Home Automation Today! The HTINews is our Bi-Monthly Online Magazine featuring the most up to date Home
Automation news available. Here you'll find feature articles, product ads and reviews,
interesting columns and interviews as well as press releases announcing the latest
technologies available from those companies pioneering the Home Automation industry. Home Theater Control Free Product Info
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Spring has hesitantly sprung around here and with any luck summer will follow soon. The home automation industry continues to expand and it seems there is a new standard cropping up daily. This is of concern to many including moi. I thought it was bad when there were only 3 protocols. In my opinion, the more standards the more confusion and the more opportunity for the end users to be forgotten in the rush for bigger and better solutions to non existant problems. Don't forget guys ... we just want to be able to buy stuff that we can understand, plug in and use (kinda like toasters). Wouldn't it be awful if one end of your house was wired with 220 Volt and another with 110 and yet another with 24 volt. Great business decision for adapter manufacturers but a lousy solution for the rest of us. Along these lines have a look at Ken Wacks article about User Interface Design. Oh ... and I'll try to help out by keeping a list of current standards online. Please help me out by sending any corrections and additions. This issue is chock full of great info as usual :-) Home Entertainment systems and equipment are on everyones "Home Toys" list so it's fun to see what's available out there to control them. To start off with ... have a look at the two remotes that I reviewed (Take Control by Harman Kardon and Microsoft and SL9000 Remote from Universal Remote). Very different approaches to provide similar funcionality. There are also some interesting articles about multi room video, Peracom IR control networks and others. How about you Unix/Linux fans. Yes, there is home automation software available to control your systems. Neil Cherry's article Automation and Unix covers the topic very well. We've added some Unix shareware to the library so go for it. |
Y2K is a hot topic as well. So hot in fact that I'm kinda tired of hearing about it. My humble opinion ... problem identified / problem solved ... let's get on with the rest of our lives. (Please don't call to yell at me if the power grid fails on New Years Eve). I polled several of the main manufacturer's pf HA controllers about the Y2K problem and you can read about it in HA and Y2K. Have a look at the long list of press releases (listed above) to get an idea of what is happening in this industry. Keep checking back to the press release section during the months to come as we post new information there as soon as we get it and we've added a new Press Release Library so you can look back at past news to see how the industry has emerged. If you want to be kept informed, sign up on our Update Mailing List. You'll get an email once a month or so with news and links to new information. Have a look at the Directories index. There are some new Job Opportunities, Events and Training Sessions posted and the Libraries index lists the Shareware, Links, Articles, Reviews. Standards, Press Releases and Tips & Tricks archives which have all been updated. The contest prize this issue is a Take Control Remote from Harman Kardon (click here for a review). The next issue will feature Wireless Home Control. It's always a challenge to find authors and enthusiasts willing to send us articles so if you have something to submit please let me know. As always ... many thanks to our advertisers. Without your support we couldn't keep this ball rolling along. If you're a reader and enjoy this magazine you can help by clicking on those ads and buying lots of stuff. Enjoy! |
