I’m sure I’m not alone in the geek world when I dream of a house I can control with my voice, and it can respond back with an informative answer or confirmation of my command. Ideally, I would say something like “House, do I have any new emails?” and it would respond “Checking…No new emails since 4:07.” I would then say “Excellent. House, prepare the home theatre, I’d like to watch the latest Futurama” (this is my dream afterall, and Futurama would be back on the air in my dream.)
While my house isn’t this cool yet, I imagine it could be with enough time and money spent. The problem is, most people (myself included) will indulge if it’s below a certain effort/cost threshold, but leave things relegated to dreams if it surpasses this mental figure. That’s why I was excited to hear about the NetLinc.
Essentially the NetLinc is an Insteon device (home automation primer or Insteon Wikipedia Entry) that contains a built-in webserver/control interface that allows you to control your home automation devices from any web browser or iphone/ipod touch. The part that makes it cool is that on the effort threshold it’s extremely low…like, you just plug it into the wall low. Ok, you need to plug it into your network too, but one cable and that’s it.
I don’t have one yet, but take a look at this review: NetLinc (SmartLinc) Review and decide for yourself if you want to go the full-blown computer controlled route or if the lower effort route is better for you. Either way, you’ve gotta admit – This is cool stuff.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I am not a big fan of anything by apple……if you want a cool phone with the option to hack…..get the Samsung Instinc…..its too much fun.