Smartphones: Life's Remote Control 121
An anonymous reader writes "This year's Consumer Electronics Show has shown off more interconnected devices than I would know what to do with. Not only are existing devices I use getting modern, Internet-connected interfaces (cars, ovens, and security systems, for example), but companies are now putting out addons for smartphones that replace existing ones (blood pressure and glucose monitors, for instance. An article at the NY Times points out that the smartphone is quickly becoming life's remote control — a portal through with you'll soon be able to control far more of your electric devices than you might expect (or care to). 'For several years, technology companies have promised the dream of the connected home, the connected body and the connected car. Those connections have proved illusory. But in the last year app-powered accessories have provided the mechanism to actually make the connections. That is partly because smartphones have become the device people never put down. But it is also because wireless sensors have become smaller, cheaper and ubiquitous.'"
so in other words (Score:5, Interesting)
when I replace my phone in a couple years, I have to replace a bunch of other shit that magically wont work anymore
great plan, if you are not a consumer
Re:so in other words (Score:5, Interesting)
And even if you don't, software incompatibilities may lead to the same result. It's starting to appear in digital cameras now. For example, the Sony NEX-5R and NEX-6 cameras add an ability to be remote-controlled by a smartphone: you can get a remote view through the viewfinder and trigger the shutter remotely. Kind of cool idea in principle. But the Android app doesn't work on the newest version of Android, and Sony hasn't given an indication of when they plan to release an update.
Forget Security (Score:4, Interesting)
Remember that none of this stuff will work if you have even the faintest hint of security on your home network.
Don't even think about putting your spiffy new never-patched, Internet accessing, firewall-less "smart" devices on a separate subnet from your WiFi if you want to actually use these features.
Re:so in other words (Score:5, Interesting)
let me correct you just a bit; you don't need WAN reachability (inbound, probably even outbound) from embedded networked systems.
but inside your home LAN? its not too bad to have remote control over things. ob disc: I design and build audio things that have networked back-ends and allow ip-based clients to manage them.
I have always emphasized that firewalling and security SHOULD be part of all embedded systems that are network-reachable. with cheap things like the rasp-pi, you could glue on an ip-stack with security and have that front-end your embedded system. no reason not to, anymore.
if you do at least reasonable security, having remote control over physical things is cool and useful. but never 'just throw things on the network' without knowing how to secure them, internally and externally.