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Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone
- daenz 11y agoIt's really great to see a company's engineers given the time and resources to do some fun tech project like this. Sometimes it seems like unless a project is about directly increasing revenue, its incredibly difficult to get buy-in from management. These projects are great for culture.
- chipperyman573 11y agoFrom what I've heard Netflix has a great culture surrounding it.
- renon 11y agoI agree, I didn't realize Netflix did side projects like this, it definitely makes the company feel personable.
- hugh4 11y agoIs it really just a fun project? Or is Netflix trying to use this as the nose of the camel to get into the house automation business? I've always thought house automation was cool, but a lot of trouble and likely to wind up a waste of my time and effort once I stop using it in three years because whatever standard I was using became obsolete. But if Netflix can start automating my house one bit at a time and slowly sneak up on me...
- blazespin 11y agoI honestly can't attribute any profiteering here. This is pure geek fun. Reminds me of the days of the Netflix Prize. http://www.netflixprize.com/ http://www.netflixprize.com/
- jacalata 11y agoThat's a weird couple of sentences, given that the Netflix prize was entirely trying to improve their core business?
- blazespin 11y agoYeah, maybe. I don't think they ever used it though. I think it was just the hacker / experimenter part of Reed that wanted to do it.
- joezydeco 11y agoA little viral-ness doesn't hurt either. If it makes a dozen or so blogs today and reinforces the idea that Netflix is a service you cuddle down with in your den, that's not such a bad thing.
- angdis 11y agoI am sure it was a blast, but it was NOT done "for fun" to amuse the engineering staff. Nor is it an effort at "home automation". This is part of a marketing campaign not unlike the office depot "easy" button, except they've designed an actual button that sort-of works. The point is to get people excited about the idea of a Netflix marathon and create some buzz among geeky subscribers. It doesn't matter how many people actually create or use "the button".
- blazespin 11y agoWell, I'm sure that was an excuse, but seriously. Do you honestly think the kind of geeks that'd do this are really that important to a company like Netflix these days? Maybe at the beginning... If I had to attribute anything, it's more of a recruiting move. They want clever hacker geeks working for them. Maybe they are moving into home automation and this will be an interview question? I dunno how effective that is, though. I think someone just said, yeah, screw it, let's do it!
- SwellJoe 11y agoIt's so far from a scalable product, I would guess it's not even a good test for market fit. Only a small subset of hackers/makers will tackle this. And, there's nothing to even buy from Netflix here...it's all stuff from other vendors. I'm not saying it isn't on their radar, but this particular project is clearly for fun.
- bcx 11y agoIt could be fun, plus a recruiting technique, since it creates awareness around Netflix's culture, and I am sure they hire a lot of engineers.
- madeofpalk 11y agoStep 3 is 'Select the Microcontroller'. I don't understand how they plan for this to be a pure profit driving activity.
- smtddr 11y agoWell, here's something that definitely has no market value: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/gadgets/8-bit-binge-hack-puts-netflix-original-nintendo-n321081 http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/gadgets/8-bit-binge-hack-puts-ne... ;)
- josteink 11y ago> Is it really just a fun project? Or is Netflix trying to use this as the nose of the camel to get into the house automation business? I doubt they would piggyback on others' home automation systems and standards if that were their goal.
- aaggarwal 11y agoIndeed, this is a cool project. Netflix seems to have a great work culture. The button design is neat, it can be used for different projects. A button can do many things :)
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- johnhkg 11y agoNetflix seems like a great company to work for. Recommend reading Reed Hasting's presentation on their culture: http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664
- throwaway39201 11y agoFor another perspective (perhaps a more nuanced/less flattering one), NPR's Planet Money recently did a great episode on Netflix's work culture [1]. I'm not so sure I'd want to work there, but I'm sure it is great for some. [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/08/28/435583328/episode-647-hard-work-is-irrelevant http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/08/28/435583328/episo...
- verbin217 11y agoThat was super interesting. Thank you for posting it. The DVD/Streaming split was an especially interesting period for Netflix. I didn't know the back story behind it. For anyone curious, it's at the end.
- mkobit 11y agoWhen I listened to this before it made me wonder if Netflix's culture will get same sort of negative treatment and publicity that Amazon has been getting recently.
- negrit 11y agoThey also pay incredibly well http://data.jobsintech.io/companies/netflix-inc/2015 http://data.jobsintech.io/companies/netflix-inc/2015
- something123 11y agosounds like a bunch of platitudes with a lot of HR speak (a lot of which I REALLY disagree with) And for having the "top talent" they have little to show for it on the technical side
- 11y ago
- chrisallick 11y agogenius
- dannymick 11y agoGives new meaning to Netflix & Chill.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- mathetic 11y agoMaybe Orwell's vision wasn't accurate. The title suggests Huxley got it right.
- alberte 11y agoepsilons are fun, epsilons like to play and run
- PhasmaFelis 11y agoI'm still not convinced that Brave New World was actually a dystopia, relative to either our modern world or the one that Huxley was writing from. It had some stuff that was pretty fucked up, but was it more fucked up than e.g. the way we treat the poor and homeless? BNW at least dramatically reduced the total volume of human misery in the world.
- technologia 11y agoThis is fun, I like stuff like this; Not too serious and brings that sense of 'doing it yourself' feeling to it.
- yoda_sl 11y agoMost likely the initial prototype was done during an hacktaton... I remember many years back someone that came up with a small TV on a toaster so we could say you can watch Netflix on your toaster, later on that toaster made it into a T-Shirt for the next hackaton!
- superskierpat 11y agoThe hardest path to ultimate laziness, this looks like a fun project!
- robertely 11y agoThis is great and I love it but If the Raspberry Pi had a netflix client this would be amazing.
- kefka 11y agoYou can still do the same thing with OSMC and piratebay. The only, I repeat, ONLY reason why RasPi doesn't "support" netflix is because of DRM. The media files would easily play. So instead of downloading the file each time you want to watch it (netflix), download it our your HD and watch it from there. It's the comparison between O(n*constant) and O(constant). When you get OSMC up and running, you can add in hooks for node-red. The flowchart for button->actions should be simple to set up.
- SEJeff 11y agoFYI for the DIYers, there is a little project that I contribute to on the side for fun. I also use it to do things just like the title suggests: https://home-assistant.io/ https://home-assistant.io/
- mattbettinson 11y agoLooks cool! One question - Why android switches on an iphone app? Is it just for the screenshot?
- jon-wood 11y agoThat looks fantastic, I've been hunting for a home automation controller with a modern architecture for ages, and I think you've just pointed it out.
- rrrx3 11y agoThis is really cool, thanks for sharing.
- abalashov 11y agoThe WALL-E future is now, just not evenly distributed.
- Animats 11y agoIt would be cooler, easier, and would yield better battery life to reprogram an Amazon Dash Button [1] to do this. Most Samsung TVs can be controlled from the network side, as well as with an IR remote.[2] Of course, the Netflix button just brings up power and puts you at the Netflix menu. At that point, you need another device to tell Netflix what you want. Authorized Netflix-compatible TVs already have a Netflix button. So the logical thing is to have something listening to the TV's state to dim the lights, close curtains, and such. There are home theater accessories for that. [1] http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=10667898011 http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=10667898011 [2] http://www.gemote.org/ http://www.gemote.org/
- gregmac 11y agoThis all sounds great -- until, for example, you are trying to eat a snack while also watching TV. Or one of a dozen other things where the automation gets in the way. Or, equally worse -- it's not perfect. Sometimes the lights don't change, sometimes there is a delay (so user presses the button multiple times) and suddenly everything catches up and curtains are closing and opening and closing and opening.. Any of these cause WAF to go to zero, at which point, you rip it all out. So many times when it comes to home automation, otherwise rational software developers forget what people actually want to do, and skip to what the technology makes possible but doesn't actually make anything easier.
- semi-extrinsic 11y agoThere's HDMI CEC which could let you do that even better: the TV remote could have a "cinema" button that sent the signal over CEC to an RPi which controls the lights and curtains.
- esolyt 11y agoI couldn't even focus on the product after seeing this ridiculousness: http://imgur.com/soIclkv http://imgur.com/soIclkv Why would a phone have both capacitive navigation buttons and onscreen navigation buttons? Are they intentionally trying to be funny?
- dpieri 11y agoLike the Amazon Dash Button, this is a great reminder of how hardware is still useful in the age of touchscreen interfaces.
- hrshtr 11y agoGet more netflix to your life !!
- grouma 11y agoReminds me of something I built: http://garyroumanis.com/2015/03/15/TVRemote-app/ http://garyroumanis.com/2015/03/15/TVRemote-app/
- dmritard96 11y agoA number of years ago I made a project that let me do this for ESPN using IR (Ken Sherrifs awesome library) and x10 units. Rather than a physical button I just had a shortcut on my phones home screen. https://github.com/dandroid88/webmote https://github.com/dandroid88/webmote
- inopinatus 11y agoCan only be called a Chill Switch.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- halcyondaze 11y agoDamn, this is how you have fun. Both on the tech side and the marketing side. Much respect to Netflix.
- chrissnell 11y agoAny ideas what they might be using to mill the wooden enclosure? I have a few projects that need enclosures and it's been a few years since I looked but the CNC mills were still thousands of dollars.
- reportingsjr 11y agoYou could just use regular woodworking tools to get it done. If you really want to CNC mill something like that then maybe look at the inventables x carve.[0] I got to use a shapeoko for a while which was the previous inventables CNC and it was pretty OK. I would highly recommend looking in your area for a hackerspace that may have tools like these. [0] https://www.inventables.com/technologies/x-carve https://www.inventables.com/technologies/x-carve
- barrecan 11y agoCNC would be one of the better routes. Like you mentioned, the cost is a barrier. Luckily you can rent CNC time at some hardware stores, university wood shops and some local hacker-spaces. http://100kgarages.com/ http://100kgarages.com/ can locate you a CNC and answer any questions you may have.
- DannyBee 11y agoWhy do you believe that wooden enclosure needs a CNC mill? It requires a few miter cuts and a good chamfer bit. That's it. Heck, you could do it with all handtools pretty darn quickly. (If for some reason, you really want to CNC mill it, and are in the bay area, contact me and i'll mill it on my CNC mill for you)
- harryf 11y agoStep 15: Spend 2 hours browsing for something to watch
- joeevans1000 11y agoMy guess is that this was the result of an internal hackathon. Makes me think working at Netflix could be fun.
- PascLeRasc 11y agoYeah, they've had other hackathons before with good results: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/03/10/a-netflix-hack-day-produced-some-amazing-experiments-that-we-want-right-now/ http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/03/10/a-netflix-hack-day-pro...
- lamby 11y agoSpeaking of which, do food APIs exist? I've often been tempted to make a generic pizza API that — by limiting options — will deliver a pizza to almost any address via Just-Eat or whatever is local to you.
- ykguler 11y agoHaven't really seen any food api's. It would be cool if it did exist though.. But I don't think Just-Eat like services will bite since you'll be driving traffic away from their website..
- gedrap 11y agoWhat's the problem with the traffic being driven away from the web site? As long as it would be coming through their API (think of centralized API for local food joints), and they get their cut it's all good. But I see valid reasons for not providing APIs like that. Imagine someone creates a gadget like that and there's a bug, instead of 1 pizza it orders 10 of them. A delivery guy comes with 10, and no one is willing to pay for that many. It wouldn't take long to infuriate enough food joints. Well, yeah, you could pay with credit card when placing an order... But I never do that, I just avoid using my card on web if I can easily do it :)
- lamby 11y agoAway? I would probably use them via screen-scraping. However whilst they would be getting the order, they wouldn't be gaining the end-customer as I would be proxying that.
- jeffasinger 11y agoI think Seamless offers an API: http://www.seamless.com/business-development/ http://www.seamless.com/business-development/
- qq66 11y agoIn 2005, my friends Dave and Adam built a pizza button in our dorm, it actually used the modem to send a fax to a local pizza place because that's all they had. Pushing the button ordered a cheese, but there were two auxiliary buttons underneath to select a topping via a Huffman code. (0 for pepperoni, 10 for sausage, 110 for anchovy, etc.) I presume there are better APIs today :)
- oskob 11y agoThis can already be achieved with Flic: http://flic.io http://flic.io Flic is a Bluetooth button which uses your smartphone to communicate with smart electronics. If you have Philips Hue or LIFX smart lights and a Logitech Harmony Hub (for IR), this would work straight out of the box! (Disclaimer: I am associated with Flic)
- StavrosK 11y agoDoes that require a phone nearby at all times?
- matrixagent 11y agoI'd also be interested in this. Would love such a button that could connect via WiFi or generic BT on a Raspberry Pi or something like that, rather than a smartphone with a specific app.
- oskob 11y agoFor the time being, you need a smartphone. But we are currently looking into other areas to expand the use of our product.
- iraldir 11y agoNice, seems like a cool startup.
- joezydeco 11y agoBut you're not shipping Flic yet, are you?
- jakobegger 11y agoWe're in the golden age of DIY home automation. Wifi-enabled microcontrollers like the particle photon are a game changer; it's never been easier to make a connected device yourself. Using the Photon I've built a device that connects to my doorbell and sends a push notification to my mobile when someone rings. (Might be useful when you're in the back yard and don't want to miss the delivery guy) Yes, most of the stuff is still gimmicky. But when you're tinkering, it's not necessary to turn everything into a product that will change the world or earn a billion dollars. We can just have a bit of fun, and enjoy the things we can do. I think that hackerspaces might be todays equivalent to the homebrew computer clubs where enthusiasts dabbled with early home computers...
- kefka 11y agoI agree and disagree with you at the same time. IoT, especially with things like the Photon and ESP8266 are major game changers. However, the idea of a baked-in WiFi stack with little/no way to update protocol bugs is rather scary proposition. And I'm also against giving IoT devices a directly routable IP address, even if they are behind a NAT. I'm looking more at things like the nRF24L01+ board combined with MySensors, which seems to be rather mature. It is a self-healing mesh network with encryption and signing support. And I can get all the data from the net mesh with a serial gateway (inputs/outputs via USB serial). I can connect that gateway to a Linux machine running Node-red and use the MySensors encoder/decoder. Hook up a relay and you can toggle electronics on and off, or you can make a manual high voltage switch using a servo and 4 contact switches. I'm also using PIR for occupancy along with temp sensors for zone acquisition. I'm looking at developing my own thermostat as well to see if I have the chops..
- molly0 11y agoThis makes me think about the swedish startup Flic and thier wireless button.
- pschill 11y agoCool, it looks just like Flic!
- mpg33 11y ago"Get rid of all distractions, to be distracted."
- dreeves 11y agoOthers have mentioned the Flic and Amazon's Dash buttons. Here's the one I'm most excited about, which should (when they have an IFTTT channel) make things like the Netflix Switch doable for non-nerds: http://www.dropletlife.com/ http://www.dropletlife.com/
- Agathos 11y ago> order food, and silence your phone Really? Around me, delivery drivers have pretty much given up on doorbells. If your phone is silent you may not get your food.
- johnmaguire2013 11y agoIn my city, it's fairly uncommon for any delivery person (pizza or shipping) to ring the doorbell, but it's quite likely they'll knock. Lots of delivery drivers do call phones, but I see that happening more often when there are many places you could be (e.g. ordered to work, but are they going to come find you at your chair?)
- robwilliams 11y agoDelivery drivers don't use doorbells where you live? What do they do, call you instead? That seems odd to me, even Fedex and UPS ring my doorbell when dropping off a package.
- Agathos 11y agoTo be precise, it's Chicago. Being in the city means most deliveries will be to apartments. The door buzzers are often unlabeled, mislabeled, or just broken. But even if you're in a townhouse with a door facing the street, most drivers are firmly in the habit of calling.
- amarpatel 11y agoIf you're into IoT stuff like this, check out www.hackaday.io
- dschep 11y agoThe silence your phone step[1] is much easier if you use something like Tasker[2]. [1] http://makeit.netflix.com/the-switch/do-more#silence-your-devices http://makeit.netflix.com/the-switch/do-more#silence-your-de... [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch....