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> IoT is a fad It is a fad because there is no common standard. Just imagine you could connect to all your devices (washing machine, heating system, warm wate

> IoT is a fad It is a fad because there is no common standard. Just imagine you could connect to all your devices (washing machine, heating system, warm water system, garage doors, TV and hifi) from the same app om your phone. And just imagine you could just go to your parents place and do they same thing there. Just imagine you could just buy some random LED bulbs from alibaba and they would just work in your home without thinking about the right standards. But all of this is just not possible because there is no common standard. I'd really like to buy some remote controllable LED bulbs and perhaps a remote for my heating system. But there are dozens of companies which offer the samw things but they don't work with each other... This is why home automation is not taking off. My parents are planning to build a new house and it will be 100% traditional without any fancy home automation stuff because there is no universal system.

GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
> Just imagine you could connect to all your devices (washing machine, heating system, warm water system, garage doors, TV and hifi) from the same app om your phone Why would I want to.
- yoodenvranx 10y ago
  Well, to be honest: Nobody really needs this. But if this would work flawlessly then life could be just a bit more comfortable. For example I am laying currently on the bed and the light in the kitchen is still on. Yes, I could just get out of bed and walk over there, but if there would be an easy gui for this is my mobile it would be good because at the moment I am very lazy. A quite real problem I have in winter is the temperature in my sleeping room. Sometimes I wake up and it is either too warm or too cold and I have to get up and change the settings. Usually I then have the problem that I can not fall asleep again. If I could just press a button, I could turn around and continue sleeping. So yes, I don't really _need_ this, but my lazy self would love the comfort.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    In all fairness, I'm sure there was a day when many people said: "A remote for the TV--how lazy can you be?" (Admittedly there were only about four channels or so then.) >If I could just press a button The more likely model is to go "Alexa--turn off the downstairs lights." Joking aside, there's probably some confluence between consumer IoT devices and natural language recognition that brings some things into the lazy but genuinely useful range. Unfortunately, most of my annoying home tasks fall into messy physical world interfaces (do the laundry and put it away) that don't really lend themselves to digital automation.
    - saalweachter 10y ago
      Eh, people also looked at a bunch of terrible inventions and correctly said, "who would ever want that?". Sometimes an invention is mistimed (eg, if the remote control were invented when we had 4 channels and not 40 or 400) or lacking just the right amount of polish (does anyone remember browsing the web on a pre-iPhone smart phone?), but sometimes an invention is just solving a problem almost no one has in a way essentially no one wants.
    - johnny22 10y ago
      "A remote for the TV--how lazy can you be?" that definitely did happen
      - kgwgk 10y ago
        The first TV remote control was called Lazy Bones: http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950_Zenith_Wired_Remote.JPG http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950_Zenith_Wired_Remote.JPG
ghaff 10y ago
Fragmentation of various sorts is a problem though some of it is probably inevitable to a certain degree as there's probably a need for, at minimum, a variety of protocols and physical interconnects. That said, even if you hand wave away this problem you still need to have solutions that mainstream consumers find genuinely useful/valuable. Yes, lack of interoperability adds additional friction. But I see a lot in the consumer IoT space that I'd still have zero interest even if it were completely standardized and interoperable.

GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago

> Just imagine you could connect to all your devices (washing machine, heating system, warm water system, garage doors, TV and hifi) from the same app om your phone Why would I want to.

yoodenvranx 10y ago
Well, to be honest: Nobody really needs this. But if this would work flawlessly then life could be just a bit more comfortable. For example I am laying currently on the bed and the light in the kitchen is still on. Yes, I could just get out of bed and walk over there, but if there would be an easy gui for this is my mobile it would be good because at the moment I am very lazy. A quite real problem I have in winter is the temperature in my sleeping room. Sometimes I wake up and it is either too warm or too cold and I have to get up and change the settings. Usually I then have the problem that I can not fall asleep again. If I could just press a button, I could turn around and continue sleeping. So yes, I don't really _need_ this, but my lazy self would love the comfort.
- ghaff 10y ago
  In all fairness, I'm sure there was a day when many people said: "A remote for the TV--how lazy can you be?" (Admittedly there were only about four channels or so then.) >If I could just press a button The more likely model is to go "Alexa--turn off the downstairs lights." Joking aside, there's probably some confluence between consumer IoT devices and natural language recognition that brings some things into the lazy but genuinely useful range. Unfortunately, most of my annoying home tasks fall into messy physical world interfaces (do the laundry and put it away) that don't really lend themselves to digital automation.
  - saalweachter 10y ago
    Eh, people also looked at a bunch of terrible inventions and correctly said, "who would ever want that?". Sometimes an invention is mistimed (eg, if the remote control were invented when we had 4 channels and not 40 or 400) or lacking just the right amount of polish (does anyone remember browsing the web on a pre-iPhone smart phone?), but sometimes an invention is just solving a problem almost no one has in a way essentially no one wants.
  - johnny22 10y ago
    "A remote for the TV--how lazy can you be?" that definitely did happen
    - kgwgk 10y ago
      The first TV remote control was called Lazy Bones: http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950_Zenith_Wired_Remote.JPG http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950_Zenith_Wired_Remote.JPG

ghaff 10y ago

Fragmentation of various sorts is a problem though some of it is probably inevitable to a certain degree as there's probably a need for, at minimum, a variety of protocols and physical interconnects. That said, even if you hand wave away this problem you still need to have solutions that mainstream consumers find genuinely useful/valuable. Yes, lack of interoperability adds additional friction. But I see a lot in the consumer IoT space that I'd still have zero interest even if it were completely standardized and interoperable.