Dan from Mac Rumours states, ‘Accessories or products that take advantage of Apple’s HomeKit software framework, allows users to set up, configure and control compatible smart home devices via voice dictation with Siri or an application like Apple’s own home app. For example you can say things like “Hey Siri, turn the lamp on” or “set the thermostat to 21 degrees”
If you’re also unfamiliar with the Apple Home app, here you can set up and configure all of your HomeKit enabled accessories, set up various scenes, timers, groups and rooms throughout your house. Once you have everything in place, you can use this app to control all of your smart home products.
If you have something in your house that’s not a smart device or HomeKit enabled yet, there are a few accessories out there that will help you turn your everyday product into a smart one.’
WIFIPLUG HOME is a Wi-Fi smart plug that you can plug anything into and turn it into a HomeKit enabled device. A fan, Lamp, Coffee Machine or even your blinds!
We are the first UK company to partner with Apple, they have a super strict certification process, which is why you don’t see all the me2 products on their channel. You can rest assured our plugs have been through the ringer to get them to this level – don’t believe us, check their accessories page here
In our office, we have been testing what’s on offer from the latest voice assistants: the Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod and the Google Home. It’s undeniable that the sound quality from the HomePod wipes the floor with the competition. The noise it can generate really is simply tremendous and it doesn’t deteriorate when you want to turn it up; believe us when we say: it goes LOUD! You can also talk to Siri more naturally than you can Alexa or Google Assistant. You don’t have to say: “Hey Siri” and then take a gigantic pause while it registers you want something from it. Despite all the mixed PR the HomePod’s had, we love it! That said, we also think the Echo and Google Home have many redeeming features: Alexa is undeniably the smartest AI engine and has the most ‘skills’ meaning integration with third-party apps is a breeze. She is also more intuitive and seems to be able to use her ‘initiative’ more when you ask her to execute commands. The Google Assistant’s most useful feature is the fact it leverages Google’s search engine and can answer all manner of questions on just about any topic.
Most online articles that discuss the functionality of voice assistant hardware present features as a kind of choice but in a modern household, with different preferences and gadget loyalty, we think it’s about to become more of an ‘and’ issue than an ‘or’ one…
Over the next year, we don’t think it will be uncommon for a typical family to be a multi-assistant household. After all, it’s not unusual to see a mixture of Android and Apple phones all under one roof.
But that’s where the complications begin – there are a number of devices that work with two of the three voice platforms and a few that work with one. Devices that respond to voice commands from all voice assistance are few and far between. This can somewhat tedious for the end user who wants to be able to control everything from everywhere.
Introducing WIFIPLUG: In just a few minutes, you can be using your Android phone or Apple HomePod to control your electrical appliances and that control will be absolutely seamless. Turn your lamp on with Siri and then back off With Google Assistant. It couldn’t be easier!
It was no mean feat teaching WIFIPLUG to speak all languages but we did it and not to sound like a playground show-off, but we’re pretty sure we did it first! We’ve worked tirelessly and relentlessly to make our product top notch and multilingual, all in one smart (in fact, the SMARTest) little plug.
Clearly we love our gadgets here at WIFIPLUG. Our office frequently resembles the inside of a Millennium Falcon with all the research and development work we have going on. That said, we are determined to make technology as practical as possible and bring some great solutions to our end users this year.
With that in mind, we are in the process of diversifying our brand to incorporate either energy-saving or security solutions. This blog will focus on the latter – our aim is to make you more secure in your home using your WIFIPLUG and some revolutionary technology that’s coming your way!
WIFIPLUG is making connections with forward-thinking insurance companies who want to help protect their customers using SMART technology. Imagine if your home insurance could be reduced because your home is capable of letting you know something doesn’t look right; whether it’s that someone has opened a door, there’s a water leak, motion has been detected or your appliances or lights have been switched on, the ability to monitor and act on this quickly makes policy holders a lower risk than those who don’t have the ability to monitor their home.
We want to take advantage of this kind of technology in order to make you safer, whether you’re home or not. We want our app to recognise the heartbeat of your home and recognise if something looks out of place. We’re working on creating some clever AI algorithms that will learn the day-to-day activity in your house and let you know if something unexpected happens.
We are in the process of working with a number of other SMART companies: those concerned with security, those concerned with leak detection and even those concerned with other elements of SMART home. We want to create a consortium of companies who will be able to work together and bring security solutions to you so watch this space.
If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch.
Hello Pluggers! It’s been another busy month for us. We’ve launched a new firmware, a new iOS and Android app, and made significant changes to our cloud services. We are confident you will benefit from these updates and enjoy a great end-user experience. We’re still the only plug to work with all voice platforms without the need for any additional hardware and we’re pretty proud of that!
We’ve written a couple of blogs on IFTTT this month too. We really don’t want to go on about it too much but we are sure that if you check it out, you will absolutely love it! IFTTT is a great way to get your apps and devices talking to each other. For a number of people, the prospect of integrating WIFIPLUG with another app might seem pretty daunting but it’s honestly a piece of cake and you can find out how to do it here. We’ll even help you to get set up if you’re struggling! Once you get up and running, you can do things like set your lamp to come on when the sun goes down. IFTTT automatically updates the timers for you according to daylight changes and simply put, it’s brilliant! There are thousands of possibilities – in our office, we have the lights flashing every time the International Space Station goes by – but we appreciate that’s not for everyone (even though it’s probably the coolest thing we’ve ever heard of). We have put together a ‘Fun Things to Try’ page for our users so they can take advantage of some of the great uses for WIFIPLUG.
On that note, we’ve also started hearing about our customers’ positive experiences of WIFIPLUG. Last week, we heard from a customer who had integrated WIFIPLUG with a motion sensor in order to turn a light on when motion was detected, as well as sending a notification to the their phone. We thought this was a great integration (and again, wouldn’t be possible without IFTTT). Whether you are using your WIFIPLUG to operate a lamp or to set up a complex rule-based system, we hope you love the experience. We would love to hear about any other ingenious or inventive ways you are using your WIFIPLUG – get in touch on Twitter @wifiplug
So what’s the future looking like? Pretty good actually! We are developing some very cool features with Alexa, Siri and Google so watch this space for some combined functionality! We always like to dedicate some text to thanking our early adopter customers and acknowledge that without you, none of this would be possible.
As we’ve previously said, we’re a small company with big dreams and your commitment to us makes those dreams a reality – so once again, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
Happy plugging!
If you are considering a move into SMART Home, you will be faced with lots (and lots!) of choice. A SMART plug is a plug socket adapter that can be plugged into a conventional socket, making any appliance remote-controllable (usually from your phone).
SMART Plugs (sometimes referred to as SMART switches or SMART outlets) allow you to control your electrical appliances from a SMART device such as a mobile phone. So let’s say you have a lamp in your living room that you want to be able to control from anywhere (in the world!), you can do so by simply plugging the lamp into a WIFIPLUG. Or perhaps you want to turn a coffee machine on from your bed in the morning so you can go downstairs to a nice warm drink. With WIFIPLUG, the electrical world is your oyster.
Is That It?The issue that you might be facing is: which SMART plug is right for me? This is where it gets slightly more complicated. As well as controlling your plug from your phone, you can also control it from SMART speakers such as Alexa or Google Assistant (or even the new Apple HomePod). If you want to voice operate your plug (by saying something like: Hey Siri, turn on the lamp), you have to ensure that your plug is compatible with the SMART speaker you are using.
The great news is – WIFIPLUG is compatible with just about everything. It doesn’t matter if you have an iPhone, Android, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomePod – or a combination of them all for that matter! WIFIPLUG speaks all languages and thanks to our state-of-the-art app, it works with just about every platform there is.
We appreciate that some customers might not be too tech-savvy. That’s why we’ve partnered with Apple to make connecting your plug a piece of cake. If you have an Apple phone, you can simply point our app at the plug using your camera and away you go! You can get online in a matter of seconds. Similarly with an Android, just put the plug into pair mode, open our app and you’re ready to go.
WIFIPLUG is the only SMART Plug in the world to speak all languages and have free lifetime access to our app. A number of SMART plugs require you to buy additional hardware – especially if you want to control your plugs from outside the house – these are called bridges, hubs or gateways. With WIFIPLUG, you can control your plug from anywhere in the WORLD using our app and absolutely no additional hardware! Not only that, you can see in real-time what energy your electrical device is using.
Sold? Why not place an order today by clicking here.
We absolutely love IFTTT and we believe that you will too when you realise just what it’s capable of! In our office, we have been huge fans of IFTTT for several years and were lucky enough to integrate with them early on.
So what is IFTTT and how can I use it with my WIFIPLUG?
IFTTT is an acronym (pronounced ‘ifffft’ – strange, right?), which stands for ‘If This, Then That…’ – essentially, you can set combinations for your WIFIPLUG using the service. Let’s say that I want my WIFIPLUG to turn on when the sun goes down, that’s something I can quite easily do by telling IFTTT:
If this: Sun Sets
Then that: Turn on WIFIPLUG
We think that’s pretty amazing! So let’s have a walk-through and see how to do it!
First of all, open the IFTTT app (download it from your respective app store and sign up first).
Click the plus button on the top right to get to this page. Then click on ‘this’.
Search ‘weather’ and then click ‘Weather Underground’.
Scroll to ‘Sunset’.
Click on ‘that’.
Search WIFIPLUG and select us!
Click ‘Turn on’.
Click ‘Connect’.
Log in using your credentials.
Authorise us.
Select your lamp (or whatever you want to turn on).
Hey presto – the lights will now come on when the sun goes down! Cool huh?