You know, I think it’s time that the gadgets in our lives get extremely customizable.  Why is it that I can’t set my lights to turn off at a certain time or the toaster to start toasting just minutes before I get downstairs?  Why can’t I set my computer to turn itself off after that program is downloaded?  Seriously, with all the cool things that our electronics can do these days, I’m surprised that I can’t control them beyond the simple power button.  In fact, I think everything should not only be programmable to do what you want when you want, there should be an app that allows you to control it while away (like those apps for home security systems).

Imagine this: you start your day when your alarm goes off at a given time.  You like to snooze, so you sleep in a little more, but when the alarm goes off the next time, the lights have been set to turn on.  Now it’s bright in the room and you’re awake.  You get up and wash up as the toaster downstairs starts heating up the bagel slices you put in there last night.  The hot water dispenser doles out one cup’s worth of water, which brews the bag of tea you had waiting in a mug.  By the time you get downstairs, your breakfast is ready for consumption!  After scarfing down the bagel and sipping on your tea, you head out for work.  At the end of the day, you’re heading back and decide to use your phone app to have your water heater dispense another cup of hot water so you can get home to a warm cup ready for drinking.  You get on your personal computer and set it to turn off once all the files you’re uploading are done.  As you’re winding down for the night, you fall asleep in bed before you even realize it, but that’s ok because your lights turn off for you at midnight anyway.

How awesome would that be?  I don’t want my devices to be smart necessarily, but I want to be able to control them in such a way that they appear “smart” in a sense.  I really think we should be able to set things to turn off or on at a certain time or with some specified trigger.  Things would be so much more efficient that way!  It’s not like the technology isn’t out there already.  We have timers controlling things like when the sprinklers go off, so why not apply that towards any other technology we use?  I’m really looking forward to the day I can do that.