Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Can Cortana Control Smart Home Devices?

And get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. Inside the train station above the platforms you will find an ATM and a grocery store as well as a Starbucks and some smaller food outlets nearby. You will arrive in Terminal 2 and the train station is in/near Terminal 1. There is a bus shuttle that leaves from the arrivals area in Terminal 2 to take you to an entrance of the train station (5-10 minute walk form that entrance to the platforms). The bus ride itself only takes a few minutes but there is only one bus every minutes so if you have just missed one it will take a bit longer. But you never know if everything is going to be on time so you might want to allow a little extra time if you are buying a non-refundable restricted train ticket .

cortana smart home control

Geeni’s smart bulbs and power products work with Cortana, and its smart surge protector even lets you name and control each outlet separately or in groups with Cortana. Before the update, Cortana could control smart home devices, such as Nest, Wink, Insteon, SmartThings, Philips Hue, TP-Link Smart Plugs, and Honeywell Thermostats. This virtual assistant used to work with smart devices, but that's not the case anymore. The metallic-looking Invoke comes in two colours – Pearl Silver and Graphite Black – and features a blue, glowing light on the top.

Cortana Skills

Cortana was the voice control that powered the Harman Kardon Invoke smart speaker. Yet, Microsoft recently pulled support for Cortana on iOS and Android devices outside of the U.S. last year, including the U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany and four more countries. Addressing Cortana as "Insteon," users will be able to tell the virtual assistant to do things like turn connected appliances on and off, blast the air conditioning, or run pre-programmed lighting scenes. Windows users are already able to monitor and control their Insteon devices directly from customizable Live Tiles on their phones, tablets, and PCs. Cortana could control many third-party smart home devices, from Honeywell thermostats to TP-Link smart plugs, but that integration also appears now to be ending. Even more, Microsoft will end all support for Cortana in older versions of Window, so not updating to the latest software to keep Cortana working is not going to be possible.

Microsoft is also going to make it harder to access Cortana going forward, telling users that they will have to be logged into their work, school or Microsoft account before using Cortana. Wink is another smart home system that incorporates lighting, but also goes beyond that into home security, too. To get started you need the $100 hub, but there are various other bundles you can acquire which include things like smart plugs and motion sensors.

The Cortana smart home: Your need-to-know on Microsoft's voice assistant

LIFX has a variety of different bulbs starting with the $25 dimmable white bulb, but also has color changing options as well as LED strips to get the lighting setup of your dreams just right. Insteon has been Windows-friendly for a few years now so it's great to see the company's products supporting Cortana integration. There's a hub at the center of everything to which you can pair bulbs, sensors, alarms and more.

cortana smart home control

IFTTT works with 600 services from providers in a variety of areas. You could add items to your shopping list on Trello, post a tweet, open your Link shades, extend tumble time on your GE Dryer and log your weight on Fitbit among many other things. If you're using a Windows 10 computer, just type "Cortana Notebook" into the Start menu.

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Some new manufacturers have joined the Cortana-compatible list, including Ecobee, Honeywell, TP-Link, Geeni and LIFX. Users who own thermostat of Ecobee or Honeywell’s Lyric and Total Connect Comfort models can start to ask the voice assistant to set the room temperature to 72 degrees. Find the best phones, apps and accessories with our CNET Mobile newsletter.

cortana smart home control

This is referred to as 'Cortana lighting' but Harman also talks about a 'touch to surprise' user interface on the top of the speaker. While Microsoft is hardly leading the connected home charge, it has its own smart home ecosystem in Cortana, its voice assistant. Applets, a series of motion triggers on IFTTT platform, can also create other possibilities for Cortana users. For example, a command “Hey Cortana, movie time” could turn down the Philips Hue lights, turn on the Harmony TV set the Nest thermostat to the comfortable temperature.

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Since you have more time now, there is also a little food court one level above the check-in counters in T2. Cortana uses natural language processing so, like the other AI assistants, you should be able to have a conversation with it rather than barking specific commands. For instance, it knows that "I need a taxi" and "call me a cab" mean the same thing. Microsoft reckons 145 million people already use Cortana, and it does have some advantages over the rest; for instance, it integrates with Microsoft software, which could be really useful for work planning. The announcement comes just as Insteon is starting to sell its home-automation products and starter kits in Microsoft Stores across the US. Insteon products are also available online in places like Europe, Asia, and Australia.

cortana smart home control

We've been expecting Cortana to get smart home integrations on the PC for awhile now, so this isn't the most surprising news. Still, Microsoft hasn't officially announced this update, and we've reached out for more information on when it will roll out to everyone and what services will be compatible. We know that HP is building its own Cortana-powered smart speaker but that's still shrouded in mystery. Other partners including Intel, Qualcomm, Allwinner, Synaptics and Tonly are helping to build reference designs for Cortana in the home too. More, Cortana is now working with IFTTT, a free platform now helps 600 services and apps connect together. The integration even enables users to customize their own phrases to use with services on IFTTT.

The company may be trying to catch up, and has added a new "Connected Home" section to the Cortana Notebook menu in some Windows 10 PCs. After Apple officially joined the smart speaker battlefield with its HomePod launch, Microsoft has finally strengthened Cortana’s capability in the smart home context. Originally hailing from Troy, Ohio, Ry Crist is a text-based adventure connoisseur, a lover of terrible movies and an enthusiastic yet mediocre cook. A CNET editor since 2013, Ry's beats include smart home tech, lighting, appliances, and home networking. A pioneering recommendation platform where you can research, discover, buy, and learn how to connect and optimize smart devices.

TP-Link has a range of smart home accessories under its Kasa brand that while requiring an iOS or Android device to set up, has full Cortana integration from there on out. You're not getting bulbs or anything with Insteon, rather it's a system designed to help you automate your home. From there you've got a wide ecosystem of sensors and add-ons you can connect to the hub to automate your entire home. The Glas looks downright futuristic with its translucent display, and it'll be packed with features for not only warming and cooling your home, but monitoring your energy use. It's not yet on sale, but pre-orders are slated to begin sometime in Spring 2018. The Johnson Controls Glas is a smart thermostat that not only harnesses the power of Cortana — and is pretty much the best-looking thermostat you'll find.

What devices [used to] work with Cortana?

Their Wi-Fi-connected surge-protected smart power strip, for example, allows you to name and control outlets individually or as a single combined outlet. Once you've connected your Nest account with Cortana on your PC or smartphone, you can use voice control to interact with your thermostat. Cortana helps make your life easier by making it easy to control your smart home devices from afar. No problem, just pull out your phone, open the Cortana app and say, “Hey Cortana, turn off the lights,” and she’ll take care of it for you. According to Windows Central, the Connected Home feature is also available on Windows 10 Mobile, so you may be able to try it if you're one of the few people using a Windows phone.

cortana smart home control

Insteon is a fee-free home-automation network built around a dual-band connection that combines wireless mesh networking with existing power line connections. To date, Insteon's product line features over 200 smart-home devices, including sensors, switches, and cameras. Geeni's products have some neat features that work with Cortana.

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