Recently Amazon has added smart lock capability to it’s Alexa smart home API. I’ve been patiently waiting for the fine folks at Homeseer to update their skill so that I can start doing the same without having to say “Alexa, tell Homeseer to lock the front door” etc…. Anyway, Wink has beaten them to the…Read more
February 2017
State of the Smart Home?
So I’m browsing around the other day and came across an article over at Wareable. Haven’t ever been there but I’ll probably stop back by and check it out occasionally. Anyway, the article is titled “The State of the Smart Home” and they attempt to give a brief history of home automation over the last…Read more
Enable System Wide Immersive Mode on Android Without Root
Several game and apps in Android the last couple of years implement what is called Immersive Mode. Basically your navigation and system bars disappear so that you can enjoy full screen mode. Google made this possible starting back in version 4.4 I used to use an app called GMD Full Screen Immersive Mode to force…Read more
Project Fi Testing Voice over LTE support
Apparently some Project Fi customers have noticed improved voice call quality over the last few weeks. That’s because Google has been testing Voice over LTE for some users. It was announced four days ago over at the Project Fi Help Forum. Hi everyone, Some of you have noticed this already, but over the past few…Read more
The Guitar
Several years ago the wife received as a gift a really nice acoustic guitar from a friend of her’s that was going through a divorce. She likes to tell the story about it as it belonged to one of the three or four men that she hates the most and truly wished harm to come…Read more
Sponsored Posts
It’s been several years since I’ve done so but I am probably going to start doing sponsored posts (or just sponsored links inside some posts) to help defray some of the costs I incur running my site as well as other things. I made pretty decent money while I was heavily doing it. I don’t…Read more
Verizon Offers Unlimited Data Plan
Hell has officially frozen over. I ditched Verizon a couple of years ago after the salesman in the Carrollton, GA store outright refused to sell me a phone at full price so that I could keep my grandfathered plan. While I do have to keep an eye on my data, it’s never really been a…Read more
Google Home Review
So I set up Google Home a couple of weeks ago and figured it had been up and running long enough for me to give a preliminary review. So far the WAF factor (as well as children) has been meh… Don’t get me wrong. I love gadgets. I love Google stuff. I was a big…Read more
Google Assistant on the Pixel Gets Home Control
Looks like Google Assistant on the Pixel is finally getting proper home functionality, without having to have Google Home. Up until now you could issue commands to the Nest, for instance, from your phone if you had already set it up on the Home. For instance, I already have a few Hue lights and a…Read more
Google Pixel XL, Three Months In
For the last few months I’ve been using the Google Pixel XL. In the past few years I have used quite a few smart phones. In reverse order my daily drivers were the Nexus 6P, Nexus 6, Galaxy Note3, HTC One M8, Galaxy Nexus, HTC Droid Incredible & the Incredible 2, Blackberry Storm, Samsung SCH-i730 and…Read more