10 devices under Rs 2,000 that make your regular home a ‘smart’ home
As
more customers in India get tech-savvy and depend on several gadgets to
get the job done, it is natural that they are not just limited to
smartphones but also to other connected gadgets to make their lives
easier. Home automation is a segment that is still niche -- at least for
now -- in India and has a potential market here. Not everyone has tried
it. Most of the customers are not sure how to get started and what
devices to buy. For those first timers, here is a short list of what
they would have to buy to get their home appliances and tech accessories
work in sync, all under Rs 2,000.
Related:
2 / 11
Cacazi LED smart doorbell - Rs 1,503.99
This
smart doorbell is waterproof and is lightweight. The device has a range
of up to 300m and has dedicated buttons to control the volume. You can
choose from 36 chimes and plug it in a socket, saving all the time and
effort to connect traditional wired doorbells.
3 / 11
Sonoff smart Wi-Fi switch - Rs 498
You
can turn on/off this smart switch from your Android or iOS app and even
schedule its time of turning on/off. It also supports Amazon Alexa and
Google Assistant.
4 / 11
Anycast wireless smart streaming devices - Rs 999
You
can use Anycast streaming dongle to view content via Apple Airplay,
Miracast, DLNA and others. It can even mirror your smart device’s screen
on large screen appliances like TV.
5 / 11
Global Tech Wi-Fi-enabled LED strip - Rs 1,380
You
can control the lights and the colours of this Wi-Fi LED strip using
your smartphone or even voice commands via Amazon Alexa and Google
Assistant.
6 / 11
Syska smart bulb - Rs 1,706
The
smart bulb can be controlled not only by your smartphone but via Amazon
Alexa voice assistant as well. It supports 3 million colour options and
supports both Android and iOS.
7 / 11
Philips Hue smart bulb - Rs 1,915
This
smart bulb works with Amazon Echo, Apple Homekit and Google Home and
provides all colours from 3000K (Warm White) to 6500K (Cool Day Light).
8 / 11
Eufy Genie smart speaker - approx. Rs 2,000
This smart speaker is an Amazon Alexa-enabled one and has access to
10000+ skills and services. It supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and has 2W
speakers.
9 / 11
Phenovo motion sensor lamp - Rs 520
This
motion sensor lamp weighs 45 grams and doesn’t require a battery to
operate. It automatically detects the moving subject and turns on/off
based on their movement within the range.
10 / 11
Xiaomi Wi-Fi power strip - Rs 1794.48
This
smart wi-fi power strip can be controlled remotely and helps in saving
power as well. You would simply have to download the Mi Home app to
control the power strip. It is also possible to set a timer until when
the strip stays activated.
11 / 11
IBS Wi-Fi camera - Rs 1,999
This
table-mounted camera is compatible with Android, iOS, Windows and other
popular platforms. The Wi-Fi based camera has a 5MP sensor and supports
motion sensor recording.
With the launch of the new Mi MIX 2S smartphone, Shawmi has just launched Mi gaming laptop in an event organized in Shanghai. Known for low cost tech products, Shawmo has launched a new mini speaker. Shomei entered the Smart Speaker's market last year.
This new Vice Integrated Assistant is Mi Ai Speaker Mini. The price of this new mini speaker in Shamoni is about Rs 1800. With the introduction of a mini speaker at such a low price, there are many discussions in the market.
Xiaomi has been able to enter the market from LED TVs to elit scooters. This is a conflict with Chinese company Apple, Amazon and Google. The speaker is controlled with the sound. The speaker is so small in size that it can be easily kept on the palm. It has been included in the built-in microphone.
Besides this, this mini speaker has a navigation button at the top. With it you can activate play, pause, forward and a microphone. It can also be used as a reminder. This device also allows users to access 3.5 million books and songs.
This post was originally published on the RescueTime blog. Check us out for more like it.
When exactly are we the most productive?
Thinking
back on your last year, you probably have no idea. Days blend together.
Months fly by. And another year turns over without any real
understanding of how we actually spent our time.
Our mission at RescueTime
has always been to help you do more meaningful work. And this starts
with understanding how you spend your days, when you’re most productive,
and what’s getting in your way.
In 2017, we logged over 225 million hours of digital time from hundreds of thousands of RescueTime users around the world.
By
studying the anonymized data of how people spent their time on their
computers and phones over the past 12 months, we’ve pinpointed exactly
what days and times we do the most productive work, how often we’re
getting distracted by emails or social media, and how much time a week
we actually have to do meaningful work.
Key Takeaways:
What was the most (and least) productive day of 2017?
Simply put, our data shows that people were the most productive on November 14th. In fact, that entire week ranked as the most productive of the year.
Which
makes sense. With American Thanksgiving the next week and the mad
holiday rush shortly after, mid-November is a great time for people to
cram in a few extra work hours and get caught up before gorging on
Turkey dinner.
On the other side of the spectrum, we didn’t get a good start to the year. January 6th — the first Friday of the year — was the least productive day of 2017.
Now, what do we mean when we talk about the “most” or “least” productive days?
RescueTime
is a tool that tracks how you spend your time on your computer and
phone and let’s you categorize activities on a scale from very
distracting to very productive. So for example, if you’re a writer, time
spent in Microsoft Word or Google Docs is categorized as very
productive while social media is very distracting.
From that data, we calculate your productivity pulse — a score out of 100 for how much of your time you spent on activities that you deem productive.
On November 14th, the average productivity pulse across all RescueTime users was a not-so-shabby 60.
How much of our day is spent working on a digital device?
One
of the biggest mistakes so many of us make when planning out our days
is to assume we have 8+ hours to do productive work. This couldn’t be
further from the truth.
What we found is that, on average, we only spend 5 hours a day working on a digital device.
And with an average productivity pulse of 53% for the year, that means we only have 12.5 hours a week to do productive work.
What does the average “productive day” look like?
Understanding our overall productivity is a fun exercise, but our data lets us go even deeper.
Looking
at the workday (from 8am–6pm, Monday to Friday), how are we spending
our time? When do we do our best work? Do different tasks normally get
done at different times?
Here’s what we found out:
Our most productive work happens on Wednesdays at 3pm
Our
data showed that we do our most productive work (represented by the
light blue blocks) between 10 and noon and then again from 2–5pm each
day. However, breaking it down to the hour, we do our most productive work on Wednesdays at 3pm.
Light blue represents our most productive work
Email rules our mornings, but never really leaves us alone
Our days start with email, with Monday morning at 9am being the clear winner for most time spent on email during the week.
Light blue represents our busiest time for emails
Software developers don’t hit peak productivity until 2pm each day
What about how specific digital workers spend their days?
Looking
at the time spent in software development tools, our data paints a
picture of a workday that doesn’t get going until the late morning and
peaks between 2–6pm daily.
Light blue represents when we’re using software development tools
While writers are more likely to be early birds
For those who spend their time writing, it’s a different story.
Writing apps were used more evenly throughout each day with the most productive writing time happening on Tuesdays at 10am.
Light blue represents when we’re using writing tools
What were the biggest digital distractions of 2017?
It’s
great to pat ourselves on the back about how productive we were in
2017. But we live in a distracted world and one of our greatest
challenges is to stay focused and on task.
Here’s what our research discovered about the biggest time wasters of last year:
On an average day we use 56 different apps and websites
Depending on what you do, this number might not seem that bad. However, when we look at how we use those different apps and websites, things get a bit hairier.
When it comes to switching between different apps and websites (i.e. multitasking), we jump from one task to another nearly 300 times per day and switch between documents and pages within a site 1,300 times per day.
For Slack users, 8.8% of our day is spent in the app
There’s been a lot of talk about how much email and communication eats into our days. But what do the numbers look like?
What
we found is that for people who use Slack as their work communication
tool, they spend almost 10% of their workday in the app (8.8% to be
exact).
We check email or IM 40 times every day
What’s more telling is how often we check our communication tools, whether email or instant messengers like Slack or HipChat.
On average, we check our communication apps 40 times a day, or once every 7.5 minutes during our 5 hours of daily digital work time.
Almost 7% of every workday is spent on social media
I’m sure most of us try not to spend time on social media while at work. But our data showed that almost 7% of every workday was spent on social media.
It’s not only time spent that’s the issue, however. On average, we check in on social media sites 14 times per workday, or nearly 3 times an hour during our 5-hour digital day.
So, what does all this tell us about how we spend our days?
Well,
first off, we need to remember that averages shouldn’t be treated as
universal truths. Everyone works differently. But having a high-level
look at productivity and the things that get in its way is a powerful
tool in improving how you work.
The
biggest piece of advice we can pull from all this data is to be aware
of the limited time you have each day for meaningful work, and spend it
wisely.
Our days are filled with distractions, and it’s up to us to protect what time we have.
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Kite
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Perfect
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JavaScript code for common use cases.
Over
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I’ve
been building my smart home over the last few years and was in the
market to add sensors everywhere in an effort to improve the automations
that I was able to achieve.
I
previously had a couple of Philips Hue Motion sensors, and Elgato Eve
Door & Window sensors, but at £35 a piece, adding these to all rooms
and door would get very expensive. I was introduced to the Xiaomi
ecosystem and decided to give it a try. Interestingly this is the first
time that I’ve opted to buy some non native devices and rely on
Homebridge for the integration. Prior to this, I’ve used HomeBridge as a
way to integrate tech that I already owned.
Purchase
I
got all of my kit from a site called Lightinthebox.com. This was the
only site that I found that shipped to the UK and had a wide range
stocked. I initially opted for:
One
thing to note is that the website quoted 5–8 days for shipping — this
was actually more like 19, but for the price I can’t really complain.
Setup
The
setup was fairly trivial. I did however need to upgrade my version of
node running on my RPi3 to work with the plugin. As to not waste
countless hours in node dependency hell, I’d recommend a fresh install
of everything. I took a copy of my config.json file, made a note of
installed plugins and completely wiped my SD card.
Follow these steps to get going (this assumes you’re on an iPhone, running iOS 11 or later)
Download the MiHome app and setup the gateway and configure your accessories. It doesn’t really matter what rooms the devices are placed in.
Open the MiHome app, tap on the gateway, then tap on the 3 dots in the top right corner.
Select about and then repeatedly (and quickly) tap on the blank space until three additional menu options in Chinese appear.
Tap
the second option. This allows you to turn on local access mode. A
password should appear. Make a note as you’ll need that soon.
Tap
back and select the 3rd option. Make a note of the MAC address of the
gateway. There’s a couple listed, one of the router that the gateway is
connected to and one for the gateway itself. If it’s unclear which is
which, try both. (If you run homebridge with the -D flag, you’ll get
debug info which will let you know if you’ve connected to the gateway
correctly).
Install the homebridge-mi-aqara plugin and input the MAC and password from the steps above into your config.json file.
Restart HomeBridge and your accessories should now appear.
Usage
The
first thing to note is how tiny the door sensors are. Here’s an image
with the Elgato Eve as a comparison. Due to the size of the Eve device
and the trim around my doors, I’ve had to be creative with how I mount
it.
Xiaomi (left) vs Elgato Eve (right) door sensors
The
second thing to note is how quickly these sensors update within
HomeKit — unscientifically I’d say this is instant. Even with the latest
firmware the Elgato sensors still have a slight delay if that haven’t
been triggered for a period of time. This still makes them unsuitable
for certain automations, where you need a light to turn on immediately
for example.
Xiaomi door sensors in HomeKit
The
door sensors show up as regular sensors, along with three other
accessories from the gateway; a light sensor, multi colour light and a
switch. The light actually makes a pretty decent nightlight, especially
as you don’t need to physically connect it to a router.
I’ve
got a couple of automations setup where I use a door sensor in
combination with a motion sensor to detect if somebody is entering or
leaving a room. To do this I have a motion sensor on each side of the
door and then use the motion as a conditional rule. For example, I want
to turn on a table lamp in my daughters room when the door opens, but
only between 5am and 8am. This assumes that I’m going in to her room
when she is awake and that I want the light to come on with a soft glow.
It also assumes that if I’m already in the room and leave during that
window that I don’t want to like to come on (if for example she actually
isn’t awake, or she settles back to sleep). To do this, I have a motion
sensor on the landing and in her room (via a D Link Omna camera) with a
rule stating that the lamp should only come on when there is motion
detected on the landing. If there is motion on the landing then I must
be outside of the room, therefore entering. If there’s motion in the
room, then I’m leaving so the rule doesn’t trigger again.
To
get the extra option I used the Elgato Eve app. Firstly setup the basic
automation rules in the Apple Home app, and then add the condition
using Eve.
So
far, I’m really impressed with the Xiaomi system and would certainly
consider adding more devices (although you can only add 30 per gateway)
to my setup.
Hardik Gandhi is Master of Computer science,blogger,developer,SEO provider,Motivator and writes a Gujarati and Programming books and Advicer of career and all type of guidance.
