Babe, What Do You Know About?
Babe, What Do You Know About?
Smart Stuff
Transitioning from paper to pixels, we're getting real about how the Apple mouse turned our computing on its head and the smart plugs that are revolutionizing our coffee breaks. You'll get a front-row seat to our candid confessions about the challenges and surprises of integrating these gizmos into our daily grind. Discover how the latest smart home devices simplify everything from dimming lights to playing music, turning mundane tasks into magic spells—we're just an "Abracadabra" away from living like the Jetsons!
And it's not just us young folk reaping the smart home rewards; we're tackling the generational tech gap head-on. Step into the future as we discuss how these savvy systems cater not just to the millennials but provide a safety net for our silver-haired loved ones, especially in the context of healthcare. Join us for laughs, revelations, and a heart-to-heart on why educating all generations about smart tech could lead to healthier lives and maybe even trim down those insurance premiums. There are no guests this time; it's just us, you, and the symphony of beeps and boops that accompany a life more automated.
Connect with us at @babewhatpodcast for updates, interactions, and polls.
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Welcome to Babe. What Do you Know About the podcast with your favorite husband and wife, duo Sam?
Speaker 2:and Taylor. Each week we dive deep into a new subject, blending fun and seriousness to push boundaries and buttons.
Speaker 1:Get ready to expand your knowledge, challenge your perspectives and have a blast along the way on mtv, but it feels so empty without me sounds like m&m, keep going you want me to keep? Yeah go with with the lyrics. Yeah, you sure you want to read these lyrics, because there's there's a lot of inappropriate stuff okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:I'll keep going then. So this must be mean. I'm disgusting, but it's just me, I'm just obscene. Though I'm not the first king of controversy, I am the worst thing since elvis presley to do black music so selfishly and use it to get myself wealthy accurate, all the accurate.
Speaker 2:What a self-aware person. What a self-aware individual. I don't know how you can stand to look at me right now. What does that mean, with my eyes being the way that they are?
Speaker 1:Maybe that's you know, I'm into.
Speaker 2:Do a thing. Yeah, goopy red eyes.
Speaker 1:All right, keep going.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Just that word, goop I know.
Speaker 2:I woke up on Sunday on a Mother's Day with my left eye like glued shut and then, when I could crank it open, it was swollen. It looked horrible and I have some sort of weird eye infection out of nowhere, for no reason. I'm pretty mad about it. Now that that one is getting better, the other one is now infected. You're welcome everyone. For my medical history, I did, however, find out like a week ago no, like yesterday. I found out yesterday that for about two years I've had like a piece of ankle bone broken and chipped off so I mean, how did it chip off?
Speaker 2:I, okay, I was. It was two years ago. Max was probably two or three weeks old. I was trying to carry him from the ground to somewhere else and my foot got hooked in the baby bouncer seat and, instead of catching myself, I saved the brand new baby and let it wreck my ankle there's kind of twisted yeah, but it was also like really compressed like the whole thing just like cut right into my ankle it was really painful I thought I had broken it at the time.
Speaker 2:But all the x-rays, all the doctors are like you're fine, it'll get better by himself, nope not. If it chips off, yep, it can't two years of me trying to convince a doctor that something's actually wrong and it's not going to fix itself I could cut it out for you if you want seems like a horrible idea okay I don't know why you would suggest that it just seems like the only obvious solution it would be the cheapest initially and then probably inevitably the most expensive option after that.
Speaker 2:All right, right, thank you for your willingness. Though Anything else, fun we've done. Our four-year-old had her first little dance concert.
Speaker 1:Oh, that was just adorable Highlight of my life so far.
Speaker 2:It really was adorable. Yeah, she was a little clown.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there's going to be more of these moments, but this was the first one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was so exciting, exciting. We're hitting a new phase of parenthood yeah, it's a lot of fun. We finished the prototype for the board game so exciting, have you sent it in and everything to the manufacturer yes, now we're just going through proofing and back and forth until they make the prints the printing that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Feels like not real yeah, we have a digital copy up on Tabletop Simulator that we're playing privately, so if there's anyone here listening that wants to, feel free to message me and maybe we could arrange a time.
Speaker 2:That'd be dope Dope. I'm so excited. So that means the release of the game on Kickstarter is probably a couple months away.
Speaker 1:July yeah.
Speaker 2:It's getting so close.
Speaker 1:It's getting there couple months away, july.
Speaker 2:yeah, it's getting so close, it's getting there it feels like it's been forever, though it's like four years of. I mean it has been forever making this thing damn well, better be good, it's so good like I.
Speaker 1:It's one of those things where it's like it's hard to be proud of your own stuff sometimes you know, you're just like I don't want to you know, but this scene, the final product, and everything comes comes together. I'm like you know, what Actually? This is really good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like no false modesty over here, which. I like that's awesome. Well, today's going to be hopefully a fun episode, a lot more lighthearted than the last three. We've been on shootings and genocide and protests and stuff.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you feel this episode is about trafficking. I don't know what you feel this episode is about trafficking. I don't understand why you think this is lighthearted.
Speaker 2:I'm being punked. That's not at all what the episode is about. So get ready to explore the exploding world of smart equipment. I'm going to label this episode smart stuff, because that's what we're talking about smart stuff. Lives are being transformed by a wave of connected devices, from the light bulbs in our homes to the watches on our wrists. Statistics predict a staggering 38 billion connected devices by 2025, which is roughly five devices per person, meaning that smart tech is rapidly becoming woven into the fabric of daily routines. We're going to talk about the background and usage of smart stuff. We're going to uncover smart homes, talk about how smart watches are pushing the boundaries of wearable tech, and examine the rise of smart exercise equipment. With great connectivity comes great responsibility, and so we're going to talk about the security considerations of a smart stuff world. So, whether you're already a convert to smart stuff or just curious about the future, babe, what do you know about smart equipment? A little bit, a little bit more in the last week yeah, because uh two things happened this week.
Speaker 1:We um finally succumbed to get Apple Watches again.
Speaker 2:Go ahead and tell that story.
Speaker 1:So a long time ago in the galaxy far, far away.
Speaker 2:I think five years ago now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, taylor wanted an Apple Watch, and so I bought her an Apple Watch. She had the Apple Watch for.
Speaker 2:Two days.
Speaker 1:Two days and then said I don't want it.
Speaker 2:That's not what I said.
Speaker 1:So I had to return them and then I was charged like a $50. They wouldn't just take them back.
Speaker 2:Which is crazy Anyways. No, what happened was you had paid so much money for it and I felt like I was too dumb to be getting like enough use out of it to justify the cost. So I was stressed.
Speaker 1:But we tried again. Here we are again and we both have an apple watch and taylor is wearing it 24 7, that's positive. She's shaking her head, she's wearing it. Yeah, I slept in it one time, but I don't like sleeping with stuff I've I slept with it one time and I'm struggling to put it on, but I I want to because it's I like it for the sleep tracking, because that's super important to me right now, because I'm trying to fix.
Speaker 2:Told you you slept like three hours, three hours and 50 minutes yeah concerning it is concerning.
Speaker 1:I want to sleep a lot more anyways. Also, taylor for mother's day got one of those large digital calendars a smart calendar.
Speaker 2:This is called a skylight calendar, I think it's.
Speaker 1:I actually really like it yeah it's pretty dope. I was like this is so stupid. But it's mother's day, you can have whatever you want. And now that's here. I'm like, okay, this is actually pretty cool. I mean, it's expensive for what it is it is, which is why I didn't just like buy it for myself it's actually really nice like the functionality, like the inner interface and how easy it is, so I can just tap on the screen and blah, blah, it's great yeah, you can check what's going on ella's been doing.
Speaker 2:We've given her two chores every day to start, which is hug mom and hug dad.
Speaker 1:She's been very diligent about doing those chores and checking them off on the smart calendar, which she has enjoyed I added hug max, and so she's doing that too yeah, we gotta add some actual chores there I'd also if she would be happy to clean the roof and she said no, also also, you place it on my working area, like my quote-unquote office the dining room table and since it's right there, I, instead of like going into google, you know, to actually set calendar stuff, I'm just leaning over to my right and going with my finger tap, tap, tap tap tap, tap and then I'm setting scheduling stuff on there instead of on my personal calendar.
Speaker 1:But I'm I'm sure we can link it all together you can.
Speaker 2:You can absolutely. The best part is just that it syncs with whatever calendar, so if I put something in my apple calendar it shows up on there. You can assign it to different people, you can make it recurring. You can do a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1:It's so nice here's another interesting thing right next to us, with what the calendar is actually plugged into, is a smart what's called outlet.
Speaker 2:I didn't, I didn't know that was a smart outlet, yeah this is a smart app.
Speaker 1:It can be controlled by Google.
Speaker 2:It's a power strip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, power strip, yeah, I guess name for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so funny story about smart stuff, random stuff. So my boss, when I moved bosses I actually worked for a smart home company. We'll get to that.
Speaker 1:But this is just wait a second. Is this just like a big giant ad MLM? Yeah, for your selling thing. I worked for an MLM, no, no.
Speaker 2:I won't even say the company, but I worked for a smart home company, so we'll talk about that later.
Speaker 1:But I was transferred.
Speaker 2:Shout out Vivint. Oh my, so I was transferred from one one department to another and my new boss, they all use apple, so I switched. I was. I was given an option but it was very strongly suggested option to switch to macbook it's a good ecosystem.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, absolutely. I don't think the performance is that much different through from like a different pc, but the ecosystem is so good, pretty good anyway.
Speaker 2:So I did switch and I was given this apple mouse as well. I don't know if you know this story, but I've never used an apple mouse and I didn't know how to use it and I didn't love the look of it. So I just left that apple mouse in the box on my table and I had my laptop up on a stand and I just use a normal keyboard and I just had my monitor and then a normal mouse and then anytime I needed to swipe between screens I would put my hand up on my actual laptop that was on its stand and like swipe how I needed to. And then I was meeting with our air table guy that works. I mean, that's not his job, but he's literally done the work of at least half of someone's job in one project on air table. It's been cool.
Speaker 2:And he like watched me do that and he was like what, what are you doing? And I was like I don't know what you're talking about. And I was like I'm just getting to the next windows. And he's like where's your mouse? I was like this is my mouse. He's like where's your apple mouse? And I was like oh, I don't know how to use it. And he was like you use the exact same, but just on the mouse, not on the trackpad. And I was like, is it that easy? He's like yep, I tried it the next day and my life has been changed so dumb.
Speaker 2:I literally just let like, let it sit there for like three months and didn't use it okay, so this mouse is actually really cool.
Speaker 1:It's so much functionality and you can go into your settings and mess around with it too. There's a lot of stuff but, there's one thing it fails to do nicely that why you need two separate buttons. There's some functionality in some games or some programs where you need to hold down the left click and then interact with the right click a little bit like on and off, on and off, on and off, and twist while you're still holding the left click down. This cannot do that.
Speaker 2:No, you're on one side of the other. We're talking about an Apple mouse right now.
Speaker 1:But anyways.
Speaker 2:None of this is sponsored in any way, but we have so much smart stuff so we just got our first. We haven't had Alexa or Google or anything, so we got our first one at Christmas time, also thanks to my company. It was a good Christmas gift.
Speaker 1:Which is hilarious, because my friend Conrad, he's had a Google Home, I think, since forever and he just keeps buying more and more stations for around his house to do more and more things.
Speaker 2:And we have one just sitting right there, unboxed. I know we'll use it. That's what you keep saying.
Speaker 1:And he controls everything with it. It. So it's just like everything is just on, like automations, and he, he, he likes to work in creating automations just in general and programming and other stuff.
Speaker 1:So he's like he just likes to automate his entire life yeah, which is, I mean, the direction things are going for sure I just, we pretty much use it as a glorified speaker and, and we, yes, but we tell it to play music and it does a bad job it's so bad, we'll be like play the bluey theme music and it'll be like some other random, I'm like no, and even like common popular songs, it'll just get wrong.
Speaker 2:so it's very frustrating actually. So maybe that's why we haven't done the other one, because I haven't been that impressed with the single functionality that we've used on it. But that's what we have. Other smart stuff that we have I wouldn't say we have a smart thermostat yet, but we should get one.
Speaker 1:It's smart-ish, but it's not smart.
Speaker 2:It's nicer looking and digital, but no, it it's smart-ish, but it's not smart. It's nicer looking and digital, but no, it doesn't sync to an automation and sends things around the house and adjusts no it can, but it needs a lot of work to do that. Not a smart thermostat, no no, we used to have a smart lock.
Speaker 1:We used the August lock. It's downstairs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we used to have a smart lock. Yeah, now I just use this dumb old key yeah we haven't ever had a doorbell camera since we've been together.
Speaker 1:No, but we have. We actually have one lying around here somewhere we, we were gifted, we were gifted one like a couple years ago and it's probably sitting in the gift closet.
Speaker 2:Oh, we need to use that yeah, we do have like a couple indoor cameras that we use, because we, our kids, were nannied in our home and we use them as like baby monitors for the babies other smart stuff that we have.
Speaker 1:We don't have a smart fridge you know, our washer and dryer are smart and we don't do what does that mean? It connects to the wi-fi and we can tell it to do stuff. I think it connects to like remotely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we can tell google to do google.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did not know that yeah, we just gotta, we're just gonna set it up yeah, and then smart watches.
Speaker 2:Obviously, I'm still learning about functionality, but it is motivating. Well, let's talk about that. Okay, let's let's first talk about smart watches. Wearable technology it's there hasn't been much right. This is definitely more cutting edge wearable technology. It's there hasn't been much right. This is definitely more cutting edge wearable technology is smart watches, and I would say that it's especially utilized in the exercise. I don't want to say community sector. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I don't know your eyes are struggling right now I know you're blurry.
Speaker 2:I like can't see you I'm actually pretty clear, but it's your eyes I um I can see out of one eye the original bad eye, but it is like, and I will say for me it's been pretty motivating. I've been able to set it up to like remind me to stand every hour, which is actually huge for someone who lives a very sedentary work style, working a very sedentary job.
Speaker 1:It's been a big deal that was actually the biggest surprise, because I I just went through the default setup and I was just sitting there working on the first time for one minute an hour yeah and then it gave me a buzz and I was like, what is? What do you want?
Speaker 2:oh, stand up okay so I stood up, yeah walked around and you know yeah, I've been doing it and I'm like, wow, why is it so hard to stand up for one minute per hour? Um, but I have been motivated to go on like more walks or to check my heart rate every now and then. Oh, I'll tell you, my smartwatch will tell you. Actually, a minute ago it was 84 bpm. I actually don't know what's normal, so I could have like really bad bpm and I've been, I've been seeing in the 80s for myself as well, like between 80 91 right now 80 and like 89 typically.
Speaker 2:Hopefully that's not bad probably it is someone's gonna message us and be like I'm a doctor and you guys really need to go be seen anyway, just things like that also. It's been nice for me in. I feel like I've been on my phone less especially when I'm with the kids because I don't feel like, oh, I'm gonna miss a message or a call if I don't have my phone by me. But I'm more tempted to just like be on whatever crap social media or whatever when I have my actual phone, which I don't on my watch, so I can like leave my phone back in the room and be with the kids without feeling like I might miss something important, because I can just quickly look on my wrist and usually it's not important and I just like move on yeah, no, I've noticed that too also.
Speaker 1:I used it for golf.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you want to talk about that smart watch specifically for golf that I did buy yeah, you bought me a garmin, and a golf garmin yeah, golf garmin um I think you've used it one time I.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's the strap or the watch, but it was uncomfortable I don't know why they would design an uncomfortable watch to wear while golfing, but the apple watch actually was comfortable, so so sell the garmin please yeah, if anyone's interested in a garmin golf, specifically garmin watch please reach out, that's uncomfortable allegedly. Please, we have a good price for you okay, you don't know this, but that took like six takes this is the second take sure, whatever, whatever you want to say.
Speaker 2:I told Sam my excuses that I'm on drugs, but I'm actually not. I'm just on eye drops and lack of sleep.
Speaker 1:Anyway. So let me tell you one more Just let me finish about this golf usage.
Speaker 2:Oh, the Apple Watch.
Speaker 1:Anyway. So the watch is comfortable and I have my actual normal golf app, that I have my phone to kind of track scores, shots, blah, blah all the little tiny details about golf. I can do it just on my watch now, so I can just leave the. I don't have to go back to my phone after every you know hole or whatever.
Speaker 2:I can just literally just play and tap my watch a couple times after he's doing like a little teppy motion on the watch he's not wearing right now sounds amazing. Sounds really good for golf. Anything I can do to get you play more golf like I will really no, dang it you can play a reasonable amount of golf, which apparently to us is at least once a week, usually twice.
Speaker 1:At least while the weather's good, we'll go once a week. Yeah, true, true.
Speaker 2:Okay, so a lot of smart stuff. So I work I feel like I've mentioned this before I work for a smart home company. Have I said that I'm joking? Are you talking to me?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm joking, oh yeah, no, that's very funny are you talking to me? Yeah, I'm, oh yeah. No, that's very funny. You looked a little concerned. I'm joking, I didn't realize you were talking to me. You're who else would I be talking to? You're not looking at me.
Speaker 2:I am looking at you. One of my eyes is you're so rude. That's what ellie's been saying that so, which is mad at me you are so rude. I am looking at you. I work for a smart home company. I don't know if you knew this, but that's what pays the bills, and it's actually been very cool, because my job is to train the technicians that install and service the smart home equipment how to do just those things. Did I know how to do that at all before my job?
Speaker 2:no, definitely not definitely not, but now I do and I'm very good at teaching people how to do it. Regardless, the stuff the the applications of the smart home equipment is like so cool.
Speaker 2:I really want the equipment ourselves in our home okay and, and a lot of it is just because I always like part of me teaching people how to do their jobs well is also teaching them how to build value in those products as they're installing it for people and help people know how to use them. So, for example, we have something called a smart plug. It's kind of like this, but it integrates with the hub that they use as like the brains of the whole smart home and a lot of like the. I think the original design of it was to be like a lamp module to be able to plug in lamps to it and turn them on and off and dim them and stuff, even if it was a dumb lamp. It's now a smart lamp, but we have brainstormed so many uses just for a smart plug. For example, do you have a wife who uses heated hair products that they frequently forget on as a fire hazard in the home?
Speaker 2:no you don't, but a lot of people do. And the nice thing about a smart plug that integrates with a system that you can access from anywhere is you can be like oh shoot, did I leave my hair straightener on? Let me check that on my phone. Oh I did, let me go ahead and turn that off. Or set it on an automated timer. Or if you have a, if you're a plant person and you have like heated plant lamps that you want to put on a timer and go on and off at the right times, or if you have a dumb coffee machine that you want to turn into a smart coffee machine, just a smart plug plug can automate so many things no, for sure just that one thing yeah so I I am someone who has seen like a huge value in smart home equipment, like the more and more I learn and teach people about it, and especially people who are parents or caregivers or like have elderly people in their home.
Speaker 2:There's so many things that you can do with a smart home to make that role a lot easier yeah, so honestly, from what it sounds like and again, this is not a plug for vivint- yeah, none of this is sponsored but it sounds like because so from all the products, because you've kind of been sharing with me the different products and like what
Speaker 1:they do and stuff, it's all that. That stuff kind of exists in the ecosystem of things that you can buy, that like like this, this plug, and you know that smart thing. And you know that when I pointed out that you know the google home, you you've got another smart thermostat you can have. But it's kind of like I guess I would compare it to like the apple or mac ecosystem, where everything kind of talks nicely to each other because, every single one of these things works and it has a technology in it, but sometimes it doesn't talk nicely and involves some additional technological.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can be frustrating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, skills to make it all work nicely. So if you're like super tech savvy, you don't need something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But even if you are tech savvy and you just want ease of use, it just sounds like it's all just kind of like an ecosystem, that just works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I will say that this is kind of what we teach is that the benefit of just like a smart home versus like a smart product you have in your home is that typically these products really integrate and interface with each other. For example, if you have door window sensors that are just around the home to like let you know when those windows are open or closed, that can interface with the smart thermostat so that the smart thermostat knows, oh, the windows are open. I shouldn't be working. It's inefficient for me to be on right now.
Speaker 2:When're closed, I will go on and then you have like a smart garage and if you have a car guard in that car, then then your home can, depending on how much automation you have, you could program your house to be like when my car gets within this, this distance from the garage door, I want the garage door to open, I want the porch light to turn on, I want my home to unlock, I want the thermostat to turn down and I want this smart plug to turn on, like you can just have that be something that arrive, that happens when you arrive home and the opposite when you leave.
Speaker 2:When I leave, I want all these outlets to turn off. I want all the lights to turn off, I want the thermostat to figure itself out, I want everything to be locked, I want everything to be armed and I want the garage door closed. It's pretty cool like you can automate all of that with a smart home, and the more you have, the more you can automate. Which is probably why your friend conrad keeps getting more stuff is because you can do more, because they learn from each other you know who could have really used all this technology?
Speaker 1:The McAllisters Do I know them? Kevin McAllister Do I know him? Who is that? Have you seen that movie Home Alone?
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yes, yes, Like one time, Like 20 years ago, Anyways he could have.
Speaker 2:He really could have used that. I mean he could have. He really could have used that. I mean he could have also used, just like basic sense, to check that all your children are with you before you leave the country. But yes, they could have used it. So here's an interesting statistic right now, there's about 300 million smart homes globally or what people would classify as smart homes and they're projected to have over 530 million by 2025. So what do you think? Do you think the smart home thing is just kind of the new fad that people are doing, or do you feel like it's here to stay and it's just yeah, it's here to stay as long as the world economy holds up then, yeah, it's here to stay because it's just um.
Speaker 1:The technology that's coming in now is usable technology. It's not just like hey look, we were able to do this for the sake of being able to do this. It's actually very usable now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's true Apparently. 75% of home consumer, of smart home consumers, are younger than 55. Yeah, I feel like there I do and I don't right From like me, sorry, I'm just talking to myself A generational divide in the adoption of smart equipment? I feel like in theory there is, but a lot of our customers, like at our company, are not generationally young, they're older people who really can use that equipment, like there's even like smart medical pendants that they can have in their home or things that they can use. So I feel like once older people know what a smart home is and what it can do for them, I think they're really open to the idea.
Speaker 2:But maybe that's the barrier, right, it's just like awareness of it and confidence that they can like use it yeah do you feel like it's something your parents would?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's just all about like education on how to use the systems, and you know, for the most part, they pick it up really well.
Speaker 2:It's just that they they don't seek it out, and so it really needs to be one of those things that you're just kind of going to bring to them, show them how to use it and then, yeah, integrate it and that's why companies like that still do like direct-to-home, door-to-door sales, because you're literally bringing the information right to someone's doorstep, which I think our generation doesn't vibe with. But I do think people in our parents' generation are like way more open to. The other thing is that having a smart home can drop your home insurance rates significantly, like up to 20 and the reason for that is that one, your home works more economically is that the right word?
Speaker 2:but also it's more protected, right? Because you usually have smoke detectors, smart smoke detectors, and flood detectors and all of the burglary detectors and all these different things that protect the asset, I suppose. So I don't know if that's something that I feel like that would be marketable to me and I think could hope. But again, like how many people own their homes these days?
Speaker 1:That's half the problem too right, that's a whole nother podcast.
Speaker 2:Homeownership or the lack thereof.
Speaker 1:The lack thereof. Have you seen the stats on this? It's so bad.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:So the most recent data that I've seen on this it's something like millennials. So millennials are old. Now I'm 40. Only half of millennials own their home.
Speaker 2:Half, which is significantly less than other generations at the same stage of life right.
Speaker 1:And then 18 to 24-year-olds, so Gen Z. More than half of them are still not even renting. They're living with their parents.
Speaker 2:Yeah 50%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that surprises me in no way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I do think that does. It definitely affects the ability of people to really integrate with a smart home, because why would you put such a permanent investment into something you don't own? Also, a lot of people don't have permission for that. Is there something on my nose? Because you keep like pointing to your nose with your pen? Okay, I thought you were trying to send me a subliminal message of some kind still doing doing it. Okay, here's a couple of interesting facts. Okay, 97% of smart home owners are at least somewhat satisfied with their devices. So, like, most people are enjoying the use, and 60% of Americans with smart home devices say it has had a positive impact on their lives, with convenience being the top benefit. It has had a positive impact on their lives, with convenience being the top benefit. So most people that, like bite the bullet and get smart home equipment are, like a huge majority, are very satisfied with it, and 78 percent of potential home buyers would pay extra for a home with pre-installed smart features.
Speaker 1:So that's an interesting thing for, like, construction companies I would 100 pay extra for a smart home Like it's already done and set up. Yeah, it's done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you just move in and then American smart home device owners spend about $1,100 on their smart tech gadgets. I think that's annually. So after buying the equipment like whether it's subscriptions or whether it's RMR or things like that it's a lot of money actually. And then back to like wearables. Okay, Over a billion people use smart wearables daily, with fitness trackers leading the pack. So why do you think? Well, first question Do you think things like Fitbits or Apple Watches motivate people to exercise more?
Speaker 1:I had a Fitbit back when Fitbit was a thing.
Speaker 2:And what happened to that Fitbit?
Speaker 1:It's in a drawer somewhere.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:What happened to it?
Speaker 2:You left it in the pocket of an airplane. Did I, you did, is that?
Speaker 1:what happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a vivid memory of that.
Speaker 1:It's in someone else's drawer somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's exactly right. It's in someone else's drawer somewhere. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's in some cleaner's drawer, probably on their wrist actually. Anyway, whoever got to go through that and find your stuff, they have it now. But back to the question Do you feel like it motivates people to exercise more If they have something like that? Did it motivate you?
Speaker 1:No, but it did motivate me to wear it while I was exercising, just so that I could track it. It's it's nice to be able to do that but it does motivate you enough to stand it did.
Speaker 1:It did motivate me to stand, and here's. Here's the thing that I'm big on is data. So if you have data recorded data you can make decisions on data, you can understand things on data. If you don't have data, you're kind of guesstimating on things. It's so it's kind of like if you're trying to lose weight or you're tracking how much you're eating, how much more effective you know your weight loss goals are, if you are, actually you actually track what you eat and you actually track what you exercise, it's, you do a lot better job. So smart technology helps you track and get data way easier and it's way more convenient, so that that's super, super dope yeah, I'll say our generation definitely like values, data and like incremental, like daily data.
Speaker 2:It's not just like big things, like we just like to see the numbers on freaking everything. So so it makes sense. I would say. For me it is motivating to move more, just because I'm like, probably because it's kind of like, if you're a checklist person or whatever, it's just like something to check off. You know what I mean. I know that my mom, when she first got a smartwatch, she was like constantly moving and like, oh, it's time for me to move, so go ahead and do that. So I do wonder how the short-lived that is, like maybe I'm just in the honeymoon stage with the smartwatch.
Speaker 1:Maybe have you paid with your watch yet.
Speaker 2:Oh, so many times.
Speaker 1:Really, that's my favorite.
Speaker 2:Wow, I don't even have to pull out my phone. Okay, so this is what I will say. Is I just switched to using, like my phone's Apple wallet to paying for everything? Probably four months ago I was using a card physically every time. Now, and now that I realized how easy it is to do it with my watch, that's what I do every single time Now. It's so nice I don't have to pull out my phone out of my pocket.
Speaker 1:You know what's so funny is Conrad. You know the technology the friend he keeps making fun of me because I I'm wearing the the watch and I still pulled out my card to pay the other day. And he's like you, just, you just don't have a watch now, why don't you use your watch?
Speaker 1:that was your moment of my smart mouse thing, and and then I had a phone call come in while we're together and he's like you could just answer on your phone, on your watch, and I was like I'm I'm not utilizing my technology.
Speaker 2:You're not.
Speaker 1:Because I'm still in the habit of doing the old way Doing the other stuff yeah. It's that said, you just got to change the habit.
Speaker 2:Yep, exactly All in all. Well, let's talk. I guess let's end with the ethics of smart home or the safety of it. So a couple things is, the more I rely on these things, the more nervous I am to lose them. I'm really nervous to lose my phone because my phone is freaking everything on it. I'm really nervous to ever lose my watch because now apparently my watch has everything on it. Obviously they have great safeguards in place for you to like shut those things down pretty easily just from like a laptop or whatever. But still, you know, that kind of stresses me out yeah, so I've lost two phones, so one phone.
Speaker 1:I left in a cab in miami and as soon as I realized I got home got my laptop, bricked it and then the other time I was mugged.
Speaker 2:I feel like I didn't know this I'm sure you know this.
Speaker 1:I was mugged at knife point and the sounds surprising yeah, he wanted my wallet and you know whatever else I had on me.
Speaker 1:But in my wallet I had my I think it's like my green card or something on me at the time because I wasn't a citizen and I was like there's no ways I can give this guy my green card because I don't you need it, yeah so I basically just threw my phone at him, like you know, not like, like you know, to attack him, but I basically just threw my phone at him like you know, not like you know to attack him, but like I just threw it at him and that was, you know, the end of it and he ran off. Anyways, same thing. I went home and at the time I could write a message on the front of my phone so they couldn't turn it on and do anything, but just would have this message.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I just told him, like you know something anyways what did you tell him? The end.
Speaker 2:No, go ahead and tell us what you told him. How'd you feel about it to that guy? I was not very happy no, was it a long message or a very short one? Very short okay, can imagine. Thank you. I have had my phone lost a couple times, but I've always been in utah when I've lost it, so I've gotten it right back. I've just gone back to the restaurant or something. That's one of the best parts about Utah, but it was stolen out of my bag in Belgium when I was living there.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:That sucked because that was our one way to communicate and we were dating continents apart.
Speaker 1:So that was stressful.
Speaker 1:I think I shut it down as well and had to wait like a week for my mom to ship me another one yeah, but you know I'm at this point I'm trying to rely on actually technology less so it's like I'm off of social media trying to I think I sent you a video on this the other day. Basically how, like, one of the best things that we can do is try be a bit more attached physically to things around us, like go outside, go touch grass, go, you know, disconnect from the internet.
Speaker 2:So I'm not so philosophical and boring, so I'm not afraid to lose the stuff.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 2:It's actually nice to you, know well I would say I'm not afraid to like lose it, in that like, oh, if I all of a sudden didn't have it I would be afraid to function. It's that I'm afraid for someone else to have it and have access to all my stuff.
Speaker 1:Does that make sense? It makes so much sense, yeah.
Speaker 2:And a lot of people stress about that, like Amazon's indoor cameras and all their stuff, like people hacking in and hacking into their baby monitors and stuff. And this is why I would say also as part of what I've learned being in the smart home industry is pick a company that uses the right level of encryption on your stuff and you should be fine. Obviously, anyone can hack into anything if they really want to, but if you have the right levels of encryption, people's motivation to target you as opposed to someone else. Without that, it's really low. That's what I'd recommend as well. It's really low, so that's what I recommend as well. So I think there are some security concerns with smart home equipment, but I do think that all the companies and all the people in the industry are very much thinking about that and trying to mitigate any risks, and I think, for the most part, they do a good job. So what do you think? Pro smart stuff or not so much?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm pro smart stuff.
Speaker 2:You said that with so much disdain.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You don't want to be pro smart stuff, but you are.
Speaker 1:I don't want to be pro smart stuff and I'd love it if we all just kind of chilled out. But where the world's going, it's good to be smart stuff.
Speaker 2:Yep, just our smart calendar alone. No, there's no excuse. The calendar's right there.
Speaker 1:I would like a life where we don't need a calendar.
Speaker 2:That sounds great. You've married the wrong person, Sam.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna go farm for my food.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to the Babe. What Do you Know About? Podcast.
Speaker 1:Remember to rate, subscribe and review.
