Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

Airing date: 02/11/2019

Lowes Iris Smart Home Technology Dies – Amazon Alexa Tricks And Tips

Craig Peterson 0:00
Hey good morning everybody. I kind of have a voice left that we get this bug it’s been going around. Thank goodness I don’t have the flu but I’m kind of congested and here I am making videos doing all of the training this week. I just finished the firewall video explaining what they are, how to use them, when you should turn them off, when you should turn them on, how to use the free firewalls in your computers. And I was just struggling through this. It’s I guess it’s that time of the year right everything’s closed up and you’re indoors who knows maybe it’s even an allergy but anyhow. So I’m a little clogged up today. What am I gonna do? What am I going to say well this morning I was on with Mr. Jack Heath and we’ve talked about a couple of technology things when it comes to smart homes Lowe’s and if you’ve seen their Iris displays that’s about to change. That’s Lowe’s whole foray into the smart home technology platform. And we also, this morning, talked about Amazon and the Alexa and the Dot and, and Justin got a new one. So talk a little bit about how I use them in my home and what Justin thinks of them as well. So here we go with Jack Heath.

Unknown 1:16
Hey, right now Craig Peterson our Tech Talk guy. And Craig joins us for a few moments on this Monday morning on the Auto Fair listener lines. Craig I guess maybe the Smart Home app by Lowe’s may not be around much longer.

Unknown 1:31
Hey, good morning, Jack. Yeah, this is an interesting turn. But it’s something that could be pretty easily predicted. You know, in every industry, when it starts out, there’s a lot of players. We had hundreds of automobile manufacturers at the turn of the last century and goes it narrowed right down as there was consolidation. Well, Lowe’s you might have noticed has something called Iris. You’ve probably seen it on the end caps at the local Lowe’s stores. And this was their answer to home automation. And it was a pretty decent little package but you know, I kind of kept an eye on it and never saw anyone standing there looking at it. And apparently Lowe’s has decided that maybe having their own smart home technology brand isn’t the way to go. So they have announced that the app for Iris as well as their devices are going to be shut down on March 31, Jack, and that means that they’re going to be reimbursing some people. They will be giving out some gift certificates to people. It looks like Samsung is going to kind of step in and trying to help with this whole transition, maybe take over some of the devices. But as Justin and I were talking about during the break here is Amazon man they seem to be winning this game and Lowe’s is obviously lost.

Unknown 2:54
Interesting. Hey are you just as you were saying earlier what would you say you have in your home now Justin? 

Unknown 3:00
I got that Amazon Alexa Dot thing. I got a subscription to something. They sent me one for free. So listen, I know Bezos probably knows everything about me at this point but I don’t care. I love the thing. You can spy on me all you want.

Unknown 3:14
Well it’s just the pictures I think he’s after but the other story. It doesn’t spy on you. It’s a real interesting technology the way it’s set up. But basically when you give it the wake word, and by the way you can change that wake word. It doesn’t have to be Alexa. It can be computer. It can be Amazon. You can change that. But when it when you give that wake word that’s all local. It is not sending your data. It’s not sending your audio up to the cloud for people to spy on. It is being processed locally. And then once it wakes up and start sending the data to the cloud. But Justin I agree with you. I’ve got some of these Alexas in my house too. I’ve got the show. I’ve got the Dot and I have pre-ordered the Amazon Alexa for the car. It’s a little thing that’s going to sit on the dashboard. But I don’t know about you Justin. I have found it to be really really handy. I use it to tune into WGIR. I use it to listen to music. I get the weather report. I get a recap of the news. It’s incredible.

Unknown 4:21  
So here’s what I do Craig because my my kids don’t listen to me. But the listen to a machine. I set a reminder to tell it to tell my daughter it’s time for her to go, you know, get the shower at night because she’s stuck on her phone. But when she hears Alexa, yell at her. She’ll do it. It’s like wow. Alexa could parent for me now too it’s great.

Unknown 4:41
Alexa. Yeah. Wow. What’s the next one? What is next? All right. Craig Peterson. Good stuff on this Monday morning. Thanks, Craig. Joining us in the Auto Fair listener lines.

Unknown 4:51
Take care guys.

Hey, a reminder, by the way. If you are trying to do computer cybersecurity yourself, for your business where you’re just trying to keep them safe. Right. You know, you’re not trying to become an expert or anything. That’s what I’m doing this week. So make sure you are on it. Go to http://CraigPeterson..com. Sign up right there on the homepage. I’m giving away my best stuff for free. This is not a pitch fest. http://CraigPeterson..com,right there at the top of the page, click the sign up button. Sign up for that webinar will tell you about all of the other stuff we’re doing this week and get you a little bit more information. Let’s put it that way about what to do and how to do it to keep them safe. Take care. We’ll be back tomorrow. Bye bye.