Google Home Downtime: What, Why… and How To Turn It Off!

A phone screenshot from my Google Home app's "Downtime" feature, explaining what it does (including that alarms and timers will still be heard).

“Digital wellbeing” is an idea that appeared a few years ago, and it aims to address addiction to digital technology – such as social media and computer games – by limiting how much time can be spent on them. Smartphones increasingly offer this feature too, and it was recently rolled out to the Google Home … Read more

Your Nest Device May Be Pointless In Illnois (Or The EU!)

Nest help pages - familiar face detection

When you’re looking at Nest’s smart doorbells and cameras, you may see a symbol (indicating a footnote) whenever “familiar face detection” is mentioned: So what does this suspicious footnote mention? Scrolling down to the bottom of the page says: (1) Nest’s familiar face detection feature is not available on Nest Hub Max used in the … Read more

New Video – Getting Internet To Outbuildings (7 Different Ways)

YouTube thumbnail image showing me showing me holding a router and an Ethernet cable.

If you’re looking to put smart devices (or any other WiFi based device) in an outbuilding, you’ll almost certainly need internet access. I’ve recently needed to do the same for my Ring Indoor Cam (which I put in my garage), which got me thinking of the various ways you can get internet in an outbuilding … Read more

Is The Ring Stick Up Cam Discontinued?

The Ring Stick Up Cam installed outdoors.

The Ring Stick Up Cam was first released at the end of 2015, and it has undergone various redesigns since then, along with being released as Solar Powered and ‘Elite’ (power over Ethernet) versions. But the Ring Indoor Cam – released towards the end of 2019 – seems to offer the same or more features, … Read more