I think I work even closer than you and I pick and chose very carefully those elements that work well. I use Hue and Sonos mostly. I'm waiting to see how the home control standards shake out between the big players. Google will do its own thing beyond Nest.

Heh. I'm currently developing an IoT thing about which I can't talk until it's announced/released in a few months - but this is (a) essential for people with a certain situation and (b) can't be easily done *without* IoT.

My team (cos I don't work on anything) are working on IOT things all the time - a few of which are already in the public domain and are designed to match several of these global home standards. I even have one on test at home and another Eve is using.

Interesting to hear the feedback on nest - thanks for sharing.

Will continue with some more research

Not sure how good it is but LightwaveRF seem to have built a pretty comprehensive range. Looks interesting and cover a multitude of things.

Anyone tried it?

Yes, I'm uding lightwave dimmer lightswitches and a couple of socket adapters. There is occasionally a 2-3second delay but otherise they work well and the wall switches look good and can be operated regardless of wifi or internet state. The lights must be dimmable though or you have to use relays etc.

You mean IFTT (If This Then That)?? Yes I do, mainly for stuff like "if Nest Smoke detector/CO2 detector sounds turn all lights red and flash", Turn on certain lights 30 minutes before dusk etc etc. Its quite good.

As for Nest, it was purchased by Google who then seem to not know what to do with the company, the Nest Cam is a rebranded product (Drop Cam).

We also have Canary interior CCTV/Alarms, which are pretty good but again use their own standard.

There really does need someone to unify these competing standards.

Oh and just to ensure that our WiFi remains stable, we have UniFi USG Pro Router, Switches with POE and 4x WiFi Access points....

Now if Amazon and Sonos would finally get together then I can remove the 3.5mm cable from a Dot to one of the Sonos 5s and move on...

There is a Sonus Beta App to link the echo - not sure if you've tried that yet?

Yes - If This Then That - I'm sleep deprived: that's my excuse.

From what I understand, Google knew exactly what they were going to do with Nest.

The big players are pushing their standards which is meaning that the generic manufacturers are having to jump through hoops to meet them all. Apple HomeKit, for example, requires the use of an Apple approved chipset. In fact, the whole bit of kit needs certifying to the standard similar to meeting IEC, FCC etc standards which makes the burden on manufacturer approvals even higher (Prop 65 anyone?). In some ways I get it but, in others, what it will do is limit the number of products available to users and (partially as a consequence) push up prices.

What would be useful is someone to come up with an open, not-for-profit, standard rather than the current land-grab.

The Echo skills, whilst being a bit archaic do at least bring it all together, from the user perspective. It is just the home admin person who has to get the initial set up right.

Any hints and tips on the Echo - for use with Hue and Dyson?

Pretty impressed with the device itself. The app, in common with many, is terrible - I think there aren't enough decent app developers to go around.

The naming conventions and set-up between Hue, Apple and Alexa are confused but can be sorted. There's still quite some progress needed in IoT before your average bid is going to find it effective.

What Dyson product?

I have Hue bulbs in our Garden Cabin but in the house I got rid as they are not practicle if the rest of the house keeps switching off the lights at the switch. Plus they come on full power after even the briefest of powercuts, not great for bedrooms.

The lightwave Kit for house lights and sockets has proved a real hit though. Have Harmony TV control but it's not a hit.

The killer app for me will be Sonos integration, that's not due till later this year

However in the meantime the Radio and Spotify integration is excellent.

Cooking timers are very useful as is the shopping list, although it quite often gets some spicy items added!

The Dyson Pure isn't yet integrated.

I love the Hue lights - been using them for 3 years now and think that they are great: wake up to gently increasing light. They are also great for rented properties - giving a bit of colour without paint.

Eve and I have been trying a few things today. The 7-minute workout was a disaster- the Echo was totally stuck until you discovered the magic word "End". It also doesn't seem to be too clever with finding info - ask it how strong the wind is and you'll get temp and precipitation but not wind. The Google Home seems to be better in the respect.

I'm not sure about Sonos. The Echo does some sound and music - I think I'd rather operate the Sonos from its own app.

I might get the Google Home to try out.

I have a google home in the kitchen. It works pretty well, but it's crying out for multi user support which has just rolled out in the states but isn't here yet.

Integration works perfectly with my Lifx lightbulbs. It's great being sat at the dining table and asking for the lights to be turned up etc. Also great to be able to play any music on my old-school proper hifi via the chromecast.

A couple of annoyances: the sound quality from the unit itself is very poor. Reminders are not yet implemented, and in typical Google fashion they've actually removed functionality since launch - Google Keep integration in this case.

Yup - any of these Home products that don't support multi users are of very limited use

To that very point, we had Amazon call us back last night to find out how to add a second account - the guy put us on hold for 7 minutes then cut us off!

Good point about casting capability. I have a nice Arcam Solo I don't use - it would be nice to press that back into service.

Trying the Google Home this evening. First impressions is that it deals with questions much better than Alexa. What it doesn't do very well is connect to my Hue lights. What it seems to want to do is use the Hue app. Only trouble is that I have two Hue apps - one controlling my Wilts Cottage and the other looking after Cambridge. Of course, it connect to the Wilts version and I can't find a way to get it to connect to the lights on the same wifi network. It also won't connect to the existing Chromecast video - but it tells me relentlessly that it's there (even after "ignore"). I'm also getting a bit bored of it telling me that it can't do that right now but they're working on it. Sound quality is nowhere near as good as Echo.

So, in summary, if you want to have good sound and good device control, I think Echo is currently ahead. If you want a better virtual assistant, not surprisingly, Google is better. Both apps are frankly pretty poor.

A -ve of negative is Alexa uses Bing

I was a bit surprised that Eve's BF had instant access and notifications to the Google Home just by logging onto the WiFi network with his Google phone - I don't get that with my iPhone. And I can't find a setting that restricts access.

Little bump for this as I'm looking at getting one of these toys.

I think the answer is no but thought I'd ask people who actually have one. Can either of these (Amazon Dot or Google Home) play music from a DLNA compatible server on the network to a DLNA compatible speaker? We can all already do this via mobile phone app (Android and Win Phone 8!, check me out! ) but it would be nice to be able to do it via voice control. If they can't, can anything else in the near future?

I ask as ideally this "thingy" would sit in the kitchen and answer whatever cooking/shopping/weather related questions we could chuck at it but the deciding feature for us would be if we could also tell it what tracks or playlist to play on our existing kitchen stereo. I don't have any interest in playing music through the dot/echo/home, I'd rather use the system we have for that.

I think Google Home can achieve much of what you want. You can get it to stream music through a Chromecast Audio device plugged into whatever music system you have. And the Home is better than Echo for the types of questions you have. What I don't know is whether Google can access the music on your server. I use Spotify and I could certainly get Google to play music from Spotify through my Arcam Solo.

One watchout is that, inevitably, these voice-activated devices struggle to operate when the volume is up on your music.

What these devices are capable of is changing daily.

Cheers, I may just end up ordering one and trying it sometime.