Lock Stock and Barrel!

Come August, I may be in a new address. And I am planning to have an August Lock at the entry.

Why? Does it's great looks got to do anything with it? Yes, but that's not all. But before going there,  let me explain what it is.

Door lock automation is an integral part of my home automation vision. I was offered a Yale lock by my automation person with a large desk phone type viewer which will allow me to speak to the person at the door and then release the lock with a button pressed on it. This will mean that the console will be kept at one place and instead of running to the door when the bell rings, I have to run to the console, talk to the person and then may be run to the door! Not my kind of automation.

Off late many companies have come up with wireless door locks which can talk to your smart phones. Goji, Kwickset are few of them. My focus initially was fully on Goji.

Thats when I came across August Lock. A well designed product. Further reading rocked me through tides of interest as people showered them with praise and gripe. There was a huge lag in the schedule and people were loosing faith. And I was not sure how soon I can get my hands on one.

Then they put it on Apple store! I am thrilled to bits to initiate a purchase on the product!

Why didn't I go for the other products? For Kwickset, the only reason was that it was a single unit against a plug in on to an existing deadbolt assembly in case of Goji and August. This meant that when I have some issue with the deadbolt, I will be in trouble being in India to get it sorted out even if the actual automated door opening part is still intact. I have seen in personal experience that  many a times in India you end up calling a carpenter/locksmith to fix a jammed door bolt. I would not want him to come and play with a geeky gadget!

Goji was focusing on a little more than lock automation. It was trying to be your door lock and your video phone. I had issues with that approach. For example, the angle and height a camera should be at according to me is different from that of a lock! Especially if I plan to keep a porch light above!

Another issue was it was costing a bit more than the August!

Anyway, will keep this updated (Not any time soon though:-( as the door where it should go is still in logs!)

iDAPT Charging station

I had been thinking of finding a way to cleanly keep my iOS devices to charge. Wires used to run all around the headboard of my bed and there used to a tussle on who gets the USB plug when! I have 2 iPhones and one Sony Xperia and one iPad always fighting it out for their charging slot in a slightly skewed round robin protocol run at home.
Rajesh, my ever considerate cousin had been telling me about a universal charger  he had left at some place for me but never could really go and pick it up. When he told me about it, what was in my mind was a wore with tentacles that you normally get to see under this name. Finally I got my hands on the package.
It was a charging station called iDAPT. With replaceable charging tips which can be popped into the unit, it came with 2 32 pin tips, 1 Lightning pin tip(!) two micro USB tip, and 1 Mini USB tip. With three slots and 1 USB port on it, the charging station just covered all that I had!

Initially I tried to balance the iPad on the second 32 pin tip I had, but soon realized it was not meant to be. the USB port will allow me to connect the cord and lay the iPad safe on the table top.

Now the table is clean, we have couple of additional USB plugs freed up and the room looks much cleaner!

Thanks Rajesh!