Latest Posts
Alexa, sing a song! A Musical World Trip with 118 Alexa Songs
There is this little known, wonderful Alexa feature: she can sing. You might have enjoyed some of her songs already, as we are continuously updating Alexa's US English song list in our Alexa music post. But, Alexa does not only continuously learn new songs, she can sing...
Alexa, Wash my Hands! The fun way of Hand-washing
There are many ways to wash your hands! While we won't tell you why, when and how to wash your hands (folks at the CDC can explain that much better, you'll find more links below), we will look into some ways to turn hand-washing into a fun...
Google Routines: Immersive Storytelling with Ambient Scenes and Sounds
Google is an amazing storyteller! We will look into the many ways to listen to his stories, but this post is actually about quality time with your kids, your partner, or yourself. We will create Google Routines, where he will magically set the perfect ambience to put...
Siri’s HomeKit Scenes and Shortcuts: Immersive Storytelling
We need to ask her many times, and if we are lucky, Siri will tell us the one and only story she knows: her own story. Just in case you’re not so lucky, you can find it - captured in a tweet - towards the end of...
Alexa Routines: Immersive Storytelling with Ambient Scenes and Sounds
There are many ways to turn Alexa into a storyteller. We’ll look into some of them, but this post is actually about quality time with your kids, your partner, or yourself. We will create an Alexa Routine, where Alexa magically, on cue, sets the perfect ambience to...
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Top Alexa Posts
Alexa, Play Some Music: All The Music Commands
In this post we will look into all the Alexa music commands, to enjoy all the music services supported by the Amazon Echo. We will cover basic volume and playback commands, as well as tips and tricks on how to play and manage your favorite music. You'll...
Alexa and Philips Hue: Setup, Voice Commands and New Tips and Tricks!
In this post, we will teach Alexa to talk to your Philips Hue lights. You will find all the voice commands to control your lights just by voice! And we've also added the Philips Hue Zones (beta) feature, which works now nicely with Alexa and added some brand new Alexa light tips and tricks.
Alexa Alarms, the Smarter Alarm Clock!
But, did you know, that an Alexa alarm has a built-in alarm fallback, which can replace our music and radio alarms with regular Alexa alarms? And those regular alarms work even when there's no connection to our WiFi or the internet? And did you know that we can activate our still amazing Alexa morning routines simply by dismissing these reliable regular alarms?
Philips Hue: Who will win, Siri, Alexa or Google?
Let’s examine the strengths and weaknesses of Siri, Alexa, and Google by comparing their configuration options, voice commands, and smart home features for our Philips Hue lights. The world leader in lighting and the smart assistants of the biggest tech companies, can it get...
Logitech Harmony and Alexa: Setup, Voice Commands and a Candlelight Dinner
This Valentine's post is a story of appreciation, harmony and ultimately ... love. In this post we are going to connect Alexa with our Logitech Harmony Hub, only to find one of the loveliest integrations of voice control. Promise. On top we will create a...
Top Google Posts
Ok Google, Play Some Music! All The Music Commands (and more …)
In this post we will look into all the Google music commands, to enjoy all the music services supported by your Google Home. We will cover basic volume and playback commands, as well as tips and tricks how to play and manage your favorite music. You’ll find commands for setting sleep timers and music alarms, and also how to can create your very own music commands with Google's routines.
Google and Philips Hue – Setup and Voice Commands
In this post, we will look into the setup of Philips Hue for Google Home, Nest and Assistant. You'll find all the voice commands, the gentle sleep and wake feature, and also examples how to group and automate your Philips Hue lights with Google Routines and Philips Hue Zones (beta).
Logitech Harmony and Google: New Setup and Voice Commands
Ok, we were a bit disappointed. There were quite some bugs in the initial integration of Logitech Harmony and Google Home. Guess what? It took some time and now the bugs are fixed. Time to update this post to reflect the recent improvements in setup and voice...
Logitech Harmony and Google Assistant: (Retired) Setup and Voice Commands
In this post, we will connect Google Assistant with our Logitech Harmony Hub. In case you have not already set up your Harmony devices, activities and favorites, it is a good time to do so. Refer to the post Logitech Harmony: a Hub and its Elite, Ultimate, Companion for the Logitech...
Google Home and Nanoleaf Aurora: Setup and Voice Commands
Let's introduce our Google Home to Nanoleaf Aurora. In this post we will set up our little Google Home assistant to talk to Captain Muks. We will look into the basic setup and additional tricks to get the most out of our setup. If...
Top Siri Posts
Hey Siri, Play Some Music: All the Music Commands (and more …)
In this post, we will look into all the Siri music commands, which are not only limited to your HomePod but will (mostly) also work with your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods and Mac. We'll learn how to control radio stations, podcasts, listen to ambient sounds, set sleep timers and last, but not least, we will create our own music commands.
Siri and Philips Hue: HomeKit Setup, Voice Commands and Siri Shortcuts
Let’s introduce our Philips Hue lights to Siri and HomeKit. We will look into the basic steps and additional tricks to get the most out of our setup. Furthermore, we will look into Siri Shortcuts and how they can help us to create our own voice commands, which can do much more than just setting a scene.
Philips Hue: Who will win, Siri, Alexa or Google?
Let’s examine the strengths and weaknesses of Siri, Alexa, and Google by comparing their configuration options, voice commands, and smart home features for our Philips Hue lights. The world leader in lighting and the smart assistants of the biggest tech companies, can it get...
Siri and Nanoleaf Aurora: Setup and Voice Commands
Let's introduce our Nanoleaf Aurora to Siri and HomeKit. We will look into the basic steps and additional tricks to get the most out of our setup. Good news: if you've followed our post Nanoleaf Aurora How To - Setup and Configuration to the Muks!, you might...
Netatmo Weather Station, Rain and Wind Gauge, and Alexa and Siri
Now, that Siri has joined Alexa to support the Netatmo Weather Station, it's time for a big update! As this post is a long-term review, we'll have a look, how the Netatmo Weather Station, an Additional Indoor module, the Rain Gauge, and the Wind Gauge performed over many years. And, how Alexa and now Siri came into the picture.
Smart Ideas
Logitech Harmony and Alexa: Setup, Voice Commands and a Candlelight Dinner
This Valentine's post is a story of appreciation, harmony and ultimately ... love. In this post we are going to connect Alexa with our Logitech Harmony Hub, only to find one of the loveliest integrations of voice control. Promise. On top we will create a...
How to teach your Logitech Harmony: Alexa, Hey Google turn on Roomba!
It must have been a strange moment for Mr. Colin M. Angle, CEO of iRobot, when he presumably announced summer 2017 his plans to sell the mapping data share maps for free with customer consent of his newest robotic vacuum cleaner (Roomba) models to one of the big three (Amazon,...
Control Smart Lighting with Presence, Geo-fencing and Motion Sensors
We can control smart lighting in different ways, through our presence, or even during our recreational absence. Motion sensor activated lighting is definitely not a novelty. Samuel Bagno invented the first motion sensor already back in the early 1950s, but today's options go way beyond switching our...
Sleeping Better with Smart Lighting: Smarter “Go to Bed” and “Wake Up”
We spend 36% of our lives asleep, and while the average sleep period has decreased over the last 60 years, neuroscience is discovering more and more how important sleep is for our well-being. Can smart lighting help us to sleep better and wake up more energized?
Natural Smart Lighting: Feeling Better With Smart Light
We have already looked into the impact of light on our sleep in the "Sleeping Better with Smart Lighting" post. But what about the rest of the day? Can smart lighting help us to "feel better", maybe by resembling natural light? For a general...
