Google Buys Nest

Have you seen Nest's product line?? Outstanding stuff. Too pricy for my budget but really elegant engineering.

I can see Google taking them to the next level and making the connected home a reality.
http://m.cnet.com/news/how-google-and-nest-could-get-the-smart-home-all-wrong/57617161

To prime the pump here are a few integrations I'd like to see in my connected house.

• When I pull into my driveway, my garage door recognizes my car's signal and opens the door.
  
• the thermostat is raised to my preferred temperature
  
• the TV turns on with the evening news
  
• the oven heats up the dinner I'd programmed that morning
  
• the dog is fed
  
• my messages are checked and forwarded to my home computer
  
• after dinner my dishwasher starts, a menu for tomorrow's dinner is suggested based on what s in the fridge
  
• a shopping list is generated based on what I suggest for the rest of the week
  
• I go to bed. The alarm is set automatically, thermostat set back, hot water heater goes on standby waiting to fire up in the morning, and my answering machine goes into do-not-disturb mode, taking messages for anything not urgent
  

Wow. Looks like a savings of about thirty seconds per day there, NoCo.

I can spend that 30 seconds writing longer messages to you.

I knew there had to be a major benefit. Yassah!

I would be happy if someone just developed a smoke detector that didn't give false alarms.

It requires setup, connecting it to your wi-fi, and downloading an app. And it costs $129. For me that means $903 plus tax and shipping. Then I get to set up seven devices.

The article doesn't say if it it compatible with the standard smoke detector wiring in my house, but I would guess no. And I get to use a screwdriver to change six batteries, rather than just snapping in one 9-volt battery with no tools.

Complete CRAP! It's just a fucking smoke detector, for gods sake.
Ridiculous.

But.... it has a blue light.

Even worse - that would clash with the decor.

You could do the Click & Clack thing, use electrical tape.

My damned DVR has a big blue light on the front that moves in a circle. I don't understand why someone would put such an irritating thing on the front of a DVR, so that you can see it while you're watching the tube. I have it covered with Simonis 860 pool table cloth.