Connected Home

Well, Santa was good to the girls and each received a Smart Plug to control the lighting in their respective bedrooms, and also means I when I say “lights Out” I can really enforce it!

The elder ones clubbed together get me an iKettle, my initial reservations about it accidentally turning itself on and boiling dry were soon dissipated once the sheer practicality becomes a reality.  It also senses and reports back the water level so wont turn on if too low.

Just woke up, check the water level on the phone and start it boiling,
Want Coffee, not tea; drop the water temperature a tad to prevent scalding the coffee.
Need to feed the dog and need the water at a certain temp for his feed; no problem, the app will tell you how

and once connected to Alexa, even better, just holler at the Echo to turn the kettle on!

Bad Move Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201379330

Amazon are cancelling the ability to upload your own .mp3’s from 2019, which the vast collection of music I have amassed on CD and ripped and then uploaded wont be available to Alexa and the Echo’s unless I re-purchase them in digital form, or subscribe to their full streaming service and hope everything I have previously purchased is also available from them.

Maybe there’s a way to write a skill that will reference my OneDrive where is all also backed up