For quick blog posts telling you about any new videos that I have posted on the Smart Home Point YouTube channel.
I was recently filming for another YouTube video, and I realized that I kept saying “Google Home” but I hadn’t discussed how “Google Home” can actually mean four different things. Hence I wanted to shoot this video and discuss the four things it means, why Google have made this so confusing, and why the situation … Read more
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
While I was waiting for my Ring Indoor Cam to be shipped (a whole 24 hours!), I was Googling around to get some answers to questions I had about it. Whilst some questions were answered, others weren’t – plus I also ended up with more questions! So now that I have the device, I wanted … Read more
When you find out that you’re going to be a parent, thinking about smart technology around you home probably isn’t top of your priority list. However smart devices can be really helpful, so I wanted to cover my favorite 8 features that I’ve found useful since becoming a dad. Feel free to jump to specific … Read more
You can use your Echo (and Fire TV) devices as a doorbell for your Ring devices. There are currently 26 different doorbell sounds you can play via Alexa when someone presses your Ring doorbell. Some are standard doorbell sounds, whilst others are seasonal ones: The timestamps for each Alexa doorbell sound are: 0:52 – Default … Read more
Ring doorbells and cameras record in full HD (1080p), apart from the original Doorbell 1 (which is 720p). Whilst this captures a good level of detail, they don’t contain a telephoto ‘zoom’ lens, however, so you’re always going to be a bit limited in terms of what detail you can pull out of small, far … Read more
The Ring Doorbell can work with a separate Chime device which plugs into your wall socket and works over WiFi, playing a doorbell sound whenever someone presses your Ring Doorbell. What some people don’t know, however, is that you can customize the sound that gets played on your Chime so I wanted to shoot this … Read more
I love most of the features that Echo provides… apart from the weather forecasting, that is. That’s because I moved house a few years ago, but it still gives me the weather forecast for my old town. Also, Alexa uses AccuWeather which – despite its name – isn’t always the most accurate. As a result, … Read more
Our neighborhood has quite a few outdoor cats that come out at night. Most of the time they just walk around, but sometimes they chase each other… or lick themselves! So I rounded up a month’s worth of footage of the local cats, captured by my Ring Doorbell Pro: I’ve included every single cat clip … Read more
I am a big fan of using white noise and relaxation noises as a sleep aid, and so I wanted to shoot a quick video to showcase the 15 different commands you can issue to Google Home to play sleep sounds (without any separate subscription or installing a third party skill): Video Transcript Hey YouTube, … Read more