Categories
Ami in DE

An experiment

Although I’m not a huge amazon.com (or in my case amazon.de) fan, I still order from there way too often. I decided to do a little experiment. I wondered if I could refrain from buying anything I might need from amazon. I started this experiment at the beginning of November, 2021. Here are the ground rules at the moment. Nothing that has to be physically sent can be bought. I have a Kindle so this means that I could buy books, or watch something on Amazon Prime.

Depending on how this goes, I may cancel my Amazon Prime subscription. I’ll keep you posted.

Categories
Home Automation

The automatic home

A sound just interrupted a conversation I was having with my wife. It was 9PM so I knew what the sound was. It was the sweet sound of my front door locking itself right on schedule. Every night at 9PM the door locks. Seconds later I get a notice on my phone that confirms this fact. There is no guesswork here, no walking down the stairs to make sure the front door is locked. No turning the handle to make sure. One year ago I sprung for a Nuki Smart Lock.

I’ve had a Smart Home for several years now. Up to the point of getting the Nuki though it was really only about lighting. Don’t get me wrong. Lighting is an important part of a smart home. It’s what I started with and I’d like to think it’s what I am really good at. I’ll go into great detail about lighting in later blog posts. Right now though, it’s about Smart Home devices that make something happen. Where something moves or changes. Not something just being turned on or off.

What kind of setup do you need to take advantage of a Nuki (or other smart locks out there, there are several on the market)? Let me give you a rundown on my setup and then we can move on to the benefits of a smart lock. If you’ve read my blog post in the Apple Family category you’ll know that I have several Apple devices. The ones relevant to get started with HomeKit are:

Apple TV
iPad
HomePod

Any one or all of them will do to get started. My first purchase after that was a Hue light bulb with a Hue bridge. I still have the same Hue Bridge but my lighting accessories have expanded dramatically. Hue is not cheap but I found them to be highly reliable as well as diverse in their offering. I now have four lights in the house and seven in the back yard that are controlled via the Hue Bridge and by extension via HomeKit and Siri.

So, that’s the foundation. In the next post I’ll go into more of the details, and of course, talk about the Nuki.

Categories
Apple Family

In the beginning

Previous Apple Devices

Do you want to give your child a portable device but are wary of them having unfettered access to the internet? Luckily there are ways to limit what your child can see and do. If you are invested in the Apple ecosystem, this blog will give you an idea of the things you can do to safeguard your children and give you peace of mind.

But first things first. Strangely enough, it took me a while to get on the Apple bandwagon. The first iPhone came out in 2007 but it wasn’t until six years later that I finally got one. It was a 4S in black. I thought it was pretty cool. Actually, my wife got an iPhone before I even did. But before I go there, here is a list of all the Apple devices I had before an iPhone and then after. The year in (20xx) is the year I/we got the device.

iPod Nano 3rd Gen. (2007) – I refused to use iTunes so I loaded music via Winamp
Apple TV 3rd Gen. (2010) – our first taste of iTunes movie rentals, Wow!
iPad 2 – (2011) – the front facing camera was important for video calls to the US
iPod Nano 6th Gen. (2012) – my wife and I each had one
iPhone 4S (2012) – in white for my wife, she loved Siri
iPhone 4S (2013) – in black for me, I didn’t want to be left out
MacBook Pro 13 in. (2013) – our first Mac, I never looked back
iPhone 5S (2014) – in white for my wife as an upgrade from the 4S
iPhone 6 (2015) – my replacement for the 4S
Apple TV 4th Gen. (2016) – the remote was a lot better
iPhone 6S (2017) – an upgrade for my wife, current phone of my oldest
iPhone 7 (2017) – the camera was a significant upgrade from the iPhone 6
iPad Pro 9.7 inch (2016) – after 5 years with the iPad 2, it was time
HomePod (2018) – as a birthday gift for me wife
iPhone X (2018) – I used it first, after I got the 11 Pro my wife inherited it
Apple Watch Series 4 (2018) – I waited for the bigger screen
iPod touch 7th Gen. (2019) – to bring my youngest into Family Sharing
iPhone 11 Pro (2019) – my current iPhone
MacBook Pro 16 in. (2020) – the MacBook from 2013 was slowing down
iPad Air 4 (2020) – 2nd iPad, the iPad Pro is linked to the AppleID of my oldest
Beats Flex (2021) – they don’t fit in my ears very well. No AirPods for me then
Apple Watch Series 6 (2021) – initially for my oldest child, but then for my wife

Compiling this list took some time and was a lot of fun. I had to search my emails, Amazon order history and other sources. I wish I had kept some of the earlier devices. The picture accompanying this blog was all I could find in the recesses of desk drawers. From my initial hesitation about iTunes to 13 active (in bold) Apple devices is a big leap. I’m also not a Fanboy if you’re thinking that. If you notice above, none of the devices are first generation, or if they are (HomePod) they were purchased well after the device came out. I also don’t stand in line to get the latest Apple device. I just happen to find Apple has the best ecosystem out there.

For the first five years or so my wife and I used my AppleID. There were a few advantages to this and greater disadvantages. I’ll get into these in a bit. The point of this blog though is to go over the advantages of Apple Family Sharing – this requires at least two IDs. Sometime in 2016 I finally made the leap to two AppleIDs for a family of four. Up to that point we put up with the little niggling things that occurred by using one ID on two phones. The biggest advantage was that all pictures taken by either one of us landed in the same photo library. This is something that Apple has still not truly fixed for me when using two or more IDs. The problem with one ID on two phones was that Apple was constantly trying to sync the status between the two devices. This meant that if my wife called me I would not see that there was a missed call because she had already seen this on her phone. The other issue was unread mails on our one email address. The mails were marked as read by one or both of us but we could never tell who had done it and if we had really read the email or not. Bottom line: if you are still using one AppleID, stop now. There is a better way.

Even if you don’t have kids (we have two) having two AppleIDs is way better than one. Calls and emails belong to each person, FaceTime works properly (trying calling yourself on FaceTime – it’s all linked to your AppleID) and everyone has their own contacts and photos (here’s where things are not yet great – maybe more on that later). The real benefit though of multiple IDs is Family Sharing. This works very well for two people but even better with three or more. I’ll dig into the details in the next post.