J Nitro

ADI is proud to announce that we are now a certified reseller for Eragy Energy Management Solutions. This product can be used to monitor your electricity usage so that you can learn to make lifestyle changes in order to save up to 20% on your Electric bill. It can be used stand-alone using the Internet to track usage or integrated in to your Control4 automation system. After living with the solution for about 3 weeks, I am very impressed with this product. I have learned that my swimming pool uses the most electricity with A/C second and the Hot Tub third. I always thought that A/C would be number 1 in the summer time, but apparently not. I also learned that my Home Theater is using over 500 watts when it is on and many times it is only on as background noise.. So by changing habits and adjusting things like only running the pool for 4 hours a day instead of 5, I should be able to easily save 20% or more on my electric bill. See here for more info and screen shots of the solution.

With HP's announcement that they are exiting the tablet market due to very poor sales, that brings the question "Why does the iPad rule the tablet market"? There are many theories here but it is really quite simple. It's all about the Apps and accessories. So even though the iPad doesn't support flash... And even though I hate iTunes... There just isn't anything out there that has the massive support from developers and accessory manufacturers... And my favorite App is still the Control4 App that allows me to control my whole home from my iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.. Comments?

After living with my new 59 inch Plasma Smart TV for a month, everything is good! 2D quality is outstanding. 3D quality is good, but the room needs to be pretty dark to get the best results. The Internet Browser works OK, but is a bit slow for my taste. But I signed up for Netflix and that is cool! I have a 10 Mbps cable modem and movies start pretty much instantly. The picture quality of the streaming movies are excellent, but the audio is only stereo.. I would much rather have at least Dolby with Dolby Digital preferred. I have this connected in to my Denon receiver and only get Stereo.. :-(

I installed a new Samsung 59 inch 3D Plasma Smart TV in our showroom and this thing is sweet! The 2D picture quality is stunning, and the 3D picture is very nice but of course you do have to wear their glasses. It is Ethernet attached so you can browse the internet and it has apps built in like Facebook, Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, etc. I must say that browsing is slower than I would like, but that is an OK trade-off for the convenience of not having to pick up your PC. The remote that comes with it is very well done and look like a standard remote. But turn it over and there is a full keyboard!

Control4 has recently released its PC/MAC application that allows you to control your home from your PC or MAC. This adds to the already shipping iPhone/iPod/iPad application that has been around for a year or so. I installed the app on a Windows 7 laptop and it really works great. Now while watching TV with my laptop on my lap (which is a common thing for me) I can control my whole house without picking up a remote control or touchscreen! Control4 is also talking about a Droid version coming soon. 

I have seen ads on TV lately from Comcast and ADT showing their "new" Home Automation services. Verizon and others are also talking about doing it. They tout being able to view cameras in your home remotely, arm/disarm your security system and control lights. We have been doing these "new" services for well over 5 years. And you can use your iPhone/iPad or iPod to control everything. So the question is, do you trust these companies and their sub-contractors to this job? Please let me know what you think..

Control4 is now shipping a new version of its iPad/iPhone/iTouch whole-house control application. There is also a version that runs on Windows machines. This new application is called MyHome and is updated with the new look of their 2.0 operating system. In my testing, it is also faster than the old version. It allows you to control your whole home (thermostats, lighting, shades, alarm, view cameras, TV/Theater control, and whole house music, iPod, etc.). The application is free and downloadable in the App Store, but using it with the control4 system requires a license.

I received my new iPhone on Verizon last week and I am enjoying it immensely! I had an old Blackberry and was waiting for Verizon to get the iPhone. So far it is working perfectly, no dropped calls like people on AT&T were seeing. And my favorite app is the Control4 application that allows me to control my whole home (Audio, Lighting, Thermostats, Cameras, etc.) from the iPhone.

Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, things were looking up. Attendance was up, tablets were up, and 3D TV hype was up. 3D TV sales continue to struggle as consumers are confused with the technology, content is limited, and wearing glasses has some people waiting for glasses-les options. First of all, there are more movies coming out on Blu-ray but still a limited number. DirecTV has three 3D channels, but mostly there are running the same 3 or 4 shows over and over. The Toshiba booth had a VERY controlled demo of their new glasses-less technology and a long line to view it. If it was so cool, why would they do that? I must admit that I was not willing to stand in line to watch it. But the press has validated my assumptions. The Toshiba glasses-les TVs are not great and get worse as you go away from the dead center of the TV. So we are still stuck with glasses for now.

On the tablet front, there were over 80 new devices. There were Chinese companies showing direct rip-offs of the iPad, and most others showing tablets running the Android operating system. No one beat the iPad in my opinion..

I was sitting by the fire pit in my backyard using the iPad to control the music emanating from rock speakers in the woods. The Control4 application is very cool. But there was a fly that kept getting in to my Margarita! I guess he liked the sugar. After swatting him away many times, I came up with a great use for the iPad:



This app is free and there is no need to download it!