Smart homes are now a reality wit Amazon Echo and Google home. Appliances, heat, air conditioning, power, lights, security cameras — everything can link to your smartphone. Turn on your pool heat from 50 miles away. Turn up your AC at the same time.
Of course, there are still some downsides to smart homes that are worth considering.
According to Christopher Harper at maketecheasier.com, security issues are serious. Breaches are inevitable, and security strategies must keep changing to keep up with the hackers. Your system quickly could become outdated. Even if it is not outdated, a hacker could send the air conditioning system into Antarctic mode at any time. You take your chances.
Smart homes also add to big data. You are letting big companies that already know a lot about you know more about you. Afraid of big business? Afraid of big government?
Finally, smart homes still cost a lot of money to do things like turn up the heat and turn on a light. Is it worth it now?
Land cruisers in the outback
You think your cell phone has blackout spots. Imagine the Australian outback. We are talking 2 million square miles of blazing heat, unpleasant snakes, and no cell service.
According to gizmag.com, what the Outback does have is Toyota LandCruisers. Toyota has joined with other corporations and universities to set up a LandCruiser Emergency Network.
Using a mix of technology, the plan is to supply LandCruisers in the area with plug-and-play wifi devices. Every Cruiser will be a little wifi hotspot with a 15-mile range. People will connect their phones to a nearby LandCruiser that will forward the message along a chain of other LandCruisers until the message gets to a base station. Consider how important this would be if the message were FIRE.
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