http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/ Engadget HD Comments for Control your entire house with your iPhone or iPod Touch http://www.engadgethd.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgethd.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/Dec 20th 2007 3:25PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/Dec 20th 2007 3:50PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/
The software is about $300 (need your own windows computer)
A Security system that can be controlled is about $600
A wireless touchpanel is about $1000
I have about $600 in lights
Whole house audio is about $2500

So compared to $7000 crestron touchpanels, it's a reasonable price.]]>Dec 20th 2007 3:53PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/http://www.Homeseer.com for the great software thats not too expensive. Looking for a non computer based option check out the Zwave enabled Home Remote line from Hawking. Does the same thing with little effort.]]>Dec 20th 2007 5:55PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Home.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=215348&prodSeriesId=457080&lang=en&cc=us
http://www.mynevo.com/html.php?page_id=5]]>Dec 20th 2007 7:14PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/
There are much better options out there that address all of those situations, if you go with windows-mobile platforms, but also have webserver support if you're wedded to an iPod.

I documented my personal setup at http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/ , but that's by no means the only look&feel - matter of fact, many folks using the same software I did have opted for an entirely different UI. I can control all of this over the Cingular network, so the efficiency bit noted above is important to have usable screens that don't require 45-90seconds to download.

But you are right - it is exciting that more options abound. If you're willing to be a programmer, this is a good path.]]>Dec 23rd 2007 3:24PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/20/control-your-entire-house-with-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/
Javascript not a problem, established language, tons of books, excellent existing knowledgebase. Learning something new is no different than the requirements for all the other systems out there CQC, Control4, Homeseer, Crestron. Each uses its own special language with its own syntax and limitations. Sure some try and hide it from you with pull downs and their own compiler but how is it any different. The problem is most do a poor job of doccumenting the language so it is easy to get stuck searching forums or poorly organized knowledge bases to get answers.

Non transferable. Minor but not the fault of the product. M$ has always hated standards they don't control. This line of though is the same reason we have crappy, bit mapped, unTrueType fonts instead of Postscript and crippled java support.

Non-optimized downloads. Kind of funny, that is what caching is for. If you reference the same image in a page 50 times the browser only grabs it once. Even then the biggest use for most of this will be while you are home with the system. That is where WIFI comes in. It is nice to adjust lights and turn on the TV when you are not home but it is hardly a daily thing for most. When was the last time you needed to check the weather while you were out and logged into your home server over the internet to check? If you have internet access why check it on your home server when weather.com is available.

Download time is more and issue of good GUI design. If you design a GUI that take 10 click to do common task then you are going to have problems.

The best part of this as I see it it being able to us an iPod Touch as a remote for the system. A sub $300 touchscreen remote is nice. No had buttons may be a problem but I can accept that. ]]>Dec 27th 2007 1:48AM