Remotely Possible

The future of home automation, the so-called “smart home”, is so bright, you’re going to have to wear shades—you’re BS shades, that is. If you believe the seriously over-heated hype, the new smart home hubs and home automation systems will save you money, keep you safe, make your life more convenient, improve your love life, grow hair where you want it (and keep it from growing where you don’t), and promote peace and harmony (the noun, not the remote control company) around the world. The enthusiasm is genuinely infectious, and I have to remind myself every now and then that the promised techno-utopia and the eventual techno-reality are often quite disparate. But dreams of a better smart home future give us something to strive for, and that Jetsons-like journey begins with small steps. Buying one of the new smart home hubs and installing a couple of sensors and devices, however, may be a bigger step than you’re ready for. What happens if you’re interested in home automation, but all you’re comfortable with now is sticking your big toe over the starting line...

It didn’t start out being about knowing what time it is. Nor did it have anything to do with making a techno-fashion statement. It all stemmed from a random comment I heard on the radio about so-called “smart watches”. “I’d have no use,” the voice declared, “for a smart watch of any kind...unless maybe it displayed the caller ID from my smart phone so I could look at my wrist instead of pulling my phone out of my pocket to decide whether or not to take the call.” That thought sent a tweet to my cerebral cortex, which then forwarded on an email to one of my frontal lobes which then flashed an Instagram picture. “I’d like that, too,” I thought. “But,” my normally incoherent pattern of thought went on, “I’d really like it if I could use the watch to control my home theater – or, better yet, control the entire Control4/Lutron automation system in my house.” Of course, once you’re on this kind of a roll, it’s hard to stop anywhere near reality. “And I want it to have voice recognition for commands – like Siri, but without the sulking “unable to take requests” rebuffs – so I can just talk to my watch and make things happen!”

Oh, Lady Technology, you can be such a tease...

Sonos Trueplay. What is it, and can it make a stuffed bear disappear?

A couple of weeks ago, I received a package from Soundcast, the makers of outdoor, water-resistant, portable, Bluetooth loudspeakers, such as the original OutCast series; the smaller, easier-to-carry Melody; and the new VG-series models (including the VG10 and VG7). Inside the box was the "first production press sample" of the company's latest speaker, the latest introduction, the VG5. Along with the VG5 was a sample of Soundcast's VGtx, "a long-range wireless stereo transmitter featuring Bluetooth 4.2 and the aptX Low Latency codec."

I've never had much love for Bluetooth...

Here’s a brief rundown on the most unusual piece of clothing I’ve seen so far at CES 2017. From SPARTAN, the new SPARTAN Boxer Brief is the underwear for the 21st Century connected man.

Imagine a world in which headphone cords and other obnoxious wires can stretch from here...to...there. Researchers at North Carolina State University have and we have the video to prove it. (And, to make it even more awesome, it involves liquid metal, too!)

I’m cheap—in large part because I don’t have very much money. So to save a bit of cash, I’m shacking up with several other journalists (who are also, coincidentally, cheap—for the very same reason) at a swanky vacation home rental in La Jolla that we got a super-sweet deal on for the duration of CEDIA 2017. It’s almost embarrassingly nice—certainly too nice for the likes of the crowd I run with.