• hesh@quokk.au
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    8 hours ago

    That’s what enthusiasts might mean by “smart home” But businesses are thinking more like “put a wiretap in your living room that we can play ads through”

    • 4am@lemmy.zip
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      7 hours ago

      Yeah; you really have to figure out what products are worth your time.

      Look up what’s integrated with HomeAssistant locally and that’s a good start.

      “IoT via app linked with the manufacturer cloud” is bullshit bullshit bullshit, and there are fewer and fewer choices, especially in America. Try find ing a ZWave door lock, for example.

      • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        For me, if I can’t control it with Home Assistant, it does not go in my house. I have smart plugs and I’m getting a smart thermometer and they are all badged for the Works with Home Assistant program so that they can be used even if the company goes out of business. I will buy nothing else.

        • exu@feditown.com
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          4 hours ago

          Be careful with that. Home Assistant also has plenty of integrations that just talk to a company’s cloud service.

          • Carrot@lemmy.today
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            2 hours ago

            Yup. All my IoT devices are on a network that doesn’t have access to the internet. To control remotely, I use a VPN. Even though I don’t think it’s technically necessary, I take the precaution of blocking connections to the big company’s APIs/websites for all my IoT devices, just in case.

            I wish this were easier for the layman to do. Some companies like Unifi make it pretty painless, but they are expensive and it’s really hard for the non-networking-savvy folks to know exactly which devices you need from them to have a working setup.

          • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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            4 hours ago

            Yeah, if it’s not Zigbee or Z-Wave, I’m not touching it. Because I won’t use anything that has a cloud account attached to it.