Technology Ramblings

When it comes to automating your home there are a lot of choices out there.  From the early days of things like X10 and Powerline (PCS) to today's mix of Zigbee, Z-Wave, Insteon and WiFi. So how do you make the right choice ?   Over the years I've purchased and installed dozens of different home automation devices from lighting to thermostats to cameras, doorbells & locks, irrigation, fireplaces, etc.  You name it I've probably installed it. So here's my take on the current state and how I'm making my purchasing decisions. First - you need to make some decisions on what you really want to automate.  Is it lighting, security, HVAC, Water mgmt, whatever.  The good news is there is a broad choice.  The bad news is there is a lot of crap out there. The one common ground you'll find is that for the non-WiFi systems to work you either need a "gateway" or "bridge" device that then connects to your home network - sometimes wired - somet

Whole Home Audio systems are just a cool thing.  The ability to fill a home with music whether from a single source or playing different content in different areas of the home is just a nice thing to be able to do. And while these systems have been around for a while, new technologies in terms of the content choices, control of the systems and how you distribute around you home can raise questions on the best approach for your budget. The following is a discussion on key use cases and design criteria that will help you make a decision.  I have designed and built several systems over the years and am preparing to do a new one - so I'm going through the very process I am going to describe. To me there are three key design criteria that you have to have a clear decision on in order to build the system that best meets your needs. The first criteria is content - basically what do you listen to.  Is is over the air (OTA) content like AM/FM or Satellite Radio ?  Is it a personal m

IDC released it's 2018 Q2 Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report yesterday and there is one interesting change to note. First WW sales in Q2 of 2018 were down 1.8% to 342M units in Q2 with the biggest drop being outside the top 5 in the "others" category where sales fell 18.5%. Samsung is still #1 WW but saw year over year unit sales fall 10.4% to 71.5M units and a 20.9% market share.  Sales of the new Galaxy 9/9+ are not as brisk as expected.  But the big news is that Huawei surpassed Apple as the #2 WW OEM with a whopping 40.9% year over year sales increase to 54.2M units and a 15.8% market share.   Even with the rejection by US Telco's - that's a remarkable feat and shows that the growth potential outside the US is still huge. Apple sales were nearly flat @ 41.3M units a 0.7% increase over 2017 and carry a 12.1% share.    The other Chinese OEMs did well also - #4 Xiaomi saw a 48.8% sales volume increase to 31.9M units and at that pace may pus