There’s No Place Like Home

Part 1 – The Basics

As of now there are many reviews out there about Google home.  There are also lots and lots and lots and lots (did I mention LOTS?) of  Amazon Echo vs. Google home videos and reviews. Well rest assured – this isn’t one of them. Rather, much like I did with my Cord Cutting series, I’m going to share with you my experiences and my setup of Google home and all of the gadgets that I have interacting with it to hopefully help you get a few ideas of how you would like to interact with Google home.

As of now there are at least a handful of devices at that effectively interact with Google home, and there are surely more to follow as we go forward. As such, the following is my initial setup. This is surely going to change and evolve over time, and as these changes and evolution happen I will share with you what I have found to be some exciting, and effective ways to enhance my Google home experience. Maybe this will be helpful and exciting for you as well. As usual, I’m not saying my setup is the best setup and it’s the only setup. One of the most exciting things about this sort of Technology is the fact that there are so many different ways that you could set this up and there are more ways coming!

So, what can it do?

This of course is usually the first, and most obvious question. If you go by what you see on commercials, it would appear that there is a lot that Google Home can do. However, it must be understood that it cannot do most of these things out of the box – especially things such as controlling lights.  On its on, it can do “typical” Google things we’ve all come to know and love, such as answer questions or tell us the weather. It can play music and tell us our calendar entries (more on those two things later). Essentially, it’s like having Google packed in a stylish little speaker!

As many of you may know, I’m not one to typically rattle off specs. So for all of you spec junkies, that info can be found here.

Why do the commercials show it dimming lights if it actually can’t do that?

It may seem like a bit of false advertising, but the truth is Google Home can actually control the dimming and on/off functions of lights. But chances are, not the lights you already have (at least not without a little help). For that, you’re going to need to purchase a Hub. The Hub basically acts as the go-between interpreter for Home and Smart Devices. Without a Hub, Home has no way to communicate with these devices.

I decided to go with the well-known Samsung SmartThings. This hub is very easy to setup, and there is wealth of Smart Devices (or as Samsung refers to them as, – “Things”) that work with it. Simply download the SmartThings app for Android or iOS, power up the hub, launch the app and follow the onscreen directions. Quick and easy!

Once you have your SmartThings hub setup, you’re going to need to add some “things” – in this case, some lights. One of the cool things you will learn quickly is that the market already has some good options to choose from, and SmartThings works with most (if not all) of them. But some require extra purchases. Perhaps the most popular name you’ve heard kicked around is Philips Hue. Most of the time, you will see and/or hear about the multi-colored versions. I personally have no use for such bulbs, but you may want to consider them. Philips of course has a line of simple white LED bulbs as well that are also Smart Devices.

However, if you have decided to go with the SmartThings hub and want to use Philips Hue bulbs, you will also have to purchase a Philips Hue Bridge to do so. This bridge is the only way that Google Home can “talk to” Philips Hue bulbs by first sending commands to the SmartThings hub, which then sends to the Philips bridge, and then on to the Hue bulbs themselves.

But, fear not Nerds! With a visit to the “Works with SmartThings” section of the SmartThings website, you will find other options that don’t require a bridge.

Since I recently replaced all the bulbs in my house with LED bulbs, I had no plans to go through and replace them all again just for the sake of Google Home. As such, for the 2 lamps that are in my family room, I decided to grab a couple of SmartThings outlets.

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These little guys would give me the ability to turn the lights on and off via Home, as well as schedule certain tasks through the SmartThings Hub to turn them on and off.

But alas, we were talking about the ability to dim the lights, weren’t we? To do that without a bridge, I picked up a couple of these OSRAM Lightify LED bulbs. Not only do these bulbs provide the ability to dim, they also allow you to adjust the light temperature. So, you can go from Warm White to Cool White, and a few stops in between.

 

 

 

Side note:

Since I decided to use the OSRAM bulbs in these two lamps, the SmartThings outlets currently serve as on/off timers for our Christmas tree and mantle lights!

 

 

And last, but most certainly not least, what good would Google Home be for me if it has no way to communicate with my beloved TCL Roku TV? Thanks to a tip from a user in a Google Home community on Google Plus, I have  the Logitech Harmony Hub to facilitate!

Though maybe not as robust as the SmartThings Hub, this hub fills in the gaps (by way of applets configured via IFTTT – more on that later as well!); specifically, controlling my TV as well as my Yamaha sound bar. I have it configured to turn the TV on and off, as well as launch Plex, Netflix, or regular broadcast TV all through Google Home.

One final thing (more of an honorable mention): there are also wall switches available for those of you who would rather not swap out bulbs. This was my initial intention with my kitchen lights, so I purchased these GE In-Wall Smart Switches. The one pictured here is the “main” switch – if you have 3-way switch connections (as do I), you will also have to purchase the Add-On switch. Unfortunately in my case, the switches are too far away from my SmartThings hub to work. The directions included with the switches point out one major short-coming: the main switch may have to be within 10 feet of the hub in order to connect. In my case, the hub is in the second story master bedroom, and the location of the switches for kitchen lighting is downstairs and on the opposite side of the house. Bummer.  The good news is that with z-wave, the more devices you add the more the signal can daisy chain off of each of them, thus increasing the range. Hopefully, in the near future, I will be adding other devices to get these to work. In the meantime, you may want to go pick them up for yourself – perhaps you’ll have better luck with initial installation.


So there you have it! My basic Google Home setup thus far. Next, I will cover come configuration settings as well as IFTTT applets that I use. Hope you find this info helpful thus far, and please feel free to fire any questions or suggestions my way! Or, share some tips and tricks about your setup. Talk to ya’ soon!

Roku Channel Review – Plex Parental Controls Are (finally) Here!

 

  Late on the night of November 24th, I received a notification via email. It had finally happened. Plex finally announced long overdue parental controls. The folks at Plex even admit it themselves – these controls are years overdue. But alas, they are here. For those like myself who use Plex as their primary media server and have little ones in the home who shouldn’t have easy access to some of the content, this is big news. In January, I wrote about what I feel is an excellent alternative known as RARflix which I still use to this day. Though effective, RARflix requires establishing multiple Plex accounts, and sharing the portions of your Plex library that you want those accounts to have access to. You can then password protect any or all of those profiles using your Roku remote. Again, this works once all set up. But the fact is, Plex users shouldn’t have to go through this type of setup. There should be native parental controls.

   Plex pulls this all together with a new feature called Plex Home. Simply select “Check For Updates” via your Plex server icon and it should grab the latest version, 0.9.11.4 (although thanks to the auto-update feature built in it should have already updated on its own). You’ll then need to grab the Plex Test Chanel for Roku. It is important to note here that to take full advantage of this new awesomeness, you need to be a Plex Pass subscriber.

   Quick and simple: 1. The server updates. 2. You add the Roku channel. Boom – done! On top of that, Plex did an excellent job making the user setup as simple as can be via the server UI – a process they refer to as Creating A Plex Home. A very common sense approach: add a user, name the user, and if you want it to be a secured user enter a PIN. On the Plex Home website, there’s an example Home setup that illustrates this effective simplicity.

   Once completed, my setup looks like this:

   As this is new, it is not without at least on shortcoming. Oddly enough, the shortcoming is on the most important screen – the login screen itself. Not sure about anyone else, but I have one son in particular who likes to play the “I bet I can guess your password” game. As such, he often tries to sneak up on me to try to figure out the PIN and/or password for my cell phone or tablet, or the current PIN for RARflix. Thus, the problem with the current Plex PIN entry screen is that anyone can see your PIN as you are entering it because you have to navigate to each number on the keypad to select it:

   For the sake of Roku users, perhaps Plex will want to adopt a different approach. As for RARflix, the password is setup via the Roku as an admin user and is actually a directional pad combination (ex. – UP, DOWN, DOWN, UP, LEFT). Thus when entered at the login screen, there is no visible keypad but a blank area that displays asterisks as the directional pad is used:

   Other than that, I have had no other issues with this new setup. I applaud everyone at Plex for finally bringing this much needed feature to the most important element of my cord cutting universe!

   Have you created a Plex Home? If so, please share your thoughts on it below!

‘Tis The Season For Online Safety

  In this age of online everything, perhaps one of my favorite things is online shopping. I often say it was invented for men – most guys like myself don’t get all too excited about hopping in the car, driving somewhere, and shuffling around a store trying to buy 1 or 2 things. With online shopping, from the comfort of where ever I happen to be at the moment, I can snag what I’m looking for and in most cases have it by the next day.
   And during the Christmas shopping season, online shopping is the perfect tool for the consummate procrastinator – which I’m at times guilty of being myself. And speaking of shuffling around a store, what bigger pain is there for a guy like me than shuffling around a store with wall-to-wall glassy eyed Christmas shoppers?
   It doesn’t take an accounting genius to recognize that online shopping is huge business. According to the statistics portal Statista, retail e-commerce sales in the United States alone jumped from around $42 billion in 2002 to around $210.6 billion in 2013.   As one can imagine (or learn by simply watching the news), a considerable percentage of this revenue comes during the holiday season with popular shopping days such as Cyber Monday and Black Friday. As per the norm where big money is concerned, so comes the criminal element circling like hungry sharks waiting for the chance to feed on unsuspecting victims. The holiday shopping season is often the feeding frenzy time for these criminals.
   Without question, online attacks and threats are nothing new. But with the ever-growing amount of private information being shared online for multiple reasons, with shopping being perhaps the most popular among them, I feel that it’s important for everyone to have some basic guidelines and tips for navigating the waters as safely as possible. First off, one needs to know what to look out for.
Phishing
  This particularly nasty (and actually pretty genius) form of threat typically involves legitimate – looking websites that trick people into sharing user names, password, or other sensitive information. The hope is that you won’t realize you’re not actually at “Bank of ____” ‘s website and will unassumingly provide this information. Then, they can use this to log into your real accounts and….well, I think you get the picture.
Online Scams

   I often joke about how I actually don’t need to work another day in my life, given the amount of money that has been entrusted to me by every Nigerian prince that ever (not actually) existed. I use GMail, and thankfully its filters work effectively enough to provide me with a very entertaining spam folder. But as time goes by, these attempts grow more and more sophisticated. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center lists dozens of variants on email and online scams – from fraudulent automobile auctions to online dating schemes – in its annual Internet Crime Report. In 2013 alone, more than a quarter of a million complaints were submitted related to online scams. But hey – you’re young and savvy. This is somewhat old news and you’ve warned your parents and grandparents, right? Well, consider this: one fifth of scam victims last year were younger than 30. 

Massive Data Breaches

   

    To be clear, my intent isn’t to scare anyone away from Internet use. In fact, I’m often questioned about personal online safety and security. As I assist with explaining the risks and tactics to stay safe, I try to reiterate that these same risks have existed long before the Internet, often in greater proportion. I also try help people understand that the truly serious, “professional” hackers are not after you particularly. The fact is, the vast majority of these individuals are very smart and aren’t going to risk getting caught committing a crime over your personal information only, which may not amount to anything of value to them. Simply put – why risk jail time stealing one person’s info when you have the same capability of harvesting tons more?

  Recent hacks of Home Depot, Target and other major retailers have led to millions of credit card numbers being compromised.  Hackers turn around and sell these numbers and information on a black market to anyone who might be willing to buy them. Sometimes, these numbers and forms of information aren’t directly tied to individuals but can instead be used to establish fake identities that can be used to harvest hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit, which has a damaging affect on the overall consumer market.

   So with these and other threats out there looming, just how do you protect yourself? First and foremost – DON’T BE PARANOID. Truth be told, throughout the years I’ve serviced many PCs that had crashed due to people doubling up on anti-virus this or that, every other firewall, and multiple anti-malware packages. Just remember, the Internet isn’t “out to get you”. Instead, employ a bit of vigilance –

  • Look carefully at any website you’re considering purchasing from. Be on the lookout especially for poor spelling and grammar. 
  • Look for incorrectly placed characters – for example, a zero (0) placed where and O should be such as “Home Dep0t”.
  • Be especially careful when bargain hunting. A website selling a brand new iPhone 6 for $200 is more than likely not a safe place to provide personal information to.
  • Pay attention to website names. Remember – all websites reside in “domains”. The most common of these domains is the “.com” domain. This domain stands for “commercial”, thus most of your trusted retail sites will have this domain suffix. For example – if you’re trying to purchase something online from Walmart, yet the website reads something odd like “www.walmart.krq”, don’t proceed!
   Another effective tool is two-factor authentication. Most major banks nowadays (mine included) require this when you first log in from a computer that you have authenticated or added to a trusted device list. This often works by the institution sending you a text to your phone number on file, or an email to your email address on file. After entering this number you are usually prompted to register the device you’re on (if it’s your personal device that you plan on accessing with in the future), or to just activate for one time use (if it’s a device that you’re using just once – i.e. you’re using a computer at your Public Library). This particularly effective in a case where your user name and password may have been stolen. As for email accounts, Google takes this a step further with Google Authenticator .
   These tips should help you protect your personal data by being mindful of your online activity. But what about those merchants your choose to do business with? After all, what happened with the likes of Target and Home Depot was not due to any fault on the consumers’ part. Don’t be afraid to ask these merchants exactly HOW they are storing your customer data. Some may do so in-house, while others do so on secure servers. And if you know of a start up merchant who is looking for a secured solution, please don’t hesitate to provide this information to them. After all, malicious online activity does not only hurt the consumer, it can also cause permanent damage to a merchant’s reputation.
   Overall, don’t be afraid to swipe up some good online deals. Don’t be paranoid by shopping online – I do a large percentage of my shopping online. But please be mindful of what sites you’re visiting. If things look somewhat odd, chances are something is wrong – trust your gut instinct. Try to stick to reputable, well-known sites like Amazon. But most of all, have fun and enjoy this holiday season!

  Do you have any online safe shopping tips? Please feel free to share below!

In Defense Of Tablets

   Before I begin, let me point out that this post will be a form of obvious self-justification. With the recent announcement of the Nexus 9, I asked myself, “do I really want to part with my much-loved Nexus 7?” After all, it has been somewhat of a journey for me to get to it in the first place.

   I started with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, back in the days of Android Honeycomb. I quickly grew a hatred of Samsung’s TouchWiz and began searching for an alternative. At the time there was much chatter about the first generation Nexus 7. I wondered if I could give up a 10-inch display for a 7-inch one. After all, I reasoned, half of the point was to have the ability to use the same apps I use on my cell phone but with a larger, more beautiful display. Fortunately for me, a close friend purchased the Nexus 7 and allowed me to take a test drive. I quickly fell in love, sold my Galaxy Tab 10.1, and grabbed the Nexus 7. I was so happy that I did.

   For me, the 7-inch form factor offers the perfect amount of screen space without the extra bulk of the 10-inch display. This is most useful when doing things like reading in bed – for me, 10-inch tablets are just simply too large for this. This explains why, when looking to get away from TouchWiz, I first considered the Nexus 10, but ended up with the 7.

   I quickly noticed that I was spending more time on my Nexus 7 than on my phone. Although I could install and run nearly every app on my phone that I could on my 7, for me the screen real estate made all the difference. This was especially important when it came videos  – a’la YouTube or Netflix for example. As for me, I literally hate watching videos, much less movies, on a cell phone screen. Yes it’s awesome and cool that we’ve come this far technologically that this is even possible, but watching anything longer than a short clip on a phone is literally painful to me. I have friends who talk to me about the high amount of mobile data they consume monthly by doing so – it’s beyond how they watch so much on a cell phone screen.

  I also noticed that my desktop / laptop usage had plummeted as well. Since I do most things using cloud computing tools such as Google Drive, over time I’ve found less and less need to be planted in front of a PC or laptop. I could do nearly everything from my Nexus 7.

   Then, it evolved…. Then came the 2013 Nexus 7. I promptly sold my first generation device to cover the purchase price of this new hotness. Front-facing camera and, thinner, lighter. I’ve been more than satisfied with it.

   As we reach the latter half of 2014, I’ve been by hearing more and more chatter regarding waning interest in tablets regardless of their size. As more and more devices are released entering the Phablet arena, it seems that many people – especially those in the tech community – no longer see the need to own a tablet. In fact, this point has been brought up more than once on one of my favorite Net Casts – TwiT’s All About Android – by hosts Ron Richards and Gina Trapani. Each have noted a lack of interest with pretty much any news regarding new updates or new releases of any tablet.

   Truth be told, I kind of felt the same recently with my newly acquired Oppo Oneplus One. I even posted about the fact that, once I got it, I noticed that I was spending more time on it and ignoring my Nexus 7. However, the fact is that once the “oooo- shiny!” effect of the Oneplus wore off, I went back my to my normal self: using my phone as a phone primarily and using my tablet for everything else.

   Bottom line for me is simply this – yes I will be selling my 2013 Nexus 7 to cover the cost of getting the new Nexus 9. Yes I still think tablets have a place in the mobile device arena primarily for the usages I listed above: specifically, the fact that I simply can’t watch videos of any significant length on a cell phone or phablet, and I feel the same when it comes to the use of productivity tools. I still feel the 10-inch form factor is a bit too big, and the 7-inch is near-perfect. Could the 9-inch (well, actually 8.9-inch) display be the true sweet spot? Well, I will find out because I will be purchasing the Nexus 9. Not to mention, I didn’t even talk about the awesomeness that is Android Lollipop….

  So where do you stand with tablets? Do you think they are a dying breed, or do you look forward to each new incarnation? Please feel free to comment below!