Tekguild

The future of home automation, including voice control, is open source and runs locally.

Don't be tied to companies that abuse your data, change or discontinue products without regard to the customer or outright screw the pooch with their app (Sonos!).

Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition Bring choice to voice - the best way to get started with voice

I did a lot of smart home integrator work when I lived in CA, which makes this article very interesting.

It never mentions open source software and devices (Home Assistant) and I can tell you that the companies products they DO mention are not as great as they make them out to be. In fact - 10 years ago they were worse, in many ways, than some 'consumer' products like Roomie Remote or Logitech Harmony.

This one really got me:

"Increasingly, however, vendor software enables homeowners to modify scenes or even to create their own from scratch. Crestron Home’s Bryan Celli demonstrated his company’s software’s capability during a virtual tour of Crestron’s New York showroom in August. Running the software on an iPad, the homeowner can create and name a new scene; set lights, music, HVAC, security settings, or other elements; and save the scene with a single keystroke to phones and to handheld remotes and touchscreens around the house."

Buddy, I was doing this 10+ years ago - where's Crestron been? They make this out to be some kind of breakthrough, but it's really just them trying to catch up.

Anyways - if you're doing 'smart home' stuff, take a look at Home Assistant first.

What Is a Smart-Home Integrator? - Fine Homebuilding For a reliable and easy-to-use home automation system, work with a professional integrator. Learn more about smart-home tech, here.

Very interesting to see how slow (UK!) some countries overall broadband speeds are.

Starlink Expands but Q3 2021 Performance Flattens in Some Areas Satellite internet is making headlines across the globe as Starlink continues to launch service in new countries and Viasat plans to acquire Inmarsat. We’re here to check in on our ongoing series on satellite internet performance around the globe with fresh data from Q3 2021 to see if Starlink’