All Apple All Day

At my last job, one of our clients was a manufacturer of baby products. Strollers, highchairs, and swings. Some of their most-heated litigation involved baby swings - because there have been some real leaps forward in design in that area. The "open top swing" didn't exist a decade and a half ago, and now it's all you see. And believe me, the fight over who came up with that innovation was rough. The last couple of years have seen some new advances in baby swings. Like the Momaroo , which is less of a "swing", and more of a "robot that gently rocks your baby to sleep". It's awesome.

That headline is a bit misleading - the Withings Smart Body Analyzer isn't going to change the world. It's a wi-fi connected scale. But I'm hoping that the Withings Smart Body Analyzer changes everything about me . It's off to a good start.

I've wanted a Nest Thermostat for years. Really, since before the first-generation Nest was available.  I read an article on the NY Times about it, and I was completely hooked.  It was sleek. Immediately understandable. Perfect.   Of course, it was several years before I actually pulled the trigger and bought one.  One month later, this is our AAAD review. 

I've been talking about Apple creating an "iRemote" platform for quite a while. Back in March of 2013, when Apple was still in the doldrums, AAAD discussed the potential for Apple to create a home automation standard .  This "iRemote" platform would control all compatible third-party devices (lighting, music, TV) from a single screen, and in turn, would drive third-party device makers away from proprietary apps and formats, and toward a single, synthesized standard. Today, Gizmodo (citing Financial Times), reported that Apple might be doing EXACTLY that . Awesome.

I spent the better part of the 2000's trying to banish IR blasters from our living room. They managed to combine poor form and poor function. Wires running under and around our components, IR emitters affixed to the front of our components, messing up the whole look of our living room. And they didn't always work! It was an exercise in frustration.  With our new built-in home theater cabinets, our components are tucked away out of sight. So it looked like we were headed back to IR blasters.  Until DirecTV stepped in to save the day.

Finally, we have some real news! (Actually, quite a bit of it. More on that later.) Let's start with the exciting conclusion of the original PROJECT #1 from AAAD - the Home Theater Remodel .