NADELLA SPEAK ...............A smart home via your smartphone

NADELLA SPEAK  A smart home via   your smartphone  The Microsoft CEO shares his definition of work-life harmony -and explains why he feels for those who can't go through dinner without obsessing over their smartphones Sound, lights, appliances -a number of your household gadgets can now be operated using your smartphone There's one thing that the at Apple founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft's Satya Nadella have in common. While understanding the immense benefits of technology, both have made the simple acknowledgement that there are implications to letting it take total control of one's life. One the one hand, Nadella's Microsoft has introduced devices and apps based on computer-aided intelligence: a personal assistant (Cortana) to manage calendars, interactive chat bots on the internet, HoloLens virtual reality glasses to impose a 3Dvirtual world onto the real world. Yet on the other, when it comes to balancing work with family and personal life, Microsoft's CEO doesn't think modern-day obsession with devices is helping. Perhaps part of his perspective is influenced by the fact that he doesn't believe in work-life “balance“ but in work-life harmony. Says Nadella, “There's no such thing as balance. It's how do I harmonise my work and my life? “  Nadella's approach is especially pertinent in these times when professionals spend considerable amounts of time at work, and then continue to think about it even when away from it. But even if work is all-consuming, indicates this global corporate leader, when it comes to spending time with the family, the world of devices needs to make way for real connections in the real world. That means not thinking about “the last email“, you got from work, says Nadella. By extension, it also means putting down that phone and paying full attention to family and friends. It's a thought that he's himself working on: “When I'm with my family, doing something say even this weekend, tomorrow when I'm there with my daughter, I 'm present. What does that presence mean? A lot of us have the residual effect of the last email, the last thing. You've got to get very, very good, I think, in modern life to not have that residual effect spoil your presence. I see people over a dinner table all on their cellphone, that's when I say, wow, that's tragic.“ Nadella calls this addiction to phones “information anxiety“ and he's hoping that Microsoft's new generation of smarter, talking, software and devices will help address and solve that. “So I'm running late to a meeting. The personal assistant realises that, automatically on my behalf reschedules or notifies the person because it knows my calendar. I'm not doing some texting and driving. That's one trivial example,“ he says . Since the jazzy heyday of 80s scifi movies, we've been promised houses that respond to our every whim. Well, the future has arrived and rather than a smart house that controls everything centrally, the brain of your home is actually your smartphone. Here are some of the coolest ways you can control your home in 2016: Music that follows you around You can now transfer what you're listening to on your phone to your home speakers. Sonos ($199), the markets leading connected speaker systems, has high-quality sound with seamless syncing. If you have speakers at home, the Gramofon, a classy box, connects them to your WiFi for $69. Google's Chromecast Audio, at $35, is a smaller version of the same idea, but uses a 3.5mm jack, and works just like video Chromecast. The Vamp for $59, lets you turn any passive hifi speaker into a Bluetooth one. Appliances that do the hard work for you Cool stuff is happening in the world of the humble kitchen gadget too. The Wi Fi enabled iKettle ($180) lets you handle it from your phone. Everything from your oven to your dishwasher can be controlled from your phone with appliance rang es like Hoover's Wizard. LG's taken the talking tech trope further with Homechat, through which you can text your appliances. Many products such as British Gas's the Hive, Belkin's WeMo and D-Link's Home Smart work with smart plugs and sensors, which control door and window sensors, detect motion in the home, and control appli ances. You'll never worry you left the iron on. can go a step further with smart metres like the Loop Energy Saver gas and electric ity tracker ($71) to monitor your usage. The Hydrao Smart Showerhead, from the French firm Start & Blue, uses Bluetooth to connect and monitors your water usage. Lights you can dim from your wrist Systems like Philips Hue and LIF have smart lightbulbs, which let you control your lights and change the colour. The other latest round of light bulbs can boost your WiFi signal (Sengled Boost Wifi Bulb), play music (Mipow Playbulb, $79.99), and also work without a hub (Misfit Bolt). An area where connected devices have evolved in a major way is home security. Cameras like Piper, Canary and Butterfleye can keep an eye on your home and let you monitor the HD feed from anywhere. To improve your humble fire alarm, install the cloud connected Roost smart battery ($34.99). It sends your phone a message when the alarm is activated. The smart home of the future While it seems like there a re more connected home products than we could possibly keep up with, the market is still pretty fragmented. In the future, we're looking forward to products from disparate manufacturers working together harmoniously. In fact, it's looking a lot like the future of smart homes isn't just appliances talking to you, but talking to each other.

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