CSA Online Other examples of recipes that you could create: Receive an e-mail when the forecast calls for rain (or whatever). Put your phone into silent mode when you enter a given location (or vice versa). Automatically log info collected by a FitBit or other fitness band into a private spreadsheet to track activity and/or sleep patterns over time. Automatically back up any documents that you save in a given folder on your computer to Dropbox or Google Drive. When a pic is posted to Instagram with a specific hashtag, automatically send it to as many as 20 e-mail addresses. You might want to tell the kids about this one, so that you never miss another pic of the grandkids just because you don’t want to get into yet another social media platform. You choose the “If this” input ‒ your phone coming in range of home, someone pressing the doorbell, your Uber driver pulling up, whatever you can imagine ‒ as well as the resulting “then that” actions ‒ turning on the light, playing music, sending a tweet, an e-mail, whatever. The IFTTT interface is pretty simple to navigate and the home page, with its curated user-created recipes, is a good place to start looking for some inspiration. See what other people are creating and you’ll get an idea of what’s possible…which is, admittedly, a lot to take in all at once. If you own any IoT tech at all, IFTTT bears exploring. It can be like discovering a whole realm of things that your stuff can do without necessarily needing to buy anything else. An admitted rarity in the tech world. Let’s look at a few examples that might work for snowbirds specifically, using some of the products which we detailed in the last issue. Kwikset Kevo lock US$229 + Nest Cam or Ring Video Doorbell IF Someone unlocks the door. THEN Send me a picture of that person. D-Link Wi-Fi Water Sensor, US$79.99 + your phone IF Water is detected in the basement of my home when I’m away. THEN Text me, text my partner, text everybody you can think of until someone comes to check. Ring Video Doorbell US$199 + Philips Hue IF Someone rings the video doorbell at home when I’m away. THEN Turn on the porch light to get a better look. Nest Cam, US$199 IF Motion is detected at home. THEN Immediately send me a picture and start recording. CSANews | WINTER 2017 | 53
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