{"id":237,"date":"2017-01-06T08:54:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T08:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/?p=237"},"modified":"2017-01-06T08:54:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T08:54:30","slug":"smart-homes-getting-connected-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/startup\/smart-homes-getting-connected-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart Homes:  Getting Connected in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I bought two Amazon Echo Dot&#8217;s this Christmas and set one of them up last night. \u00a0It connected to my bluetooth speaker, but didn&#8217;t connect to my Amazon Fire Stick. \u00a0I&#8217;m not sure if I haven&#8217;t been able to figure that out, or whether they don&#8217;t provide that connectivity. \u00a0At this point, the Echo dot feels more gimmicky than a game changer. \u00a0However, these are early days, and after I set up my second device upstairs, I&#8217;m looking forward to a more fully immersive experience.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of a smart home\u00a0is appealing, and the implementation is finally coming together. \u00a0Early adopters are setting up smart homes\u00a0in the Untied States and Europe. \u00a0While I expect more difficulties here in Africa, I&#8217;ll certainly get some of the benefits from my devices. \u00a0McKinsey recently released an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/spContent\/connected_homes\/index.html?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1701\">infographic<\/a> on smart homes. There are some 29 million connected homes in the United States alone. \u00a0The industry is growing at 31%, and the devices are only getting better while the price points drop.<\/p>\n<p>This all points to a big power play between Amazon and Google. \u00a0If you want to know more about that, read this <a href=\"https:\/\/stratechery.com\/2017\/amazons-operating-system\/\">blog.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0The big companies are competing for the operating system of your home. \u00a0The home is one of the few places consumers don&#8217;t always use your phone. \u00a0It might be charging, or the consumer\u00a0might be enjoying time with their\u00a0family. \u00a0So embedding technology around the consumer makes more sense because the consumer will interact with it. \u00a0I&#8217;d ask Alexa what shows are playing at Kirstenbosch Gardens this weekend instead of pulling out my phone in front of my fianc\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>There are concerns about privacy, which are evident when\u00a0connecting the dots between low security in the devices, Russian hackers, and the constant connectivity of the devices. \u00a0The equivalence of KGB bugged rooms and a modern connected room is there. \u00a0Ask the wall for a towel, and it will be delivered in either scenario.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I think these connected devices are held back by rights issues with the content providers. \u00a0If I ask Alexa to put on the Washington Capitals game, I shouldn&#8217;t be denied because\u00a0I&#8217;m in Cape Town. \u00a0Alexa should make it happen. \u00a0There&#8217;s more to it than what I know right now, so I&#8217;ll do some digging into why content is unevenly distributed around the world. \u00a0At the end of the day, when I come home and ask Alexa to play some relaxing music, she listens. \u00a0That&#8217;s all I want for now.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I bought two Amazon Echo Dot&#8217;s this Christmas and set one of them up last night. \u00a0It connected to my bluetooth speaker, but didn&#8217;t connect to my Amazon Fire Stick. \u00a0I&#8217;m not sure if I haven&#8217;t been able to figure that out, or whether they don&#8217;t provide that connectivity. \u00a0At this point, the Echo dot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-startup"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}