Slashdot Mirror
Best Buy's ConnectedLife One-Ups Geek Squad
Retail writes "Best Buy is going to sell a packaged solution of Media Center plus home automation. Literally, it's a package — a box. A customer walks into a Best Buy store, delights in the demo, buys the package, and waits for its arrival in a big box about four-foot square. The package costs $15,000. For that you get a Media Center PC, Lifeware automation software from Exceptional Innovation, an Xbox 360, IP surveillance cameras, automated light switches, a thermostat and installation. It's a complicated business model, called ConnectedLife.Home, and it's bound to pit the new group against other Best Buy factions like Geek Squad."
sure, it may be 15K, but just wait until we convince you to get a 3 year Product Service Plan and a whole bunch of geek squad services... not to mention accessories then it'll be 20K ;p
i can't believe that it does not have an automatic flushing toilet.
Does it come with the loan application?
Like most Best Buy customers, I should be able to afford this package. At $15,000 it's a steal, really.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
...that they check your receipt very carefully as you leave.
You know, Slashdot should start selling a "first post" in a box. Given how much people seem to want it, they might just sell them for $15,000 a piece.
The question would be, if the box comes with Cowboyneal inside....
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
Wow, imagine the mêlée at the company picnics.
[unsure whether to tag this "biz" "automation" "slownewsday" or "slashertizement"]
I'm in the middle of a home automation install but I'm not using the software/hardware Best Buy is going to pushing. I'm putting in a Home Automation, Inc http://www.homeauto.com/ Omni IIe controller with UPB control for my lights. I have the thermostat and keypad installed and wired into the controller. Once I get my media server back I'll be installing the web based control software and then figuring out how to get the old XP MCE based software to install on Vista. So far the system is incredible but it's definately not something the average Joe is going to get into. I'm doing it myself because I'm a geek (saying that while posting on /. is redundant, right?) and actually I'd like to start doing it professionally. I've already got the computer networking business, why not add home automation and computerized audio/video to it? The high end stereo place in town does no automation and they don't want to get into computer based media. Sounds to me like a market that needs filling.
Tom
For the obscenely wealthy person whose never purchased anything.
Don't buy in to this nonsense. There are no feuding factions inside Best Buy; if there are, it's because the illusion suits the marketing department. The idea is absurd, their respective products don't even compete. Once again, a company's marketing department tricks Slashdot editors in to presenting the pre-packaged product with the pre-packaged spin. Why doesn't the headline say "Best Buy offers over-priced home automation kit?"
Expect more from your press release aggregators.
So what happens when your house gets a BSOD ?
And do you have to reboot it every night ?
It's an exercise for the reader to determine what happens next.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Given my experience in talking to the Geek Squad, I would not trust the technical qualifications of anyone associated with Best Buy. When I complained to the management in the Sunnyvale store about my friend paying for an unqualified diagnostics of a drive corruption problem, she resented that I said that, "she paid for a diagnostic by someone qualified, not someone who just finished collecting the shopping carts." The employee said she resented it because "I don't collect shopping carts," not that she is unqualified to do a diagnostic.
Fight Spammers!
... it's bound to pit the new group against other Best Buy factions like Geek Squad. Note that the submission was sent in by "Retail", likely some Best Buy marketing drone who tried submitting this multiple times but got rejected because, after all, who actually cares that they're selling some prepackaged junk with an insanely high profit margin? Finally, this drone added some fake sensationalism "ooh... an inner struggle within Best Buy" and managed to get it accepted. Yawn.Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
... it includes a $14,900 mail-in rebate.
$15,000?!?! I've never seen such a good boxing day deal at Best Buy! Count me in!
Once I get my media server back I'll be installing the web based control software and then figuring out how to get the old XP MCE based software to install on Vista.
/. is redundant, right?) and actually I'd like to start doing it professionally.
I'm doing it myself because I'm a geek (saying that while posting on
So you're going to buy essentially premade stuff and install it using the constraints given to you by the makers of the software. Can't think of a more un-geeklike way of going about it. Using Vista isn't a point to your credit, either.
A geekier thing would be to use Mister House at the very least...making the control system an old PC would make this even better.
You also lose a few geek points for using hardware you didn't design yourself, and for using newer, more expensive equipment (geeks design on a budget, which in this case would be buying the much cheaper X10 hardware).
All in all, I'd say you're operating a lot closer to a geek-squad member than an actual geek. But they stay in business.
If it's new enough, even low-skill work can be high paying.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
What is so special about it? You can do it yourself at a fraction of the cost. Probably you wont have all the functionality of the commertial thingy but who cares? NOBODY is willing to pay $15000 for it.
Before you mod this "redundant", at the time of this posting, no one else has actually done the math, just guessed...
... $6690.
For that you get a Media Center PC
Averages around $900, but they use the HP z560 at $1800...
Lifeware automation software from Exceptional Innovation
This one took some work. The closest I could get to a price, $5000, includes hardware. But it puts us at an upper limit, at least.
an Xbox 360
The easiest to find, at $400
IP surveillance cameras
They use a pair of Panasonics (not sure of the model number), around $380 each.
automated light switches
FTA: "five dimmers, five switches, two keypads". Home Depot, $80.
a thermostat
Again, no model number given, but the standard model goes for $270
and installation.
Not really - They want you to have the "hard" parts done yourself, by a privately contracted licensed electrician.
The package costs $15,000.
Total so far, $8310 (not counting your own electrician).
So, not counting needing to hire your own electrician, that puts the cost of their installation at roughly
I've made some pretty damned good wages doing contract work, but over $6k for less than a day's work? Wow, talk about a dream job...
Anyone that wants this system - Hunt me down for contact info. I'll do it for a third less (you pay airfair outside the continental US, and though I know how to work safely with home AC systems , you'll probably still need a licensed electrician to do this legally in most places).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I can hear the lead balloon falling. Fifteen grand? What are they smoking?
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
That adds up to $4,244. They want $15,000 for this gear, installed. What's wrong with this picture?
How exactly is this supposed to create a rift between the retail drones who sell hardware and the Geek Squad who fixes it? They are two different branches of the company.
This isn't a story. Stop selling ad space in our stories, OSTG. You've got them everywhere else.
It's a complicated business model, called ConnectedLife.Home, and it's bound to pit the new group against other Best Buy factions like Geek Squad."
Kind of like how the new Ferrari dealership is going to compete against the Toyota dealership across the street.
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
Moreover, note how the package is named... it's definitely a name that'd reach out to their preferred latter-type marketing audience.
More like how the new Ferrari dealership is going to compete with the mechanic across the street.
As always there is more than one way to do something like this
for the security camera side of things there is zoneminder http://www.zoneminder.com/
a linux solution for monitoring security camera's
very configurable also very complex.
I've been playing around with security camera's a simple windows program is dorgem which will take a feed from a cctv camera plugged into a tvcard it has a built in webserver so easy to monitor from most locations.
zoneminder is far more flexable allowing you to configure area's of interest and setting up custom alarms
In other news... Mercedes Benz just dropped their prices down for the holidays, $7,995 for a NEW fully equipped 2007 S series available at your local Mercedes Benz dealer.
Actually, mail in rebates are something we have to do now. Nobody used to ever report on that stuff until someone started putting "AFTER REBATES" on the ads. Once there was one company doing it, the rest had to follow suit or look too expensive.
If there was a rebate on the package in question, it would make the in-store price actually higher and you would have to get reimbursed for the balance. So if the advertised price is $15000, then if there were rebates the in-store price would be about 5-15% higher and you would get that from the vendor, but only if you did every step exactly as explained in the fine-print when trying to claim your rebate. One of the best tactics vendors use for saving money on rebates is to come up with a reason NOT to give you the money.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I hardly think this will put any of Best Buy's internal units against each other. First off, there will be the $2500 service package they will sell you to configure your firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and I suppose anti-nosy neighbor. Then the end user (being the technically inept we all know they will be because anyone technically capable will build it themselves, not buy it in a box) will lock themselves out of their very own home automation system requiring a mandatory Geek Squad service contract and on-site repair. "no, ma'am, we don't know your password, but for $99.95 we will come out and reset it for you"; "no ma'am, we don't know (or care) that its 32F in your house but we will gladly adjust your thermostat for a discounted fee of $69.95." I imagine the Best Buy execs are dreaming of all those wanna be techies with money and see this as the last great cash cow. In-fighting withing Best Buy, I doubt it!
I find that defragging my house semi-weekly is a great way to keep my house running at optimal speed. You might not know it, but everyday house tasks cause household items to be rearranged strangely. This causes a significant decrease in performance.
Well, it's already been established that this whole package is way overpriced. But what hasn't been pointed out is that the actual package isn't what you need to automate your home.
So, what is home automation? Every day your coffee maker turns on at 6AM. Your computer speaks the weather report and the daily headlines. Can lifeware do that? Lifeware is a fancy MCE interface, that can control your home. But it can't automate your home. I've used HomeSeer for almost a year. It's more DIY than this package, but isn't that what every Slashdot user is looking for?
Something else that hasn't been mentioned - INSTEON. This is a new technology, but it's based on old X10 powerline. It's unreliable, and everything I've heard about it has been riddled with problems. Z-Wave is what I have in my home, it's RF based and the more devices you add the more reliable it becomes. 15 grand for old technology? Z-Wave is about the same price and it can defintely do far more.
By the time I get $15000 Duke Nuke'em Forever will be out, and I can play it on my obscenely expensive menagerie of Best Buy consumables.
When the Geek Squad fights the Over-priced Home Automation Corps, we all win.
I mean... seriously. Are we talking Geek Squad ninjas with USB cable garrotes engaging in midnight raids on the Home Automation Camp? Stupid VW bugs with silly stickers being turned into car bombs? Windows Media Center cameras recording Geek Squad insurgents?
In other words:
A new low in hype and slashvertisments. Bah.
It's a strange world -- let's keep it that way
I pay 15 THOUSAND and that's all that comes in it? For that price, it at least better come with a lightsaber.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Oh jesus, who in the hell do you think will set it up for these people? -GeekSquad duh... competition my ass.
John Walsh once found me while looking for some other kid. He was not amused.
For 15,000 I better get a fuckin blowjob with it.
I'd only be happy if best buy went out of business and its execs all committed suicide for dishonoring their families by working for such a monstrously stupid company.
This is one of these silly non-products that companies like Neiman-Marcus and Hammacher Schlemmer like to have in their catalogs. It's not a real product, it's all about publicity.
It's one of these crazy but amusing-sounded "products" that sound as if they'd be appropriate for the title character in "Brewster's Millions" (who had to waste $30 million in 30 days in order to inherit $300 million).
They tend to be not-quite-one-of-a-kind items that are nevertheless certainly not mass-produced and frequently involve an obvious component of personal service or installation.
This year Hammacher Schlemmer has a $15,000 rocking horse. Nieman-Marcus has a $40,000 7 foot sculpture made entirely out of pencils, but their big item is the $1,764,000.00 six-person trip into space.
I can't seem to find any of items that must involve sending a small army of people to install them, but they've had them in the past. You know, amusement-park-sized train rides for a 400-acre backyard or live camels or that sort of thing.
I suspect that very, very, few of these items are actually sold, and I bet that in some cases the companies wait for the item to be purchased before figuring out how they are going to deliver or install it. Nieman-Marcus may or may not make money on the Virgin Galactic space flights, but their business is not built on these offerings.
These products are offered so that hundreds of local news pairs of talking heads will alternatively swivel them toward each other as Kimberly says "If you're looking for the gift for the person who has everything, take a look at _this_ from the Glooper-Gnorgl catalog!" then swivels her head toward Lance who says "That's right, it's a real home hospital complete with emergency room, three motorized gurneys, and a five-person medical staff, and it can be yours for $56,000,000!"
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Not really related to the actual post, but on the topic of Exceptional Innovation.... I interviewed with them a while back, to the dismay of several of my coworkers (they have worked with several of the management biggies there at past jobs). I went to the interview anyways, just to hear what they had to say and eye some pretty neat technologies. Anyways, the interview was going great, the HR/recruiter guy doing his best to sell me hard on the company. As he dug into my work history it became apparent that I have dual citizenship (ill leave the countries undisclosed), but lets just say that one of those countries implied my ethnic and/or religious background. I was immediately rushed out the door and received a "thanks but no thanks" email a few hours later. i wont make any brash statements here, but think about it before you endorse any of their products.
Intellectual Property surveillance cameras -- cameras that keep an eye on you to make sure you don't download MP3s or rip DVDs.
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Your house seems to have crashed
Would you like to Vaccuum the toilet NOW.
Would you like to flush the refrigerator Now.
or Defrost the furnace.
Clippy rulz
It sounds like you've got a good business model based on sound premises and with reasonable expectations. Don't worry too much about naysayers unless they happen to be experts and can back up their position with observation and rationale.
This all in one connected system, when exposed to alcohol, may also take up industrial design, asking questions about the meaning of life, and wooing Virginia Madsen.
I've got an "automated home" - all the happy pie in the sky stuff they're talking about actually exists and can be made to work very well indeed.
But what BB is offering isn't even close to the amount of hardware it actually takes to do these tricks. Every controllable light / appliance / device / whatever has to have it's own controller; try counting the light switches in your home to get an idea of how many you'd need.
I'll overlook the boneheaded concept of having a Media Center PC running 24/7 to control all of this; that's expecting a lot from Microsoft and HP.
But the BIG flaw in their reasoning is that home automation is something that has to be "fitted" to your home and lifestyle. You don't want things happening for no apparent reason; you want them to happen at the times and places you desire. So there's some custom programming / scripting involved to make it right. And when you remodel / move furniture / change work schedule / whatever you're going to want to make some changes to the automation system too. Who is going to do this? Aunt Maude? Cousin Billy? A "tech" from Best Buy?
Why does Best Buy seem to screw up almost every great idea they get out the door? Yes, as a consumer, the whole idea of buying a home automation package while not having to talk to a specialized dealer is very attractive. But there's a purchasing threshold most people cross where all-in-one-box solution equals crap. If Dell can offer a $1,000 personalized computer why can't BB interview and evaluate the needs of their HA customers? This is about as stupid as going to the car dealership and only being able to buy one car! Maybe BB is targeting people who are (A) too busy to figure it out on their own or (B) people who walk in and are impress with the demo. Either way I wish BB would start considering intelligent people who want a superior product.
I'd reather see motorola homesight get a little more robust. It seems like a damn good start, (wifi sensors, computer interface, easy to use...) But it's missing some key stuff. For one, it's all security now. They need to add automation. Second, while you can use it online, you have to use some service that starts charging you after the first year. Finally, they don't have 64bit drivers.
Does anyone know of anything similar? Not X10 but a system that you can drop in wireless devices that report to the base station for security and automation. Something that has online monitoring of the sensors, cameras, and status of switches. Preferably something that interfaces with Windows Media Center Edition, (though maybe it can just be a channel on my WII). Motorola starts at about $100 dollars and goes up 15-50 as you add stuff. Any suggestions?
I do security
... that won't fit in most people's entryways (do YOU have a 48" wide door?).
... I thought most companies had this solved by at least making packages that were thinner on one axis than entryways....
A bit silly. Obviously, ways around it (garage, unbox on the street) - but
Small tip. Get someone on staff experienced in embedded systems, hardware and software. They'll come in very handy. :)