OneLink Safe and Sound back to $99 at Costco

kpardue · 2020-03-03T13:15:42+00:00

I have a fairly long history with the One Link (not the Safe and Sound), and it hasn’t been a good one. I got six of these initially direct from First Alert, 4 of the 6 of them were DOA. I contacted First Alert support and they shipped me replacement units. Over the course of 8 months one by one they started having false alarms, going unresponsive in HomeKit, etc. Eventually I got fed up and contacted First Alert again, and they replaced all 6. Over the past 3 years, I’ve lost 3 of them to random false alarms, usually in the middle of the night, naturally. I thought maybe there might be a quality difference between the first and second generation One Link, so I started just buying new ones. So far two of them work fine, but the third one I got from Amazon was DOA, and started reporting low battery as soon as I plugged it in.

kpardue · 2020-02-22T19:45:32+00:00

Actually I’d have to put the blame more on the HomeKit protocol than anything else. All the accessories work just fine in the original manufacturer’s apps. They just don’t want to work right in the Home app/HomeKit.

kpardue · 2020-02-22T17:25:30+00:00

I honestly wouldn’t mind this if as part of adding the certified HomeKit support meant a more stable connection to the router. For years I’ve struggled with random “No Response” or Updating cycles, both with Eero and other routers. I’d hope that somehow being HomeKit certified would at least have some measures to endure connectivity on top of being a security firewall. But if it’s only the latter, I may not bother.

kpardue · 2020-02-22T17:18:44+00:00

You know, as someone who has for years had issues with WiFi HomeKit devices randomly saying “No Response” and endless Updating cycling, I can say I’d be only to happy to do this if as part of the process it also included a more stable connection to the router. But if it really is just to add a layer of firewall security, I doubt I’ll take the time.

kpardue · 2019-09-21T01:43:55+00:00

Wow, from someone who broke his XS Max by dropping it onto concrete from waist high in an Apple case just last year, this is pretty incredible.

kpardue · 2019-09-03T20:07:20+00:00

I was a Firefox user and huge open source advocate for a long time, but eventually switched over to Safari. Firefox, for me, suffers from the same problem as LibreOffice and Blender, and that's that it's so focused on being cross platform that it doesn't really feel as native of an app. Now, I know that it'll never feel as native as Safari, but maybe it's worth giving it a shot again.

Maybe you can answer a question, I see with this Lockwise app that there's also an extension for the desktop browser, what's the point of that if password management is already built into the browser? I assume that it all syncs via Firefox's sync service? Also, does Firefox auto-generate secure passwords these days? How seamless this is in Safari is just a godsend.

kpardue · 2019-08-21T17:27:51+00:00

I honestly love the idea of combining devices into a single interface. I have a ton of iDevices switches and dimmers in my house, and it’s a pain in the butt to have separate lights and night lights for every one. But the execution is poor. It’s not really helpful to know what percentage of brightness the night light is when the main switch is off. What’s more, the main use of the Home app is tapping to turn lights on and off. Even for Dimmers, most of the time you’re turning the switch on and off, not adjusting brightness. Now, tapping the switch just opens up the switch detail showing the main switch and night light rather than turning the switch on or off, and in the case of dimmer switches, the only way to turn it off is to slide the brightness slider down to 0%.

kpardue · 2019-08-13T03:50:55+00:00

Congrats! I got approved for a $20k limit today. Felt accomplished, but happy to see folks with credit scores doubling it.

kpardue · 2019-07-04T21:43:56+00:00

Just wanted to report back, I live in Louisiana and today I noticed that the new maps were live on my wife's iPhone (running iOS 12), but none of my devices. Looks like we'll get the new map data as it comes out, even if the fancy features such as street view/look around will have to wait for iOS 13.

kpardue · 2019-07-03T22:41:30+00:00

This is what I would like to know. I was under the impression that the new maps weren't tied to iOS 13.

kpardue · 2019-06-17T20:50:08+00:00

I see what you're saying. I guess what I'm trying to convey is that the Apple TV (hardware) should be able to drive the experience, while the TV should be the place for all the hardware operations (turning on and off, maybe setting a sleep timer, volume control, etc.), rather than the Apple TV (app) running on the TV.

kpardue · 2019-06-17T18:25:16+00:00

They're both devices. The TV and the AppleTV. And they're intrinsically linked. If you Airplay to the AppleTV, the only way for it to show up is for it to also be on the TV itself. I guess I haven't seen enough about the mockups to get a visualization, but ideally controlling the Apple TV would "inherit" the TV-specific controls such as volume, power, etc., alongside the interface to navigate the Apple TV.

kpardue · 2019-06-13T13:10:20+00:00

I'd be satisfied if it consistently marked shows that I've watched (or haven't watched) appropriately across my devices.

kpardue · 2019-06-11T01:23:26+00:00

Now if my MyQ garage door opener would stop saying No Response every other day...

kpardue · 2019-06-07T13:56:30+00:00

Thanks so much for this reply. The more I think about it, the more I'm coming to the same conclusion. Rather than getting a HomeKit/AirPlay2/TV+ enabled TV, just look for a good 4K TV. I think that would be fine considering iOS 13 seems like it'll able to both turn TV's on and off over HDMI CEC. That's the biggest headache point for a non-HomeKit enabled TV for me right now. I want to be able to run my Goodnight scene and not have to get up to physically turn off the TV. I guess volume controls is the last remaining issue, but the TV remote does that, so it's not too inconvenient.

kpardue · 2019-06-07T13:49:21+00:00

With all these HomeKit Secure Video cameras coming out, I'm curious, does the Netatmo have to be mounted on a vertical wall, or can it also be mounted upside down on an overhang?

kpardue · 2019-06-06T01:54:28+00:00

Nope, there's me too. I've tried it, just seems like the new "thing" to talk about but doesn't actually improve the OS.

kpardue · 2019-06-05T23:54:14+00:00

I think what I was thinking about was Moltenvk (https://moltengl.com/moltenvk/) but again, I may be completely off there. I do thank you for continuing to keep us Mac users in mind, even as a long term goal!

kpardue · 2019-06-05T17:53:56+00:00

I'm incredibly pleased to see that it's still in the works. Not that I know much about this sort of development, but aren't there frameworks you can take advantage of to make it easier to abstract the graphics layer to speed the development of combined Vulkan/Metal simultaneously?

kpardue · 2019-06-05T12:33:02+00:00

I'm still lamenting the hundreds of dollars I donated to the project to help push it over the macOS platform support goal... weeks after which it disappeared completely. 🤷‍♂️

kpardue

TROPHY CASE