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Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

I work for a very wealthy man, and he bought everyone in the company an Amazon Echo because he thought it was a fascinating device. Honestly I agree, it's a very clever gadget and I constantly find more things to use it for. For instance, I just fit out my apartment with Phillips Hue lights, and when I walk in the door I ask Alexa to turn on the lights, and the whole place lights up. Give it a try

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>For instance, I just fit out my apartment with Phillips Hue lights, and when I walk in the door I ask Alexa to turn on the lights, and the whole place lights up. Give it a try

Yeah, but that's hardly different than the clapping to open lights thing though, is it?

It's pretty different. Not just because it feels different, but also because it's hands free, so you can do it while e.g. carrying a baby.

I don't understand the obsession with voice control.

If you seriously can't just turn on a light switch, wouldn't you just want your phone to use geo-fencing to automatically turn on the lights when you get home AND it's night time?

Then again, I don't understand a lot of this home automation stuff personally. If we come home and it's hot, we turn on the air conditioner. If it's dark, we turn on the lights. These are hardly difficult tasks for a child, much less an adult.

In the case of the Hue (and presumably other smart LEDS), you can have multiple scenes, which is a killer app for voice control.

I think we have very different uses for lightbulbs.

Except if you're going for a "70s sexy purple coloured bedroom with Barry White playing" or "Acid party lightshow for the Timothy Leary society" on demand, how is "multiple scenes" even remotely a "killer app for voice control"?

>Then again, I don't understand a lot of this home automation stuff personally. If we come home and it's hot, we turn on the air conditioner. If it's dark, we turn on the lights. These are hardly difficult tasks for a child, much less an adult.

Yeah. With the exception of disabled people (where those could be very valuable) for me it looks like a solution to a problem nobody had and nobody much cares about now that it's solved. Contrast to e.g. washing dishes.

(Oh, and by nobody I mean: aside from statistically insignificant outliers).

The one place I can think of that this might be useful, is where you already use a remote control and you're doing other things e.g., a geo-fenced trigger to open/close an automatic garage door/automatic gate.

That I could probably use - we have a ~6m wide rolling gate and are considering motorising it, as opening a gate in the rain in Thailand is basically like going diving without a wet-suit.

However, even that would need some decent consideration, and its entirely possible the standard remote system is more fool-proof.

Siri also can turn your Phillips Hue lights. From your writ.

In fact, with iOS 10, you can arrive at home and Siri will automatically turn on your Philips Hue lights for you.

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