[Tloewald]

If there’s one thing Apple did, with Steve Jobs, other than build fantastic user experience out of mature but unapproachable technologies, it was communicating the fact that it had done so. Not only has Amazon failed to do this, the writer has as well.

I think it’s pretty cool that, in theory, I could say “Alexa, turn on the oven to 450” and it would (a) turn the correct device to the correct setting and (b) remind me when it was ready (or if it’s being super duper smart, tell me that it was 2 mins or so away from being ready) so that I could stagger over to the kitchen, pull a pizza out of the fridge or freezer, unwrap it, and stick it in the oven. All I need to do is have a bunch of speakers bugging my home, a new oven, ideally probably not two new ovens or not a new oven and a new toaster oven because god knows what will happen, and all this stuff networked.

Or I can walk over to the oven, turn it to 450, and say “Hey Siri, set timer for ten minutes” and wander off. When my wrist buzzes, I go stick a pizza in the oven and I say, “Hey Siri, set timer for thirteen minutes” and go do stuff.

I don’t need a new oven. I don’t need to worry that I’ll pick the wrong oven. I’m not inviting Amazon to parse all my conversations. I don’t need to learn a new magic phrase.

Oh and imagine the hilarity when you try to sell or rent your house and the internet gets turned off. We had a smart sprinkler system which, when we sold the house, we essentially had to rip out because it was easier to install a conventional replacement than figure out how to talk to it without an active WiFi.

[WalterBright]

I'd never allow the internet to turn on my oven.

[slantyyz]

I'm with you on that, but what I would want is the ability to know is the status of my oven.

My wife and I are always (excessively) concerned with whether we left our gas stove on/off, the doors are locked and that the garage door is closed.

For that stuff, I'd be willing to pay for the ability to check on that stuff that worries me. Having said that though, knowing that you left your stove on and not having the ability to turn it off would probably be kind of pointless.

[DenisM]

You will get a much better ROI if you address excessive worriness. It has to affect more of your life than just the owen. Elevated Adrenalin can cost you a few years of your life.

[slantyyz]

Right now, we have partially addressed this with security cameras that can see the stove and some locks.

[cuboidGoat]

All cooker controls should be timers.

I never want to turn on any part of the cooker for ever and ideally this should not be an option available to me when tired.

[WalterBright]

I'm with you on that. I once left the gas fireplace on for 6 weeks. Fortunately, nothing bad happened but a large gas bill.

[cuboidGoat]

Oh good point, cookers and heaters. Especially gas heaters.

[WalterBright]

Suffering from that issue myself, one thing that helps is a checklist, and go through that when you leave.

Another way is to unplug them, because then one remembers doing that.

Ovens can also suffer failures where the gas is turned on, but it fails to ignite. This is no issue when you're there and notice the gas smell and the burners not going on. If you're not there, the house fills with gas and explodes.

[slantyyz]

We do the checklist thing, and I find it helps to say stuff out loud while you're going through it.

Fortunately, our range is a "dual fuel" stove, which means the oven is electric but the stove burners are gas. Having said that, stuff being left on is still a concern irrespective of whether a burner is electric or gas.

[joshvm]

Verbal checklists are extremely effective. It's why flying is incredibly safe, and they're also used in some operating theatres (see the Checklist Manifest).

Works even better with two people as you're forced to cross-check every item.

It's important to keep it a sane length and at a suitably high level, otherwise users have a tendency to skip items that are "obvious".

[delfinom]

Hah, I had a "Hotpoint" GE range until recently when it started having a fun issue. If you Google the reviews, well it randomly turns on the oven....at the best of times like when you aren't home example. Because the stupid potentiometer used for the oven control has a piss poor "off" position that goes bad over time and the oven either a.) refuses to turn off or b.) oscillates on/off over an extended period.

[masonic]

But that would require your oven to be IOT-connected... which means remotely hackable.

[QasimK]

Perhaps slantyyz was thinking that the IoT portion of the oven should be an isolated piece of hardware that is only capable of monitoring, and absolutely incapable of performing actions like turning on the oven.

However, this can still be hacked to say that the oven is off, while it is in fact on and you’re leaving for the airport.

[slantyyz]

Can't it be done with something like Z-wave with a hub that isn't exposed to the Internet?

You could use a VPN to connect to the home network to control devices when you have to.

[cwilkes]

I would as it takes a longish time to do which is annoying to wait for. So if it could be remotely turned on when I’m at the store or on the way home that would be a big convenience. Likewise with most async things that I forget to do, like watering plants or cleaning the house. If I can throw money at it and reasonably expect it to work (sprinkler system, house cleaner) I will do it.

[mandeepj]

> I'd never allow the internet to turn on my oven.

not even with a 2 FA?

[j45]

OP's example is reminding him to turn oven on or off.

[dvlsg]

The second part is. The first part is about imagining telling Alexa to actually turn your oven on.

[j45]

The second part is what he'd rather use. He didn't seem to want a smart oven, which is what he's being downvoted for.

[shawabawa3]

> I could say “Alexa, turn on the oven to 450” and it would (a) turn the correct device to the correct setting

Nope, it's turning it on

[j45]

Reading the entire comment will help in this case.

The paragraph after what you quoted:

[instead of buying a new oven]..

"Or I can walk over to the oven, turn it to 450, and say “Hey Siri, set timer for ten minutes” and wander off. When my wrist buzzes, I go stick a pizza in the oven and I say, “Hey Siri, set timer for thirteen minutes” and go do stuff.

I don’t need a new oven. I don’t need to worry that I’ll pick the wrong oven."

[taylodl]

My wife is a real estate agent and let me tell you - smart homes are a nightmare for buyers. My advice? Stay away from it. Not until there’s a fully-interoperable standard and it doesn’t matter whether your buyer is partial to the Google, Apple or Amazon ecosystems and there’s a smart gateway allowing you to quickly transition from one owner to another. Until then? No. Just no.

[kazen44]

the internet connectivity requirement is silly, especially if you want to build a long term system.

This guy has a great youtube channel[1] which documents how he builds his home automation system (in house). Would highly recommend watching his videos.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUEKr_48EfQ&list=PL8mjSseObL...

[BatFastard]

His solution is interesting if you want to rewire your whole house.

[aiilnns]

I don't understand why you would use Siri then.

You could manually set a timer. It would probably be quicker than saying "Hey Siri, ..." and you could also avoid using any kind of software.

[Tloewald]

It's definitely not easier to manually set a timer than it is to use Siri. Also, you can do multiple timers at once and they follows you around (versus being screamed at because the timer in the kitchen is beeping and no-one has noticed for half an hour and now the fire alarm is going off).