Hi. Most people may not think of the smart device I’ll describe as an appliance, but it’s something you use in the home. It’s the Alexa products from Amazon, and specifically the Echo. I like how it and the iPhone can interface with each other, and using Alexa, the Echo can be used on many other devices. As an example, before I got my Echo, when I did grocery shopping, I wouldn’t have a good idea of what I needed. I’d just get to the store, think of what sounded good at the time, and, if I remembered it, I’d get something like hand soap that I really could use. Now, however, when I think of something I’d like to get, I’d tell my Echo to add it to my shopping list, and it’s right there on my iPhone to view through the Amazon Alexa app. By the way, for those of you who have the devices that use her name and are being activated by my message being read, from now on I’ll refer to her as Lady A. In any case, to day I went to Wal-Mart and got my groceries. I had about eight or nine items on my list, so I went with this information available on my iPhone. I got someone to help me shop. I told her what was on my list, and once I got it I spoke to my iPhone after activating the Ask Lady A button, and said “Remove orange juice from my shopping list,” and that item was moved from the items I needed to get to my completed list. There were two things I couldn’t get, so I completely deleted one from all lists, and the other I moved to my completed list, and I will have it there to see if I can get it some other time at another location.
I know there are all kinds of smart appliances, and other, shall we say, interesting items you can use with devices like an iPhone, including, believe it or not, shoes that will automatically tighten themselves, kind of like they’re being tied using a Blue Tooth connection, and, oh yeah, the shoes light up and you have to recharge them. I’m sure that many of us know of all kinds of things you can control with apps, and many of us have no idea why in the world anybody needs these. However, there are those things that come out, seeming to be for a very specific market, and before long the general public sees a use for them. I’ll give such an example here that’s totally not related to smart devices, and, in fact, this technology had been worked on for many years. I’m referring to OCR by computers. The first time I heard about this was in the mid 70’s, and it’s main use was to convert print into something a computer could read for the blind. It was very expensive, and its voice was terrible, but it worked fairly well. Well, when the PC came out, someone in the general public saw this as a good way to convert printed documents into a form that could be stored and edited on a computer, so the technology became more mainstream, and it came way down in price, to the point where now most businesses use it, and we as blind computer users have access to it for a very reasonable cost. Smart appliances, or other devices for that matter, work the same way. Something that comes out might seem to be a fun toy to have, but someone else sees potential to use it for a very useful function, and things blossom from there. I bet Lady A was something like that. Engineers got it working all right, and had some fun with it. Then others saw it and saw a nice market for it, and look what we have now. There are some thoughts from me. I could ramble on much longer on this topic, but I think you understand what I’m saying. Have a blessed day and don’t work too hard. Kevin Minor and my Seeing Eye dog, the amazing Jilly, Lexington, KY From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Mary Otten Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2019 3:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Your Expensive Smart Appliance May Not Last A Decade I couldn’t agree with you more. I think the whole Smart appliance thing is incredibly over sold. I mean really. A smart refrigerator? Who really needs that? The description of what you could do with that Samsung refrigerator just made me scratch my head and wonderment as to why anybody would spend all that money for stuff that is so not necessary. The only thing that interests me about smart appliances is possible Accessibility. Because so many appliances come with inaccessible interfaces that can’t be modified easily with dots or braille, like you used to be able to do with older appliances, the ability to have an app on your phone, say, that would let you control a device is kind of attractive. Maybe even necessary. When our washer died several years ago, I went looking for one that I could use. I was lucky to find something still had a kind of a pointer on the dial, so I could put labels in strategic places. I still can’t do everything that you were supposed to be able to do with this washer or the dryer. But it’s good enough. But I saw a lot of machines that werenot usable at all by a blind person because they could not be modified to make controlling and accessible. I don’t imagine that trend is changing. And that’s a problem. I hope I don’t ever end up having to buy something with a whole bunch of stupid features I don’t need the cost more that I want to spend just because I need accessibility to the basic functionality. Sent from my iPhone On Jan 23, 2019, at 11:21 AM, Cristóbal Muñoz <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Interesting article I thought I’d post. I know the topics of things like the Instant Pot and other smart appliances/devices around the house have come up before and the concern about whether they’d still be accessible after X period of time. I’m perfectly happy with my instant pot Bluetooth and as a pressure cooker, I expect it to last a good long while. Accessibility or the maintenance of the app though… that’s a separate issue. IN general, outside of the IP, Ring video doorbell and a Bluetooth kitchen scale, our home really isn’t smart. We do have a 4K TV with some built in apps, but for convenience, the wife just has a hacked Fire TV and Apple TV plugged into it. We don’t’ even use the apps included in our Dish Hopper III. Our fridge, washer and drier are around 14 years old now and while the washer’s needed some YouTube intervention a couple of times, they’re still going strong. I wasn’t really keen on upgrading to smart appliances in general and the realities that this article points out doesn’t really do anything to make me reassess my opinion. The WSJ put out a similar article having to do with smart TVs a few months back and it was more or less the same thing. Good luck trying to keep that super expensive smart TV smart. I don’t mind spending 30 or 50 or maybe 100 or 200 dollars on a smart device, but if you’re talking close to $1000 and more, smart’s nice and all, but at that point, give me longevity and reliability. https://www.howtogeek.com/401635/your-expensive-smart-appliance-may-not-last-a-decade/<https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.howtogeek.com%2F401635%2Fyour-expensive-smart-appliance-may-not-last-a-decade%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C54bc96b092ad4e61a45408d6816d57f1%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636838703951343925&sdata=HpLChOasKSnGQ8nQc9mcEUmnOMdA4GgynY1AicXVX%2F8%3D&reserved=0> Cristóbal -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. 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