump right in.
Ring Gets Smarter
Yet another product feature announcement from Ring Ring this week, namely the addition of some cool artificial intelligence to their video doorbells. The AI is getting deployed under a marketing banner called smart responses and will be accessible within the Ring app.
As the name implies; it allows a Ring smart doorbell to generate a voice response, when a visitor rings the doorbell.
According to the blog post, there are six preset responses, which can be used in different circumstances.
So for instance, you are not at home and a friend calls over; then you could utilize this handy feature to broadcast the following pre-set reply.
We are unable to answer the door at the moment, but please leave a message if you so wish.
The only downside I can see is the fact that for the moment, this new development is limited to owners of the Pro version of the smart doorbell and have a Ring Protect subscription.
PDF Smart Home Apps!
A big fan of Adobe, sorry meant to say Abode:-) not only do the companies security system play well with Google and Alexa but it integrates really well into HomeKit. In fact over the weekend, I added to my own HomeKit smart home. So their app is pretty solid but has made a few enhancements including; support of iOS widgets and shortcuts. These types of features make interacting with this smart security system super easy. You can check Abode’s full announcement for all the details if you want to read more.
Smart Home Gif of the Week
Here is the weekly Gif took from one of the modules included in my recently updated Smart Home in 8 Weeks Course.
Googles 2030 Plans
Patents give us mere mortals an insight into what big tech is planning for us over the next decade or two. Thanks to some detective work over at Protocol, they uncovered a patent about smart home sensors. It looks like Alphabet (Google’s parent company) is interested in utilizing smart sensors to take care of our elderly. This concept is by no means groundbreaking but interesting to peep into their plans for older adults, including me 🙂
Colors and Wyze
No product launches from Wyze for over two weeks! Well, they’re back with a new color bulb. Their aspiration in the quiet is to take on the mighty Hue in the smart bulb, not an easy one! But, their new offering is cheap and Hue will need to rely on their excellent brand or drop prices to compete with this new kid on the block. Features are defacto when it comes to smart bulbs, namely lots of lumens, billions of colors, and interoperability with the big voice assistants. Keep an eye out for these bulbs, slated for US release in March sometime. Check out the official product details here.
Weekly Smart Home Voice Command! 🎤
Hey Siri, brew coffee at 7 a.m
Thanks for reading. If you have colleagues that would benefit from knowing about smart home devices, please consider sharing it.
– Gerard