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Another way to control your connected home from a smart switch has finally hit shelves, with the iDevices Instinct It's been a long time coming, too: iDevices announced the switch at CES 2018. Now, it's ready for your wall.
It may have been worth the wait, though. Fitting into a single-gang box like a regular, dumb switch, the Instinct is basically an Amazon Echo Dot blended with a connected button.
So, you can press the button to switch to the light on or off, and there are motion and ambient light sensors – albeit without software support yet, iDevices admits. The real pace, though, is using Alexa to control the switch. There's a dual microphone array so that Amazon's assistant can hear you from across the room.
Do you expect, you can control that one circuit, or anything Alexa is set up to interact with. If you have instinct switches elsewhere, for example, you could use the switch in the living room to control the lights in the bedroom. Now, if you have an Alexa-enabled HVAC system, smart plugs, or other lighting, you can get it right.
When you're talking to the assistant, there are some LED indicators that can be used in the Amazon's own Echo interface. More importantly, it's compatible with the Amazon system to make sure that, even if there are several Alexa-compatible smart speakers within earshot, only the one closest to you will respond when you're giving commands. Mute button on the switch turns off the microphone array altogether.
In addition to smart home control, Instinct's Alexa integration also supports all of the usual tasks the assistant can do. That includes weather and news updates, kitchen conversions, timers, and other commands. There's music streaming support too, and while you may be thinking about a speaker switch, iDevices claims that it has used SOEN Audio technology for better quality than you'd expect. There is Amazon Music and Audible support, though iDevices claims that support for other services is in the pipeline.
The switch itself comes with a custom faceplate, and is relatively straightforward. It's priced at $ 99.95.
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