Page 40 - min.soc 9 jan,2016

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TECHNOLOGYSaturday 9 January 2016

You can set up your smart home now - if you’re tenacious

ANICK JESDANUN With the backing of big have to rewire your entire smart TVs will have built-in Though apps try to make
AP Technology Writer names such as Samsung, home and replace all your smart-home capabilities, the setup easy, there’s still
NEW YORK (AP) — A fully Apple and Nest, a sister lights and appliances. negating the need to buy a lot to think about. To get
automated home is still company of Google’s, Nest, a maker of smart- a hub to get started. the most out of a smart
years away, but the build- smart-home functionality is home products, says it What about your existing home, you need to assign
ing blocks are already slowly creeping into every- doesn’t market its camera, lights, TVs and coffee mak- lights and appliances to
ers? You can buy smart specific rooms on the app.
A man looks at Samsung SUHD TVs at CES International in Las Vegas. The building blocks are in plugs; with a voice com- Then you need to enable
place for setting up a smart home. Samsung’s new smart TVs will have built-in smart-home capa- mand or tap of an app, you automation through the
bilities, negating the need to buy a hub to get started. A fully automated home is still years away, can then turn devices on or app — figuring out which
but the building blocks are already here. off once you’ve plugged devices do what when
them in. you say “good morning” or
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull) “good night.” It isn’t too dif-
WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT ficult for tech enthusiasts to
here: the phone that turns day homes. Even Amazon smoke alarm and thermo- During a trip over the holi- figure out, but it could be
on the coffee maker from is getting involved with its stat as smart-home prod- days, I was able to check challenging for folks who
the bedroom, the ther- Echo speaker that can re- ucts, but as products that my Nest camera through want things that “just work.”
mostat that controls the spond to voice commands. happen to tap the Internet an app to confirm that Within days, I noticed some
lights when you’re away, At the CES gadget show in for increased functionality. the lights were off. If they quirks in my setup. Because
the window shades that lift Las Vegas, the scheduled From there, gadgets can weren’t, Siri could have my main lights are con-
when you say “good morn- topic of a Samsung key- start talking to each other, turned them off, since my nected to a smart plug,
ing.” note Thursday is the smart whether they’re made by lights are connected to an voice commands and the
Although these still aren’t home of today — not to- the same manufacturer or iDevices smart plug synced smartphone app effec-
items most people seek morrow or five years from by third parties. with Apple’s HomeKit sys- tively take control, mean-
out, they’re catching on. now. Andrew Brooks, co-founder tem — and thus with Siri. ing I actually can’t use the
Research firm Strategy An- Here’s how you might start of Samsung’s smart-home Motion sensors synced with wall switch to turn the lights
alytics estimates that the building your own smart business, SmartThings, says a SmartThings hub can tell back on. It takes a few ex-
number of U.S. households home: households often start with me whether anyone, such tra seconds to activate Siri
with some form of smart- security-related products, as my super, has been in my and tell her what to do.
home system grew 30 per- GADGETS FIRST, CONNEC- such as locks and garage apartment. A Mr. Coffee In theory, I could just have
cent in 2015 to 27 million, or TIVITY LATER doors, and evolve from machine can start brewing the lights come on auto-
about 1 in 5. Drop the notion that you there. Samsung’s new with a tap of the phone, matically when I open the
thanks to integration with front door, which has a
Belkin’s WeMo system. motion sensor attached.
When home, I can group But that sensor is tied to
products such that the TV Samsung’s system, while
and main lights turn off the lights are with Apple’s.
and a night light comes on And that coffee maker?
when I say, “good night.” Samsung’s system works
It’s relatively straightfor- with some WeMo devices,
ward to add components but the coffee maker isn’t
as time and budgets per- listed. The best I could do
mit. With smart locks, doors is attach a coffee maker
automatically lock when to a Samsung smart plug,
you leave. Smart applianc- so that a bedroom motion
es such as the Nest ther- sensor triggers coffee in the
mostat can also help save morning.
energy. Smart-home sys- Besides Samsung, Apple,
tems also can incorporate Nest, Amazon and WeMo,
window shades and irriga- there are also smaller sys-
tion systems — perhaps the tems from the likes of Lowes
sprinklers briefly turn off as and Insteon. Some systems
you walk by. work with others, at least in
some respects, but it’s far
THE SMART HOME DIVIDED from guaranteed.q

Internet firms warn UK against ‘dangerous’ changes to law

LONDON (AP) — Major U.S. and to help security servic- to set.” Apple has also objected nection records — a list of
Internet companies have They urged the govern- to the British proposals, say- websites, apps and mes-
urged the British govern- es gain access to suspects’ ment to reconsider, and ing they could weaken on- saging services someone
ment to reconsider a plan warned against changes line security by providing has visited, though not
to make telecommuni- electronic devices. that would weaken online a backdoor to users’ data the individual pages they
cations firms help spies encryption, which they for “bad guys” as well as looked at or the messages
hack into computers and In a joint submission to called a “fundamental se- “good guys.” they sent.
phones. curity tool.” The British government in- Civil liberties groups have
The draft Investigatory Pow- a committee of British The submission was made sists the bill won’t weaken also expressed alarm at the
ers Bill would require tele- last month and published or ban online encryption. bill. A previous version of
coms companies to keep lawmakers, Facebook, this week by the commit- If approved by Parliament, the legislation was thrown
records of customers’ Web tee, which is reviewing the the bill will let police and out by lawmakers in 2013
histories for up to a year, Google, Microsoft, Twitter proposed legislation. spies access Internet con- as overly intrusive.q

and Yahoo said that “to

the extent this could involve

the introduction of risks or

vulnerabilities into products

or services, it would be a

very dangerous precedent