My Apple Watch is way better than a traditional watch. One reason I like it is because it’s not an unneccessary distraction. Before I had one I’d get pings from my phone and have to dig it out to see what the text/email/etc was, now I just glance at my watch briefly and go back to what I was doing unless it’s an important message I really need to act on straight away.

I don’t have a problem with smart devices. I’m a tech head. I LOVE GADGETS. My issues are that smart devices tattle on me to their corporate daddy without my knowledge or permission. My issues are if they aren’t online they don’t work. My issues are if their parent company goes out of business, or stops supporting the devices, or decides I’ve violated a TOS the device becomes a brick. My issues are a lot of smart devices are perfectly pointless and exist solely for the purpose of data harvesting. My issues are I don’t own my smart devices, I’m leasing them.

You know how nice it is to hit one button on your phone at night and for all needed lights to go off?

So nice to have them on a timer so when you get home your house isn’t dark.

I think smart switches are really nice but for lamps not on a switch. Smart bulbs work great

its not really about watches. its about a two way wrist communicator. Its just a smaller cell phone. I don’t like smatphones but im kinda tempted by a watch I can make phone calls on.

I prefer smart switches to bulbs myself, but not everyone is comfortable doing electrical work or setting up a local home automation hub.

I use them to simulate home occupancy. The lights in the rooms facing the road simply turn on and off at night so the house never looks empty.

I also setup my bedroom to simulate a sunrise with the lights turning on low and slowly getting brighter before the alarm goes off.

I was very dismissive of smart appliances but then again I have some skill in the kitchen. For people who manage to burn water in a microwave or just don’t have the time, the right smart appliance could be realy helpful.

I have mixed feelings on fridge screens. The concept seems great. It’s essentially free real-estate. Having a recipe visible but out of the eay, along with multiple, visible timers, could be great. But not when it comes with high costs, ads, add on expenses, lock in, etc.

All of those have uses.

They add convenience in various ways. It’s kinda neat that my fridge can text me to say the door is open or the filter is due (but I don’t have it connected).

Smart watches have barely anything to do with telling time; they’re remote terminals for your phone for communication in both directions. Think like not holding you phone while exercising, checking if a text is urgent, tracking your steps, or dismissing timers. I don’t have one.

Smart bulbs let you have much more control over your lighting. Have 6 overhead lights over your TV room? Shut the opens over the screen, dim the rest. You can’t do that with a normal switch on a single circuit, like most homes will have. Best you can do is dim them all together with a dimmer switch. Sure, it also let’s people be extra lazy by not getting up at all. I don’t have any.

It’s really easy to see how these smart features add convenience. I hate them because they usually come with atrocious security and privacy flaws. Worse, many are specifically sold as spying devices under the guise of convenience. THAT is why when smart devices are the only/best option, I don’t connect them. And if setup seems to demand connectivity, I change my wifi password, connect and setup, then change it back.

My dishwasher doesn’t even have a proper screen, just an LED timer, some buttons, and a few status LEDs.

It stopped working about a month ago and I was livid when I learned why.

The tech who came to fix it, said it probably needed a software update, removed the toe plate, plugged a wifi hotspot into a network jack I didn’t know about, and the thing started working fine 5-10 minutes later.

I didn’t even know the thing had software to update.

I use my watch for lots of things besides just knowing the time.

As an example, I use it as an alarm. It vibrates on my wrist and doesnt wake up my spouse.

I also use it to play and pause kodi on my TV. And to control the outside speakers when I’m in the yard.

Its also great for quick notifications when you are away from your phone, and its also great for finding your phone.

Smart interfaces are fine (as long as they connect locally and do not require a cloud connection).

Stop stuffing AI agents and voice controls into everything. It’s just an excuse to have a microphone that’s always recording.

Oh, speakers.

I don’t need a speaker to be smart. I just need it to connect to my device so I can play music through it. I don’t want to talk to a speaker if I can help it, and I certainly don’t want to have to figure out how to ask it to play ‘d|| tl | | |’ by 65daysofstatic while I’m cooking my dinner.

If we must talk to our things, then sure, have little microphone pucks about the place. But the speakers themselves are perfectly fine just being speakers.

Pebble watches were perfect, just smart enough to be useful, while still having a week long always on display.

Tactile buttons means you can control your music/answer calls without even looking ar any screen.

New GE range has WiFi. I didn’t see any need for it, but I installed the app.

I can set it to preheat to cook dinner while I’m driving home from the store. I can set the timer and leave the house and monitor it from my phone.

Honestly, it’s nice to have. I’d be ok without it, but I wouldn’t say it’s pointless.

Eh. I like my smart watch.

• Heart tracking. The peace of mind is worth it to me.
• Message peeking. Sometimes I’m waiting for a text while doing something that would make it inconvenient or impolite to pull out my phone.
• Finding my phone. I’m that guy.

Vibrators. I don’t want to use a fuckass app. Include a fucking remote control in your product.

I like my Garmin smartwatch. It allows me to track my heart rate accurately enough so I can know when to slow down my pace. That’s important as I have high blood pressure and congestive heart failure runs in the family, so I have to be careful when pushing myself.

I also like my smart led strip and my smart plug hooked up to my Home Assistant server. Both are pretty useful when paired with automations, like turning on/off as I leave/arrive home, or turning on at certain times to aid me in waking up. It’s not necessary but it does add to my life.

But what absolutely doesn’t need a smart version imo? Toasters. I’ve seen smart toasters. I don’t need a smart toaster. That’s dumb.