Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance to develop connectivity standard
LOL ... there has been a standard for years for smart home devices, it is called KNX (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;KNX_(standard)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;KNX_(standard)</a>) ... what is wrong with KNX? Hundreds of companies already support it, so why not join them instead of re-inventing the wheel?<p>I think I know what im talking about, because my (smart) home automation is based on KNX, I use Alexa voice commands or a KNX app on my mobile devices to controll all my KNX compatible devices, a server gets the commands and allows me to control the lights (on&#x2F;off&#x2F;dimming), to inquire an set the temperature in each room, to control the inner blinds as well as the outer shutters (open&#x2F;close), to get data of water consumption, electricity consumption from many devices like the cooking plate, the owen, the lights, the AC, ... to get values from my weather station like wind speed, wind direction, sun intensity and much more ... I also have fire detection sensors, movement sensors, air pollution and water leak  sensors which can trigger alarms... I can inquire on my phone if I forgot to turn off the owen in the kitchen, if the main door is being or has been left opened. Through Alexa I have also connected my Roomba as well as my TV and all the media devices connected to it (using the Logitech Harmony hub) but those two things are not KNX, everything else is.<p>Being able to control all this through Alexa is super fun. When I go to bed I just need say &quot;Alexa good night&quot; and Alexa tells my KNX shutters to move down to 100%, all my lights in any room to 0%. When I leave the house I say &quot;Alexa, good bye&quot; and Alexa checks if my appliences are turned off, turns the lights off and lowers the heating in all the rooms a bit. Also as im super lazy, if I finish cooking and throw myself on the couch but forgot to turn of the kitchen lights I just need to say &quot;Alexa turn of the kitchen lights and turn on netflix&quot;.<p>What is also nice is that I can program (control and combine) everything myself. I currently use NodeRed (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nodered.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nodered.org&#x2F;</a>). So I can program routines, like &quot;if the time is &gt; this and the front door gets opened send me an email or SMS&quot;, if the wind speed is above a certain threshold open the shutters to avoid damage, ...