Cheaper Tech Except...

The trend is for tech to get cheaper over time... with the exception of your cable bill.

I've been thinking about cutting the cable cord and going a la carte - $40 gets me lots of channels including ESPN(s), SEC Network, and HBO.  I should probably pick up an ARRIS SURFboard SB6183 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem and quit renting, too.

Nest Thermostat

I posted back in October about the Nest Thermostat. I thought it looked to be a cool device. Given that Honeywell is suing Nest, it must be good. Nest responds and says they will fight the good fight.

Nest - Learning WiFi Thermostat

How about a smart WiFi enabled thermostat? The Nest Learning Thermostat is just that. What makes it smart? Data from several sensors - Temperature (as you would expect), Humidity, Proximity, Far-field activity, Near-field activity, and Ambient light. It knows when you are home using the activity sensors. It lights up when you get close. You supply it with your zip code, so it knows what the weather is outside. It builds a history and develops a schedule for you based on the changes you make over time. It calculates how long it will take to reach a certain temperature. (In the summer that may be calculated in hours instead of minutes when we hit 100 and I want to get in the low 70's.) It has WiFi and you can control it remotely. I like where all this is going. I manually changed my thermostats, so I'm not sure if this would ever pay for itself, but I like gadgets.

Via Uncrate