Evernote

Part of the connected home, at least for me, is going as paperless as possible. To do this I've been using the program Evernote. Essentially it is my digital locker. Anything I can digitize finds its way to Evernote.

The first step to going paperless, of course, is to not get paper in the first place! Most of the companies we interact with nowadays offer paperless billing, so I always sign up for that. When I do get a physical document I scan it and save to Evernote. Luckily I think I have a bit of OCD in me, so the task of scanning isn't overwhelming. The one thing I would change, though, is the scanner I bought. It does have a document feeder, but does cannot scan both sides at once. This bugs me enough where I'll probably buy a new one (or one of those fancy all-in-one setups).

I also ran across a service called FileThis.com. They grab invoices and documents directly from many sites (Comcast, Cigna, Chase, etc...) and send them directly to Evernote (other services are available, like Box). I don't need this service, because I could log into each account and grab an invoice if I ever needed to, but I like having everything in one place. FileThis.com doesn't have every business of course, but you can become a "sponsor" and have them login to your account and create a script that grabs the documents. It requires a level of trust, but after doing a bit of research I felt comfortable being a sponsor for my utility bills.

There are similar services to Evernote, but I've found their software to be easy to use and works on any platform you can think of (just go to Evernote.com). They just passed the 100,000,000 user mark, so I know they will continue to pay attention to - and more importantly, improve - their software. You can try it for free, or become a premium member for $45 bucks a year. Again, I think this is worth it because it gives you better search options and a higher monthly bandwidth rate (I've never come close to hitting the 1GB limit and I consider myself a fairly heavy user).

I like Evernote because I keep finding new uses for it. For instance, I needed to prove my residency for my library card in Seattle. I had scanned our lease document into Evernote, so I showed the librarian that. It was the proof I need and I didn't have to worry about running home and fishing the document out of some pile.

Also, you should take the time to go to the following sites. They allow you to opt out of unsolicited mailings. They really do work!

https://www.dmachoice.org/ - Unsolicited catalogs, charitable causes, etc... Make sure you choose the forever option.

http://www.optoutprescreen.com/ - Unsolicted credit card offers, loans, etc... I ended up doing the opt out for 5 year option, because I could do it electronically. To do it forever you have to print something out and mail it in.

https://www.donotcall.gov - While we're at it, do this too! Worth it.

Nest Protect

The Nest Protect

Nest is best known for its thermostat, but they released a smoke and carbon monoxide detector a few months ago.

This product is far more expensive then the average smoke detector. Unlike the Nest thermostats, there isn't much you can do once it is set up. I didn't mind paying the premium on the thermostats (I have three back in NH) because I could turn them on and off from anywhere in the world! If I forgot to turn the heat down during a long trip, I could hope on the app. and fix my mistake. This would save real money, especially during NH winters.

The Nest protect doesn't have any immediate remote advantages. I can see if it is online and working, but that is it. If your home is up to code, you probably have a lot of smoke detectors. My fairly small home has 5. That means I'd have to spend over $600 to outfit my entire house with Nest Protect. I just can't justify an expense like that!

The setup was fairly straight forward, but I did run into an issue with my Android phone. If you run into a connection issue, note that the Nest error message is referencing your phone settings and not your router! I made that mistake and wasted time hunting for a router setting that wasn't there. I called support and they told me to look on my phone. With my pride a bit hurt, I found the issue was indeed on the phone!

Once the connectivity issue was resolved, the setup was easy. Remember to write down the activation code that is on the bottom of Nest Protect. I needed to set it up twice and it would have been nice to have the code on hand. I had to take it off the ceiling and look at it again. Again, not a big deal, but something to note.

The Nest application is slick, but again not very exciting when it comes to the Protect. The thermostat has more information and setting to play with.

The feature I like the most is one that I have not been able to try yet! When you walk under the Nest Protect at night it gives you a soft light to illuminate your surroundings. I haven't been at my new house late enough to try this out though. I'll update the post when I experience this exciting feature (yes, sarcasm)!

There is also a feature that Nest disabled (at least the ones connected to the Internet), due to safety concerns. The feature, when working correctly, lets you wave your hand under the unit. This will temporarily silence the alarm. We've all burned cookies before, and this feature lets you silence the alarm without having to push any physical buttons. Nest, though, said they found a unique combination of gestures would actually disable the full alarm, in theory putting you at risk if there was a real fire. I was impressed that Nest sent out an email to their entire customer base about this, and also updated the connected units. It is clear that the customer is first in their minds. Having said that, I'm surprised they haven't pushed out a fix yet!

My final recommendation: The price needs to come way down on the Nest Protect before I would consider outfitting my entire home with them. There are too many great options for a fraction of the price.

UPDATE: Nest just opened up their devices to allow developers to connect to their devices. This means sites like IFTTT.com can interact with their devices. I just setup an alert, for instance, that will let my sister and brother-in-law know if the our Nest Protect detects smoke or carbon monoxide. For me this adds a lot of value to the product. Having said that, it is still on the pricey side and other companies are coming out with open devices. Oh, and they did drop the price after Google bought! It is now $99. The new price and open nature means you should add this to the list of potential purchases, if you are looking for a smoke and carbon monoxide detector.