[untog]

Smartphone controlled anything never feels great to me. If I have to type in code to unlock my keypad, then wait for an app to launch, just to change the temperature on the thermostat, it's already over.

On a similar note, I wanted to love the Chromecast, but I found the phone to be a terrible controller. Now I use a Roku, which has a great remote. Instead of my girlfriend and I crowding ourselves around a tiny smartphone screen to browse what we're going to watch, we bring up the Netflix app on the Roku and browse on the much more suitable TV.

[deminature]

Xbox One's voice control would be my preferred input mechanism for controlling my entire home - no unlock, no app launch, not even any picking up a device/remote. Microsoft must have plans about this though, because it seems so obvious after getting used to voice control on the console.

[vmarsy]

That's what Cortana is for.

For instance today if you have a Philips hue lights and a windows phone, you pick your phone, screen is off, you press the search button, and says "huestro, set my lights to ..."

Hopefully you'll be able to say that directly from your Xbox one microphone.

But this article is spot on, that's a reason Philips released the pricey "hue tap", a switch that frees you from using a smartphone

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/huetro-for-hue/f...

http://www2.meethue.com/en-us/the-range/hue-tap/

[recursive]

Do you get accurate results with voice control? My success rate with attempted voice commands is something less than 50%. I wouldn't like that to be my primary mechanism for dealing with locks and climate.

[omnibrain]

With Android you can put the control apps on the lock screen. I have the control widgets for my Sonos on the lock screen of my Nexus 7 and it works like a charm. On the other hand I always have to unlock my iPhone if I want to controle my Sonos from it.

[coldtea]

>Smartphone controlled anything never feels great to me. If I have to type in code to unlock my keypad, then wait for an app to launch, just to change the temperature on the thermostat, it's already over.

For one, newer smartphones will mostly come with fingerprint sensors. So no code typing there.

Second, apps launch almost instantly in any recent iOS or Android phone. It's not like you'll wait 1 minute for he app to launch or anything.

Third, "it's already over" over typing and app-launching wait time? Oh, the humanity. I've lived in houses where the thermostat was in a specific room, or even in the basement next to the heater.

[vmarsy]

I think the parent comment is right,

>For one, newer smartphones will mostly come with fingerprint sensors. So no code typing there.

You're here assuming that people own the latest phone. You could have smart lights for $150 at some point, it doesn't mean that you have the latest smartphone with fingerprint reader.

>Second, apps launch almost instantly in any recent iOS or Android phone. It's not like you'll wait 1 minute for he app to launch or anything.

Again you're assuming people have the latest smartphones, also even if the app launch immediately, it takes some times to get a connection between your smartphone and your IoT device

>Third, "it's already over" over typing and app-launching wait time? Oh, the humanity. I've lived in houses where the thermostat was in a specific room, or even in the basement next to the heater.

_today's_ user experience with a smartphone is sometimes worst than controlling the device, just because it was much worse some years ago doesn't mean we have to accept it. It is like saying "Get this new car with a maximum speed of 30mph, it's OK people use to ride a horse back in the time"

[tmuir]

Some of the first world problems of HN users using technology are beyond the pale. I was arguing mouse vs remote/phone for playing media on a media server, and someone's retort was that a mouse would require them to have a surface upon which to use the mouse at their couch. I've spent way too much time envisioning this mythical surfaceless couch and person.

[polynomial]

Not that I spend a lot of time on couches, mine or others, but even if there is a "usable" surface nearby (I have no surfaces near my couch) it's usually a coffee table with terrible ergonomics for use as a controller plane.

But this doesn't seem like a major issue, since it really seems a tablet (or just your phone) solves the problem.

[tmuir]

Wait, what are these unusable surfaces? I have a $25 logitech wireless mouse and keyboard that I use roughly 8ft from the usb receiver. Besides the screen of my monitor, I actually cannot find a surface in my direct vicinity that my mouse doesn't track extremely well upon. This includes jeans, shirt, skin, paper towel, microfiber, drywall, carpet, rug, whiteboard, a glass coffee table (surprisingly), and books.

How can the capabilities of something as cheap, commoditized, and refined as a computer mouse vary so much that some people's mice are only usable on a small and inconvenient set of surfaces, while other mice have completely mastered the process to the point that nearly every surface imaginable works flawlessly?

[polynomial]

Indeed, perhaps I am being fussy about what kind of surface I prefer to use, and how precise I like the tracking to be.

I am inspired by your reply however to try to find another mouse which works well on glass, that would literally be a game changer.

[dllthomas]

I regularly struggle with an optical mouse on my couch or knee, when I need to poke netflix. It's manageable, but it's also annoying.

[untog]

Third, "it's already over" over typing and app-launching wait time? Oh, the humanity.

My point isn't that it's difficult, it's that existing solutions are already better than the smartphone-based ones.

[pbreit]

I think actually you need both. The Amazon fire tv's remote is critical but I miss not being able to cast from a phone.

[seivan]

So much wrong with your statement...

Unlock with fingerprint. App launches aren't that slow on iPhones :/

How about an extension to do it from the notification center? Or even Siri? Neither requires unlocking.

You could technically have an iPhone plugged into a power source and activate Siri with "Hey Siri" and then do your thing.

Then.... we have the Watch :)

[lelandbatey]

And yet all of those actions pale in comparison to just picking up a remote with nice tactile buttons and using it immediately, no weird navigation, no apps, nothing.

I mean, I'd still use my smartphone as a remote for other reasons. But the parent does make a good point.

[coldtea]

So, instead of the phone (which for most people is always with you), have an extra task-specific remote, to feed with batteries, lose, and go fetch from another room when you need it.

Plus "nice tactile buttons"? 2005 called. Of all the things one would need those for, setting a thermostat (which takes like 5 seconds) is very low in utility...

[walterbell]

Some people like using the human sense of touch. Just because there is not yet a billion-dollar corporation profiting from "tactile input devices" (http://research.nokia.com/publication/11833), doesn't mean we all have to buy into the marketing of "screens-and-rectangles" manufacturers who are optimizing for the visual sense.

When the iWatch launches, it will become "fashionable" to receive signals via vibration, i.e. tactile input. Apple and others will make sure we remember our sense of touch, because it has been monetized. We don't need to wait for each of our senses to be monetized, before recognizing that they are already useful with proven technology.

A special-function remote or panel has fixed positions and shapes that can be stored in motor memory, requiring minimal use of the visual sensory system, without the need for eye-hand coordination to push soft buttons on a smartphone.

Note: the act of getting up and sitting down is good for health, as astronauts will attest from experience in gravity-free environments.

[untog]

The remote is always exactly where you need it, in front of the TV. As for batteries.. when was the last time you changed your remote batteries? How about the last time you charged your phone? I'll take my once-every-six-months battery replacement over the chance that I'll need to plug my phone in to charge while I'm also trying to use it as a remote.

And if you think that tactile buttons are somehow "over", you're wrong. They're tremendously useful.

[agumonkey]

Think larger, with ~IoT networks you can express richer abstractions. "ensure all rooms lights are off", "all rooms facings south don't need the heater on", "are my doors locked ?". For one off tasks I agree.