Hands-On Tech 198

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.

0:00:00 - Mikah Sargent
Coming up on Hands-On Tech. Let's take a look at what's involved with setting up a home hub. Stay tuned. Hello and welcome to Hands-On Tech, the show where I, Mikah Sargent, take your tech question and answer it, or try to at least, and occasionally I also review a gadget. But today is a day for questions, and today's question comes in from John, who writes we are a divided house.

I use Android, my wife uses Apple, I have all the home automation apps and devices hooked up through my phone and accounts. I'm wondering if, using an old iPad she has as a home hub. My thought is she will have access to everything thermostats, greenhouse controls, outlets, etc. On the iPad or her phone without having to access my phone. Do you have any tips for this, or am I making things too difficult? It's a seventh-generation iPad, and then John shares the model of the iPad. So, john, first and foremost, it's interesting because when I get these questions, I tend to get them in the reverse. It's that the main person is on an Apple device and the secondary person is on the Android device and is looking at how to get things set up for them, with you setting things up on Android. This actually helps in some ways, because setting things up on the Apple side often involves using Apple's own HomeKit system, which means that some people will forego setting things up in those third-party apps in the first place, because they can just scan that code in Apple's first-party app, get it set up, get it rolling with HomeKit and move on from there. The fact that you've done it on Android first means you've done the harder part, which is independent setup of each of these devices with their various apps, and so it's actually much easier to do it on the Apple side if the devices that you have in the home are HomeKit enabled. So if that's the case, yeah, using her phone to scan those HomeKit codes and add those to the home app is going to be a very simple thing to do.

If you're planning on using an iPad as a hub, you have a few options. First and foremost, you can just have it kind of as a floating hub, you know, meaning that she can go into the living room and grab the iPad and move it to the kitchen and be able to, you know, make adjustments there. Or you could create a hub that just serves as a hub for both of you if you want to use it, a control panel for both of you if you want to use it, and that can be done in many ways. But one of the products that I recommend for this is a product from elago not to be confused with Elgato, but elago: E-L-A-G-O which makes what they call the Home Hub Mount, and this, this product is essentially a little, a little pipe that runs across the top and a pipe that runs across the bottom of an iPad that you can then mount on the wall and then behind it, because of the space between the wall and where the iPad slides in. You are able to run a cable, if you want to, directly from the wall into it or, if you need to, you can have something running, you know, from the ground to it. But when it comes to this, it's very simple to also have your wife be able to access this. You know these different settings. Now there are some different tools that are available to you on the third party side that could make it so you both are able to use these devices in similar ways, meaning that when you learn how to do it, then you can also teach her how to do it, and that's where a third-party system called Home Assistant that's at home-assistant.io could be a great choice for you. So Home Assistant also features a great app that makes your phone, your iPad, your computer whatever it happens to be into a hub that can control lots of devices. Home Assistant works with more devices than you would get if you were using HomeKit or if you're using the Google Home access, because it is a much more open and robust platform, and so it is quite impressive. What you're able to do with Home Assistant and what that could mean, john, for you is that you're also setting up automations that make things kind of all work together even better than they would otherwise.

I think the idea with a smart home is that you get to a place where the smart home is actually smart, where smart doesn't just mean I connect to the internet or I have some sort of wireless connection, but smart means that it's thinking ahead for you and it's doing things that you would expect it to do based on the actions that you're taking in a room. So if the humidity sensor that is built into the smart speaker that I have detects that the humidity is over 65%, then go ahead and run the fan that is part of the my HVAC, or when the proximity sensor detects that I am within proximity of it, turn on the lights in that space, or using something like I believe it's I'm pretty sure it's Govee G-O-V-E-E that has this product. They have this pressure sensor that they just came out with recently I should say that it just recently came out with and when you detect pressure of the person sitting down on the sofa, then trigger my television watching scene, that kind of a thing, and these are all possible with these different smart home setups. But Home Assistant can be something that can kind of take it to the next level. So there are quite a few options for what you can do, john, but I don't think that you are. You said, are you making things too difficult? I don't think that that's making anything too difficult by making sure that your wife has control, and in fact I think that that's a necessary component of anyone who sets up a smart home. If you're setting up a smart home, you need to make sure that everybody in the home can access these various controls, because otherwise you are running the risk of what they call it spousal veto, I think is the term where they say I don't want to have anything to do with this. No, I'm sorry, but this is not happening. I can attest that. It is very important that you make it so everybody in the home feels like they can use the tools that are available to them. Otherwise, things can get pretty bad pretty quick. So make it complicated for yourself, john, to make it less complicated for your wife. That's my recommendation to you.

To those of you who are tuning in, I want to remind you all out there that we are always hoping that you'll join us in the Club twit.tv/clubtwit is where you go to sign up for that. Club Twit is available for $7 a month, but right now and for a limited time, we are continuing to offer our two-week free trial of Club Twit. So if you have not joined the club and you're looking to try it out and see what it's all about, now's the time to get those two weeks for free. To those of you who are members of Club Twit or are tuning in live, so you are seeing this: twit.tv/clubtwit/referral is where you should head, because by referring your friends you can earn free months of Club Twit. So be sure to join the club.

We've got lots of great benefits to you Ad-free versions of all of our shows. Access to the Twit+ bonus feed that has extra content you won't find anywhere else behind the scenes before the show, after the show special club twit events. Access to the members-only Discord server, which is a fun place to be to hang out with your fellow Club Twit members, but also those of us here at Twit. And access to the video versions of all of our Club Twit shows, like my shows, iOS Today and Hands on Mac. So be sure to join the club. We'd love to have you and be sure to give me a shout when you get in there so we can answer your questions if you should have them.

I also want to mention, before I say goodbye today, that we are in the midst of running our Twit Audience Survey, the 2025 Twit Audience Survey. Of course, this survey every year helps us kind of understand our audience, so that we can improve your listening experience and also tell our advertisers a little bit about the audience in general, and that's the point. It's a very generalized kind of knowledge of who you all are. It only takes a few minutes. Many of us have filled out the survey here at Twit to check that it doesn't have any areas where you'll accidentally get stuck, and I can confirm it doesn't take that long at all.

So if you head to twit.tv/survey25, that is where you will find it. Please don't wait. Take it before it closes at the end of the month. And, of course, thank you so much for taking the time to do so. Many of you hopped on board right away and we'd love to continue to see more of you make your way over to the survey. So twit.tv/survey25 to take that.

Folks, that is going to bring us to the end of this episode of Hands-On Tech. I'll be back next Sunday with another episode for you. Remember, hot@twit.tv is how you get in touch with your questions and I am looking forward to continuing to answer them. Bye-bye.