Using IFTTT with Alexa Routines (Plus Home Assistant!)
This week, Amazon Alexa Routines received two really nice upgrades. The first was the ability to name your Routines something. A small enhancement but super helpful once you…
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Smart Home
How to Name your Alexa Routines
I noticed recently in my Alexa app, that Amazon has enabled the ability to name your routines! This functionality was somehow lost in the first releases of the…
What happens if the Wink Platform goes out of business?
The Verge recently reported that the company that owns the Wink Smart Home platform is running out of money. The company i.am+ owned by Will.i.am has been apparently…
The Wyze Smart Lock
Today, Wyze released the Wyze Smart Lock for early access. It’s a limited run and available on both their site and the Wyze app for $89. Wyze has…
New Wyze firmware due in January – Highlights
In an email sent to all current Wyze owners, the company explained that a partnership with XNOR.AI was coming to an end. The Artificial Intelligence company XNOR.AI was…
Happy Thanksgiving from vCloudInfo.com and Bear Stone!
Just a quick note to wish everyone and their families a great Thanksgiving holiday this year! Hopefully, you are eating well, watching some football and getting ready for…
How to fix your Pi-Hole integration with Home Assistant
My Pi Hole has been broken for a while now. Not the actual Pi Hole service but the integration with Home Assistant. For a few months now, people…
Alexa Beat Cortana … or is about to.
If you haven’t heard, Microsoft is stopping development, support, and roll out of Cortana in several regional markets around the world. Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Mexico, China, Spain,…
Adding Days Until Sensor to my Home Assistant Speech routines
A few videos and posts ago, we made a new Holiday sensor that would use Wolfram Alpha API to give us the days until a particular holiday. You…