The Best New Smart Home Devices - Massive Unboxing - November

[@thomasmurphy6717]

Definitely want to see more on the homey pro hub. Glad you have it for testing.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Yeah that thing has been impressive

[@blazure101]

@AutomateYourLife any update? I've been looking for a hub and it looked promising but reviews on app stores and merchants look low. Possibly due to lacking Americas support?

[@wes1642]

Good to see you finally have the homey pro ! Have mine for some months now and it works flawless !! Enjoy the homey pro looking forward to your indept review.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Thanks! I'll definitely enjoy it, and am already.

[@bendeswart6222]

Hi, in the video you connected the LAN adapter the wrong way. The short cable of the LAN adapter has to go in the power adapter. The long usb c cable has to be connected to the homey pro and to the side of the LAN adapter.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Folks really catch on to stuff! Good pickup

[@nathandube7598]

Have been running the homey pro for about 2 months. Fully invested, bought the bridge as well for my new house to cover the space. it is awesome, dont hesitate, do it. It's great it is the core now of my home network.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Man, it's...attractive and addictive.

[@danmiller81]

Let’s see a comparison between 1. Homey 2. Hubitat 3. HomeSeer 4. Home assistant 5. Hoobs

[@ShadwTrooper]

Thanks for the reviews. I'm a home assistant user and I will say... Everything you said about home assistant is true. 😮 I jumped to HA when Smartthings s**t the bed. At the time, HA was the only real option with the flexibility I needed. I've been happy with it, mostly. The culture in the community is probably its biggest drawback but there are some great YT creators that are awesome and walk through some of the more complicated HA concepts and setups. I'm glad to see other, more user friendly, local controlled options maturing. At some point I will be looking at those. Appreciate your work giving us a good overview of these systems.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Thanks for sharing this! It's good to know I have a fairly good read on the situation. Everyone's different and will experience it differently, but it's still great to hear from others that have experienced some of the same.

[@richchapman5011]

Love the look of Homey Pro especially the flows, just not sure what life would be like with living with the only lung I’d have left to be able to financially purchasing one. Another great video Brian, keep them coming.

[@AutomateYourLife]

I can guarantee that you would be out of breath all the time! First from the automations, and then from the lack of oxygen coming from your single lung! 🤣🤣

[@StephenMatrese]

I just home they don't go the subscription model like the wink hub did. I also hope that they activate that 433MHz radio in the US... A lot of people might find themselves registering in southern, southern Canada

[@Watafakaren]

Im on the fence considering buying Athom Homey pro, as a replacement for Smartthings. From what i can tell, the only thing i have installed that does not have an integration is arlo pro, but i can live with managing it via smartthings. It would however enable integration of alot of components i have that currently does not integrate into smartthings, like Irobot vacuum, Xbox ++. The price tho. It is not cheap for an automation upgrade, and some integrations that is essentially nice to have not need to have. Would love some more in depth videos on Homey to help tip the scale. Thanks for the quality content!

[@AutomateYourLife]

It's a pricey unit! You're kinda all in at that point right?

[@Watafakaren]

@@AutomateYourLife Most certainly. i have maxed out the possibilities for smartthings, but u know how it is.. if i can only add one more thing...(!)

[@momentumgamingtv]

Glad to see you testing Homey pro, are you gonna do an in depth review of it? Im deciding which will be my "definitive" hub at the moment! That one seems to have everything you need!

[@AutomateYourLife]

I do plan to do a few videos and comparisons, but probably won't have anything out in 2023. Sorry if that's too late :)

[@shrupy]

I'm really looking forward to the homey pro comparison video. I'm trying to decide between that and HOOBS using Homekit. But also would like to use Google Assistant instead of Siri and I have decided to cut all ties with Alexa after we've had way too many fights over the years.

[@AutomateYourLife]

We will do what we can!

[@MSCVINTAGE]

Homey ftw

[@brian1988]

Many people own homes and condos in foreign countries. Home Automation is a critical aspect of foreign home ownership. It would be interesting to see a video in which services, such as Google, Amazon, TP-Link, etc., do not block international device usage, and enable the most robust remote home monitoring for items such as cameras, wifi door locks, routers, wifi water leak monitors, thermostats, etc. I recently purchased a Google Nest-Yale wifi door lock in the USA and took it to my condo in Panama to install so I could monitor and change access codes remotely from my home in Virginia. The lock installed fine, but the required Nest app would allow registration of an address in only the USA, Canada and Mexico. I chatted with Google support, but got nowhere. I also had a Nest Thermostat, and just brought it back with me to the USA because it would likely have had the same registration issue. Anyway, Love Your Channel!👍😎

[@AutomateYourLife]

Interesting problem!

[@AutomateYourLife]

Thanks too!

[@skylucrew6377]

Really interested in Homey pro, please make more videos about it. Not many videos on YT at thw moment.👍👍

[@AutomateYourLife]

I am definitely working on a comparison video and I will talk to them about some dedicated videos related to their system

[@bendeswart6222]

@@AutomateYourLife youtube.com/@homey?si=9cb1DRSfAvupecHW they have a youtube channel. Most are filmed with the homey pro 2016/2019 but the working of the standard flows and advanced flows is the same

[@DigitalBenny]

With the shape, color, and logo, it looks like a huge Chromecast 😅

[@eiotclub-sim-card]

good to see the video

[@ericmensah8025]

Thanks

[@AutomateYourLife]

You're too kind Eric! Thanks for all your support!

[@JerryPena]

Waiting for a in depth Homey Pro. I just purchased one and want to harnest the power of it as I haven't dived in yet.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Oh man, enjoy the Flow!

[@jhardy0786]

I had the same problem with home assistant blue in the us I paid a lot of money it worked for a short time then stopped I will never use home assistant again

[@AutomateYourLife]

I wondered if there were others. Sorry to hear that!

[@fernandoc8931]

Would like to hear more about the homey

[@AutomateYourLife]

Deal

[@c849243]

Another video filled with great info and research. Thank you, you Canadian genius!

[@AutomateYourLife]

Too kind big bear! Thank you!

[@lbarke2]

Chapters...

[@AutomateYourLife]

They're in the description...should be working. Not sure what's up

[@umaiar]

​@@AutomateYourLifeI see chapters there. Did you change something? Or maybe this was a compliment?

[@AutomateYourLife]

@@umaiar oh I had to change something to get it to work right

[@StephenMatrese]

45:00 This may trigger your Google Home, it actually stopped the video on me

[@AutomateYourLife]

Ahhhh, sorry!

[@StephenMatrese]

I survived, with only minor splinching@@AutomateYourLife

[@joshdotai]

Love it!

[@AutomateYourLife]

We loved it too!

[@StephenMatrese]

26:30 I don’t like paying for my data about me. I know that there are are upgrades available with Apple Watch, but I’ve never looked at them even.

[@StephenMatrese]

18:00 Crown, not dial (I made the same mistake way back and my late Dad corrected me-so that I didn’t sound silly- he was a watch guy)

[@AutomateYourLife]

Dad's...always the teachers eh? And yep, crown! 🤣

[@theattorney6072]

Thx. Nice New products. Do you know if there is any outdoor / water resistent chime that Can be paired with Home assistant ? When I am in the garden, sometimes I miss people ringing at the front door.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Sorry, I don't know one specific to HA. Heck, outdoor is hard enough. I'd just look for a speaker you can connect and do that

[@bagrubmeister4973]

Hi Brian, Which on off lights switches and plugs do you recommend the work with Alexa that dont need a separate hub. I am Christmas shopping for my daughter that I think she needs to automate some things in her house.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Without a hub is a bit tricky, but with Alexa I would suggest TP Link with some of their newer switches there. An Echo Show 8 3rd Gen has Matter over Thread though and Zigbee, so that opens up a lot of options! Maybe that's the right way to go :)

[@bagrubmeister4973]

@@AutomateYourLife thanks Brian I was thinking TP link too he just got the Echo that hangs on the wall that should have thread correct I think the 15?

[@sbatty64]

Great video again can you post a link to the flow software you use thanks simon

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hey Simon, that was part of Homey! That's their software! Thanks for watching!

[@TheWolfHound7777]

Does the echo show 8 have the ability to remove the silk browser address bar? Even with the large screen the address bar still takes up a fair bit of space. It would also be nice if they brought back the Twitch app for the echo.

[@AutomateYourLife]

The capabilities are exactly the same with the Silk browser as other ones. Nothing to write home about there :(

[@Bigglare]

If only Amazon added Zwave radio and made the echo show a matter bridge to expose all the zigbee, zwave, devices out to other Matter controllers.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Sounds like a dream, but likely only a dream

[@Amoux_Fang]

How does the Govee heater work? When my Dyson won’t automatically turn on due to regulations in the us?

[@AutomateYourLife]

I don't know why Dyson thinks they can't do that. It could be a liability thing more than a legality thing though? There are a few heaters available today that come on automatically.

[@Amoux_Fang]

@@AutomateYourLife i just double checked, its ul1278 which covers the ossilation part of the heater + fan. Which in the US its not allowed to remote (via app) to turn on the heat. It has do be done via physical remote or by touching the physical device.

[@AutomateYourLife]

@@Amoux_Fang while you do have to meet NEC requirements, UL is different. So sounds like a specific requirement of that certification. UL is not required for NEC compliance. So that's how 😃

[@obijuan-]

Doesn't Homey Pro have a Tesla car and Tesla Energy interface/feature/app? Can you tell us about that? Please?

[@AutomateYourLife]

I don't have a Tesla to test it, but there are some community created integrations for Tesla cars and an official Tesla Energy integration

[@Finns-Projects]

I so want a smart watch. But my main issue for smart watches is better battery life. charging my watch ever day or every 2-5 days is way to often. alteas 14 days is a must. That`s why aim still on a Withings Scanwatch. Since it a great in btw i feel. i have only usted HA and ST so dont have any others to ask for. so far would u say Homey pro is easier or same to use then HA? Thats the only issue with HA that it can be kinda complicated on things. Great video as always Brian :D

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hey Finn, Homey Pro is really easy to use for basic stuff. For the more complex automations, it's not that hard. Just takes a few hours of learning how the system works!

[@philipperostin]

Are you preparing a full review of the Homey pro ?

[@AutomateYourLife]

That'll take some time, but likely a comparison review

[@chuckem77]

You stopped your own video with the "hey Google, stop."

[@AutomateYourLife]

Ahhhh man! :(

[@obijuan-]

I look forward each month to your unboxing. Educational. I am curious how the Show Gen3 works with a Wyze Camera image. There's an annoying difference between on the Gen2, that the Gen1 does not have. When you send a Wyze Cam image via a routine (for example) to a Show Gen2, after a few minutes, the image shrinks to less than 1/4 in size and moves to the upper left corner of the Show 8 Gen2 screen. You must press the lower right corner of the smaller screen to open an option to return it to full screen. The Gen1 does not do this. The Gen1 simply stays in full screen view for sometimes longer than an hour. The Gen2, never. I reached out 3 times to the Alexa team and they never understood what I was talking about. The question now is does the Gen3 behave this way? Hope not, it makes the Gen2 an unattractive device used with Wyze Cams.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Thanks Obi! Keep the question in mind. I'm plugging in a couple of Wyze cameras for videos later this week so I'll be able to see it. As far as I've seen with other cameras, it doesn't drop to that preview/pip mode with cameras though.

[@obijuan-]

@@AutomateYourLife Thank you Brian, Looking forward to your comment about the Show Gen1 & 2 and how 3 does. I like to use my Wyze cams to scan around the street area and yard. I use simply "the time" to call for the Show to bring up one of my dozen+ Wyze cams. When I say time, I use top of the hour, to pull a fresh image in such as 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 until dark. Pulling up a different cam. The command actions are triggered from Alexa routines. And by trial and error, I have learned two things that improve my chances of getting the show to show cam. 1) Use a single action line, such as Show XX Cam on Echo Show 1. No other action or choices in the routine. 2) Best to not use that show for the "Hear Alexa from", device. I use a separate Dot. Don't ask my why, just works better.

[@ryamelp]

Do you sell your old tech or recycle it?

[@AutomateYourLife]

I try to give as much of it away as I can, and then I will keep other stuff for comparisons and update videos!

[@SmartHomeHASHTAGS]

I didn't know that this was going to be an unboxing AND many reviews video. I know it's difficult to predict the future and make everyone happy, but could you ask the manufacturer if they expect that their device to be released worldwide or just north America? I know that Canadians have that problem too.

[@AutomateYourLife]

They always are both Michael! 😃

[@AutomateYourLife]

And I always ask, but can rarely get a response

[@ghislainpoirier]

Hi I am from Québéc and I love your show!!! I am TESLA fan do you think you can get some information from them for the PI phone? That will 🤯 Thanks Ghislain Poirier

[@AutomateYourLife]

Thanks so much! The Pi Phone hey? We will have to see what we can dig up. Elon has a lot going on so I wonder when we will actually see hardware?

[@ericmensah8025]

Hi, Brian. Cool video. Glad to know the new stuff that are out. Can you tell me if the heaters are compatible to use in the you Uk & is there a UK 3 pin plug with the heaters/ fans. As well as US & EU. Pls & thx

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hey Eric! The plugs are all 2 pin (ungrounded) for the US, but in the UK they don't have all these models yet. I did have this one last year: uk.govee.com/collections/new-releases/products/goveelife-smart-portable-space-heater but again...I can't tell you that it was a 3 pin for the UK plugs, nor the EU model. Just haven't been able to see any of these.

[@ericmensah8025]

@AutomateYourLife thx for your reply. Will the heater shown on the show work in the uk using a adapter. I bought a Govee kettle from the US website. But even using an adapter, the kettle still burnt out. Had to return it. So, I don't want to make the same mistakes with the US heaters

[@cdarrigo]

All those radios in the homey hub and they can't build in an Ethernet adapter? Also 2gb of RAM and 8gb of storage is pretty limiting... I'm very interested in seeing the NEXT revision of this device

[@AutomateYourLife]

You think we will run out of storage? I didn't think so, but thought if I had enough running the RAM could potentially be an issue

[@cdarrigo]

@@AutomateYourLife if you build a lot of complicated automations, I could see 8 gigabytes not being enough storage. Also, I would imagine the more systems you integrate with, the more it has to manage on its local file system. Too bad there's not an SD card slot to expand the storage beyond the 8 gigabytes. He's all feel like first generation problems

[@AutomateYourLife]

@cdarrigo this is gen 2 ;)

[@cdarrigo]

@@AutomateYourLife Gen 3 then :)

[@DementedDog]

I won’t use Ring products because they take so long to connect that you miss the person at the door.

[@thebigdoghimself]

I won't use them because I don't trust Amazon.

[@AutomateYourLife]

You guys can have a look at our review of those tapo cameras. They seem to solve a lot of those issues, It's just our last video on the main channel page

[@DementedDog]

@@AutomateYourLife I’ve gone with Reolink Brian 😁

[@AutomateYourLife]

@@DementedDog that's ok too 😃

[@ypark2877]

Have tapo and reolink both very fast notifications

[@Mathieu-r7t]

Hi there ! @ 6:29 you mentioned getting fire tv functionalities to work on echo show 10… what does that mean ? Can I watch tv ? How do I do that? (I’m in Canada btw) thanks 😊

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hey Mathieu, if you've seen some of our news videos, we showed the new Fire TV Channels option on fire sticks. That's coming here. Ask for Fire TV Channels specifically, although it's starting in the US like most features

[@MatthewHoHiWorld]

Please tone down the sound effect at 1:08:36 . Otherwise great video and format.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Heard and will do! Thanks for watching!

[@mesoed]

Maybe it's just the video, but the heater looks like it's a steaming pile of....

[@AutomateYourLife]

lol, must be. They're nice :)

[@Davehaha2001]

That’s Josh thing is more American than Chad lol 😂

[@AutomateYourLife]

🤣🤣

[@houstonshomeautomation3524]

Still around. Been training for a marathon. I run alexa and smartthings too .Top 5 smartthings (new map feature) Josh looks interesting? Homesite. Alexa and google had some app updates I think. I'd love to see an alexa guard how to video from you

[@AutomateYourLife]

Good luck in your marathon!

[@BradClarke]

My wife and I got a huge laugh on your Home Assistant basement comments. It is a powerful system, but it's not for non-technical people. The forums are not friendly at all, quite toxic actually.

[@AutomateYourLife]

I'm glad some folks are able to find the humor in it! Thanks Brad!

[@philipperostin]

Iv only amazon would stop using barel power ! It only pleases my cats !

[@AutomateYourLife]

LOL! Those cats are the bane of home automation

[@philipperostin]

@@AutomateYourLife Mines especially. My cords/chargers budget would shame the spending of the canadian government !

[@andrewroberts6575]

As a long time Amazon owner, I'm finally giving up on the sh1t show, that is home automation. My frustration of trying to get this crap working is over. Absolutely nothing works as advertised. Even super strong wifi makes no difference. That alexa now butts into conversations with un requested bollox. Lights respond for a while. Until they don't. Prime movies are ALWAYS out of voice sync. And reviews say that appple & Google are worse. I may return, to home automation, when the Chinese do it better and cheaper. Like everything they do. 🤬🤬🤬🤬

[@wapphigh5250]

I have a love hate with my Ring Spotlight Camera .... on the one hand live view all the time would be awesome and allow all the benefits that would entail..On the other hand if triggered all the time (and it's real easy in the app to leave it on) its a shocking battery drain..even with the solar panel Ring sucks and wants to throtttle with it's pay wall etc.. I don't like Ring because of this.. their product is deceptive.. continuous live view drains the battery. Without it is captive. The products are advertised battery only but really for all practical use they need to be hard wired powered I also hate the way you can't give it a static IP I won't be buying another after given this now a full 6 months test out - their APi and forced recording to their website (Only) sucks I'll probably end up ditching it Just MO

[@AutomateYourLife]

Sounds like you're ready to move on! I have seen a pretty good battery drain on that Pro now that I've had it a month. For sure.

[@mazzvr_gaming]

110th

[@AutomateYourLife]

Yesssssssss! That means I'm 111th! ;)

[@BadgerBob]

I think you might end up regretting this (not ditching Smart Things, it’s terrible) and losing viewers. Homey might be amazing, but it’s way over priced and adoption will be very minimal.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Thanks! Yeah, it'll maybe hurt views. It is what it is!

[@BadgerBob]

@@AutomateYourLife I’ll hope you’ve done a good deal with Homey. I’ll still be watching of course. Best smart home channel. Keep up the good work 👍🏻

[@turbochip1208]

Consider yourself officially thrown out of the basement. LOL. I agree, homeassistant is not for everyone. If you want something that just works as long as you stay in it's echo system, get smartthings or stupidthings as I like to call it. I just wish you would do an honest review of homeassistant. You were quick to show the flow-based automation design with other systems but stopped short of showing the node-red integration in homeassistant which is the same flow-based automation solution. You also seemed annoyed with the entities provided, and yes there are many, but when you want to use that information in an automation, it's not so annoying. The is a large community around homeassistant. Unfortunately, like you said there are those in it that feel the need to bash any questions they feel are unworthy. They are everywhere in every system, they seem to be a force of nature at times. Thankfully many of the discord channels of other content providers are filled with people more than willing to help.

[@AutomateYourLife]

I've been thrown out. I'll take it! But that was my review! I get that the system goes forever and you can do tons (like node-red), it's just that it's more complex for than the average person wants. At least, that's my opinion! And I like the entities...I didn't like the job it gave me to do. :) Totally love the info and TOTALLY loved that all that comes in in seconds. :)

[@turbochip1208]

@@AutomateYourLife Ok, we'll let you back into the basement when you want to come back from the dark side. LOL

[@StephenMatrese]

HomeAssistant has become a lot more user friendly than it used to be and with third party repositories and HACS, I haven't found anything other than HomePod Mini that doesn't integrate. Gets easier really fast. It lets me connect all kinds of stuff to Apple HomeKit. They (the devs) are specifically focusing on ease of use and ease of first use right now. @@AutomateYourLife

[@QVINZANT]

Stop saying google

[@AutomateYourLife]

Whyyyyy? The wake word is Hey Google, or OK Google

[@disneyjoe7]

HA isn’t perfect…. What KZbin remove all content of this user.

[@AutomateYourLife]

LOL

[@thebigdoghimself]

I have 3x philips hue hubs. Unfortunatly, each hub requires its own Hue account, that inturn means you can't link multiple Hue hubs to a Google home account. So my question is, can I use a third-party hub that has a built-in zigbee radio to link all my Hue lights and then use that third party hub to get voice control over all the lights? Or I guess another way to look at it would be to link all 3 hubs to the third party hub, have my Google home relay voice commands to a third party hub?

[@AutomateYourLife]

Many hubs can directly link all your Hue lights, so that is a potential option. There are a few issues with that though because you will hit upper limits with many hubs in terms of the number of devices that you can have on them. Other potential drawback is that you will be losing some of the features that you get with Philips hue but if it's basic lighting then I would suggest you could use a few different hubs to then aggregate those lights into Google home