[dangrossman]

I mounted the tablets on walls with $10 kits from Amazon that use those 3M removable strips to hold the mounts, and drilled small holes for charging cords. I have the screens set to never turn off, and leave the browser open. So all the buttons are always just there on the wall, ready to be pressed. Nothing needs to wake up first.

BTW, Windows 8 8" tablets are now under $100 at Wal-Mart and Best Buy, so you aren't even limited to Android for this kind of thing anymore.

[markbao]

Hah, that's amazing. Great solution. If I had a house, I'd put together something like that, but with a Qi wireless charger with the magnet holding it up (hopefully strong enough).

Still waiting for home automation widgets to come down in price so I have an excuse to install a lot of them in my apartment.