Did anyone see the Quirky CEO in this video:
http://youtu.be/Y5VCyu_rBjs ?
One other thing: I question how much connectivity is really necessary. Manufacturers, of course, are more than happy to sell us everything & anything, but how much do we really need? They talked about some really interesting usage-case ideas using ambient intelligence, i.e. having beacons in your home tied to your smartphone so that if you open the medicine cabinet, you don't get an alert, but if your toddler does, it shoots you an alarm. That's pretty cool, but...just put them in a locked cabinet out of reach, you know?
One of the things I picked up recently was a 21" Android tablet for my kitchen, which has grown just super super useful in my home. More info here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2414913
Just to recap some of the things I use it for:
1. Recipes: Got rid of all of the cookbooks & recipe notebooks in my kitchen. I buy the Kindle versions of cookbooks whenever possible as well, so that I don't have to store a paper copy somewhere (and so I can search it). Evernote gives you a free account that you can store your recipes & notes in, and you can more conveniently type them up on your computer so that you can simply pull them up on the big screen when you're doing your food prep.
2. Notes: I have Google Docs app for this (the one that does Word, specifically). Everything from emergency contacts to the shopping list.
3. Calendars: Family calendar, chores calendar, house & car maintenance calendar (everything from oil change reminders to when to change the furnace filter), etc.
4. Entertainment: Youtube, Netflix, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, and various games. It's nice to keep my toddler entertained for a few minute while I'm cooking something up, or play a quick game of Angry Birds or whatever while you're microwaving something.
5. Smarthome: Foscam baby cam, Wink control app, etc.
Due to the size, it's a permanent fixture in my kitchen. Most of my friends just use like an iPad or a cheap Android tablet with a little kickstand, but I prefer having it be part of the scenery, as well as having the larger screen to make it easier to read from across the room as I'm moving around doing different things. Although it is handy to move the smaller 7" & 10" portable tablets to wherever you're working at.
Anyway, the overall point is that this particular device does an awful lot of things for me, in a fairly off-the-shelf manner. From there, I'd like to tie in some further automation - security (door/window sensors, garage door & deadbolt locks, motion sensors, cameras), efficiency (HVAC, lighting, and window treatment control), and so on. But I want it all to play nice together & not have to think about it ever again. Right now, Wink is constantly on my mind because I never know if it's going to work or not. It's not invisible to me - it either works, or it's an annoyance because it doesn't work, particularly things they say should work (like scheduling), which has a very poor track record of actually working.
They'll get there, eventually, and I'm glad to see they're headed in the right direction. I think the combination of social media & access to cheap manufacturing has made the game go in this direction, because threads like this have over 100k views with dozens of pages of replies, and it's not to hard for a competitor to clone your stuff, make it better, and take over your marketshare. So I'm all for (1) 100% open products that work with ANY system, and (2) having each Hub manufacturer create their own unique user experience.
It's kind of like with Apple & Android - if you like simple, Apple is the way to go. If you like to tinker, Android is amazing. But Apple is not very good if you like to tinker, and Android isn't always super easy to get into with a consistent user interface & regular updates. So I think it will kind of head down that direction, or at least, I hope it will continue to do so. Honestly, as much as I like smarthome stuff, I'd really like to spend a few grand, set everything up, have it all "just work", and never think about it again. I've invested waaaaay too many hours thinking about smart lights & stuff like that haha. Not that that's bad, but there comes a point where I want to be done futzing with my Wink and have it work invisibly in the background, you know?