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gadgets

I feel like making our German house “smarter” is making me dumber…

Yesterday, I wrote about how I’ve been “upgrading” our German house, adding new “smart” devices to make things “easier”. I installed new smart light bulbs in several lamps, bought new gadgets from Amazon and Apple, and invested in smart power strips and outlet covers. I’m sure I’ll be glad I did all of this, once we’ve figured out the learning curve. For now, I’m wondering if I should have my head examined.

Installing the new light bulbs was easy. It was just a matter of screwing them into the lamps and setting them to our Internet connection via an app on my phone or tablet. But now, I have to get used to a new routine. If I want to use the lamps with the new technology, I have to have my phone or tablet. The bulbs are numbered, and not necessarily in a logical way. I’m sure I’ll eventually get it so all I have to do is tell Alexa what I want. However, before that happens, I have to learn how it all works.

Meanwhile, I bought a new HomePod Mini, because most of my media is on Apple. I do have some stuff on Amazon, but for some reason, I can’t seem to download MP3s on Amazon in Germany. I have been able to do it in the past, but I can’t do it now, for some strange reason.

Now, my big HomePod, which we’ve been using in the living room for years, works fine. It accesses my music from my big iMac desktop. Silly me. I thought it would be easy to do the same with the HomePod Mini sitting next to my computer. But no… it seems to work best if I have Apple Music. I don’t want to subscribe to Apple Music. I prefer to buy the stuff I want. I don’t want a subscription service having access to my collection and possibly replacing stuff I own. And I don’t want to “rent” my music.

Why does my HomePod work fine with the computer, albeit not wanting to play stuff I didn’t download from Apple, but the Mini doesn’t? I can use AirPlay to play music on the Mini, but it doesn’t sound as good as my computer speakers do.

I may end up moving the new Mini and the future new HomePod into our entertainment room and pairing them for better sound in there. I did get the new Mini to work with the TV in my bedroom, but I think I’d need another one, because otherwise, the sound just comes from the one speaker. It’s not better than the TV speaker is.

Surprisingly enough, I’m finding Amazon Alexa a lot easier and more function than the HomePod Mini is. It’s also significantly less expensive. I’d probably just as soon use Alexa, but so much of my music is through iTunes, and it’s all very proprietary. I bought another Echo Dot for our entertainment room, just because it’s so easy to use and doesn’t cost that much. Just plug and play.

I’m a little troubled by the HomePod Mini and how difficult it is to just get it to play the music I already own. I hope the full scale HomePod that is coming out soon won’t be like that. Otherwise, it might end up being a door stop… or an expensive speaker.

But at least we have new and better lighting. I do like that about the new light bulbs, especially since I bought a new reading light last week just so I could finish my latest book… which was an actual book, rather than Kindle. I should probably embrace old fashioned books more, since using Kindle kind of compromises privacy and gives Amazon suggestive selling information. But doggone it, it’s just a lot easier to use Kindle. The backlighting makes it so much easier for me to read, and the print is larger. I can read it after dark, too.

I’m beginning to think this whole project would be a lot easier if I was 20 instead of 50. I think something happens when you get older, and lose patience with learning new technology. However, I do see value in learning the technology, because pretty soon, everyone is going to use it. I don’t remember the last time I used a landline telephone, for instance. I don’t remember the last time I watched regular TV. I think pretty soon, anyone who doesn’t own a smartphone is going to be shit outta luck.

Pictured is the blue HomePod Mini. Mine looks just like it, and so far, is just about as functional as the photo is.

Edited to add on January 26th…

I ended up adding most of my music to my phone, and now the HomePod Mini seems to work. I didn’t put any music on my phone because I so often use it for photos. I guess now, I can retire my worthless iPod Touch, which doesn’t have enough storage.

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gadgets

Making our German house “smarter”…

While we wait for the weather to get less yucky, I’ve been focusing a bit on making our house more comfortable. I mentioned on my main blog yesterday that I’ve been investing in some new technology. In the past few weeks, I’ve acquired two new Alexa Echo Dot devices. One is in my office, and the other is in my bedroom. I have an Alexa Studio in the living room. I don’t use it very much. I bought it mainly because sometimes Siri on my HomePod goes kerfluey and it makes a good backup.

I have some Amazon music purchases that I can’t play on the HomePod, and some Apple purchases that won’t play on Alexa. I don’t want to subscribe to a streaming service, so I have two “assistants”. For years, I’ve managed to avoid succumbing to temptation regarding the Dots, but finally gave in when I realized that Alexa does more than music. But then, so does Siri.

Anyway, after Bill gave me a Dot for my office, I got one for the bedroom… then I realized it might be interesting to be able to control our lights from my phone. I bought three new smart power strips, some smart outlet plugs, and smart light bulbs.

All of these items can be connected via a phone app to the Internet. Then, I can make them do things I never thought I’d be able to get them to do. 😉

Last night after dinner, we tried out the new smart bulbs. I bought four of them, so we put them on the four lamps they fit. Then we connected them to the Internet via the app. Now, I can adjust the color, intensity, and even set them to music. I can program them to turn on and off on a schedule. I didn’t have to plug the lamp into a smart outlet, either. All we had to do was change the light bulb and pair it with the phone and/or tablet.

I remember when we first moved to Germany in 2007, we quickly learned that using US made lamps in Germany is pretty simple. All you have to do is use a plug converter and a German bulb and you’re good to go. That’s not the case with other electronics. I once fried a computer because I forgot to change the voltage switch from North America to Europe. The voltage in North America is 110 volts; here, it’s 220. So, when you don’t change the voltage settings or use a transformer, you can end up blowing up your device.

Our former landlady, who accused us of “dumping” an American fridge in her house, obviously didn’t know that we have different voltages in the USA. That crappy fridge, which was there the day we moved in, was plugging into the wall. If it were an American appliance, we wouldn’t be able to do that. The plug itself is different, so it wouldn’t have fit the outlet. And the voltage is different, so we’d need a transformer, which would not be worth it. High voltage transformers are very expensive and, in my experience, don’t work very well. They tend to trip the circuit breakers.

This is less of a problem with computers. Nowadays, they are built to automatically detect electric current and adjust accordingly. That wasn’t always the case, though, and it’s still not true for a lot of electric devices. That’s why most of our American small appliances are in storage.

We need to do some more study and find out all of the things we can do with our gadgets now. Today, I have a new HomePod Mini coming to me. I’ll use it in my office for now, for when my computer gets overwhelmed and music stalls out. Then, I’ll probably move it when I get a new desktop computer, which will probably be pretty soon. I also ordered a new HomePod, which was recently “souped up”. That will get to us in March, when it’s available in Europe. I will move the old HomePod to our entertainment room and hook it up to the TV, so we can get better sound.

I still wish we had a couch for in there. First world problems…

Anyway, if people are reading this blog looking for information about actually living in Germany, I can reassure you that many of the techie comforts of home are easily found here. Sometimes you have to wait a little longer and pay a little more, but you can still get most of that cool stuff here. A bonus is, some homes have some pretty awesome features you won’t find in a lot of US homes, like heated floors, saunas, and indoor pools. But, most of them don’t have closets, which is a real bummer.

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