Smart Lives

Monday, March 14, 2005

Home Automation...the NEXT BIG THING!!!

Home automation market/space really hoting up, Well is it just might be that i have started focusing on this topic and visiting related places or has the space really heated up, well I do think this space is HOT and has a lot of prospect over the next couple of years.

Here are some interesting tit bits I picked up from the blogsphere today.

Insteon, ZigBee, and Z-Wave seem to be the standards that are emerging and replacing the x10 standard.

What are they?//Excerpt
Insteon, ZigBee, and Z-Wave are mesh technologies, meaning that all the devices within a network are equipped with radios and can communicate with each other, rather than just with the controller (the device that serves as central command for the network). Each radio has both a receiver and a transmitter and can act as a repeater, passing on data for other radios out of the controller's range. The radios will be relatively inexpensive, adding $20 or less to the cost of the products or devices they are embedded in, such as thermostats, sprinkler systems, or dishwashers.
//Excerpt
via Wired Home

Why home automation?//Excerpt
I have my bedroom lamp set on to start dimming up in the morning gradually. I get up before the sun, but have a hard time climbing out of bed if it's still dark out. So, for about 15 minutes before my alarm goes off, the light starts dimming up (yes, it's bad grammar, but that's what it's called in "the community") starting at 1% and increasing 1% per 15 seconds. When the alarm goes off, it's at 60% intensity which isn't blinding first thing in the morning, but light enough to get up by. This may sound stupid, but since I'm not a morning person, getting up has never been easy for me. Since I've set this up, I've found I only hit the snooze button once or twice anymore, rather than 5 or 6 times. I also wake up in a better mood and more alert.
//End Excerpt
via Wired Home
Source Spoonman

Whats new?
//Excerpt
We were talking about ZigBee the other day and it's a nice to know that soon we'll be able to control our home with a PDA. C-guys is introducing the first ZigBee SDIO Card at CeBit this week which will take home automation to the next level. For under $100US, the card will be a great tool for running your home. Here's the full Press Release:
//End Excerpt
via WiredHome

Friday, March 04, 2005

Test

Via Email , Entry posting. Didn’t work the first time I tried. - Prashanth

Smart Car

Smart Car
 

Bloglines user prashanth has sent this item to you.


Gizmodo
Gizmodo, the gadget guide. So mesmerized by shiny new toys. It's unnatural.

Mac mini Lexus

In Gadgets: Vehicles

mini_lex.jpgIn the glove box of this new Lexus sits a Mac Mini, USB 2.0 hub, and an easy bundle of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. On the dash is a Pioneer in-dash receiver with touch screen displaying the mini's OSX output. Gin and juice, money on your mind optional.

Hopefully within a couple of months this will be so common it's not notable.

Mac Mini in a Lexus [theRADblog]


Wont you like some thing like this?

Thursday, March 03, 2005

SMART HOME .......Understanding the need - 1

SMART HOME .......Understanding the need, Below is the note/post of guy who is probably a geek, well he can set it up can you, DO YOU SEE THE OPPORTUNITY.

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Bloglines user prashanth has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

Michael Gartenberg
My home network...
I've had a home network for a long time. About five years ago all it was used for was to connect to shared a net-modem to dial into the internet and then to share a broadband connection using WiFi. Today, my home has several networks that enable the following:

  • delivering content to a PC from TiVo and to TiVo from a PC
  • streaming TV, Music and Pictures from a media center PC to a Media Center Extender
  • making phone calls over the Internet
  • connecting all the various DVRs and Media Center PCs to the internet for EPG downloads
  • streams music, TV, pictures and video to my PDA, laptop and Smartphone anywhere those
  • devices have a connection using Orb
  • Videoconferencing using iSite

it still shares an internet connection among the many PCs and PDAs here

Getting all that stuff to work? Well, it wasn't simple or easy at all to get it running and to keep it up. Many of these activities are more demanding in usage models than what's in use in many business environments. As more and more stuff gets built on top of the home network, expect the situation to get worse not better.
Vendors take note - Consumers do not want a network operations center in their den, Dad doesn't want to be the CIO and Mom really doesn't want to run the help desk. This stuff has got to be made a lot more user friendly or most folks simply won't bother.
What does your home network do for you?

Monday, February 28, 2005

Mission

This is the fourth blog I will be writing on, And I am running short on time to keep them all updated but what drove me to start this one is a view of an opportunity.

What is the opportunity?
Today the end customer/home user is getting swarmed, by technology products which are , well hard to implement & integrate. You are wondering what I am talking about well let me explain, there are a lot of technology products that are entering the realm of the house, moving forward there is going to be a huge drive, putting tech products into the house, "the –Original Apple Dream – as indicated in the book Oddesey was to put the power into the hands of the end user/the home user…looking at them as the prime customer, SURPRISE after two decades of that "belief" it is coming true, today technology products & solutions are more & more focussed on the home customer. Yes still the vendors make a bulk of their money from Enterprises, but the focus is now on the home & the home user.

Well no surprise than is that the home customer is facing a great series of problems, this starts from identifying the need, to picking the right solutions that matches the need , than moving on to finalise on the ideal one given price/performance – Cost/Benefit etc, well you would think once they get past all this they would done, no think again, now they would have to integrate it into a plethora of their other systems./ networks etc etc…..the nightmare continues….YES not every one is a GEEK.

Given this condition, how would anybody go about buying and technology product and even if they did would they even try and leverage it fully given the amount of troubles that have to be braved.

That’s what I am trying to address here.

Simply put the mission of this blog is to "Identify cool stuff (technologies/products/solutions), Pick the best, Help you integrate it into your lifeflow and most importantly to help lead SMART LIVES."

Smart Lives

RE-IMAGINE.....LIVES

SMART LIVES
The future of.....LIFE

SMART HOME
SMART CAR
SMART ME

Hi!

TESTING.....