Reader Colin Robertson recently contacted us with a concern about connectivity and oversharing. “It feels more and more like an adversarial relationship between consumers and the companies who want to spy on – I mean, serve us,” he writes. “I’m interested in the convenience of video doorbells and thermostats, but all of these solutions involve companies that want to access your data for themselves via the cloud.”
Is removing that a realistic ideal? Those who recall the first wave of X10 devices will remember the way the local smart home once operated, and that’s not something we’re looking to revisit. While it was a more private way to do things, it was plenty clunky; switches and relays forced to carry massive antennae, only the most simplistic operations available, limited central processing that forced you to keep a noisy computer running at all times – it was the convenience and power of the smartphone and the cloud that pulled smart devices out of the doldrums and made them mean something.
Go local
So is it possible to run a local, or at least private, a smart home without losing those modern conveniences? We immediately run into a few big problems with data (see ‘Data gone wild’) and with the core nature of smart home devices: many, if not most of them, are tied inexorably to the cloud. Control passes almost immediately from a typical smart device to a server online, where it’s acted upon and a message is bounced back to, say, your phone to offer an alert, or to another device to tell it to switch on or change a parameter.
Bu hikaye MacFormat UK dergisinin March 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye MacFormat UK dergisinin March 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
MacBook Air 3-inch 2024)
It’s little and good, but is there any more to it than that?
The best Mac keyboards
That feeling when everything just clicks
FAST FIXES FOR YOUR MAC
Having trouble with your Mac? This expert guide will equip you with the know-how you need to get it running smoothly again
Become an expert iPhone filmographer
Turn your clips into a slick movie with our collection of pro shooting and editing tips
Boost your display brightness
Let Vivid help you to see the light on your HDR-compatible Mac
Apple wants to build a home robot
\"Hey Siri, load the dishwasher\"
MacBook Air 15-inch (2024)
Can Apple's M3 chip make its biggest consumer notebook even better?
Uncle Sam vs Apple
Regulators around the world are coming for Apple. We take a look at the challenges it faces
Soundcore Boom 2
Get the party started with a sound and light show!
JLab Epic Lab Edition
Premium wireless earbuds with a great sound