Home Assistant and Harmony Hub – the ultimate Skype Solution for the Elderly?

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I’ve been trying to automate the Skype Solution for the Elderly  that I’ve been building for my elderly mother who has Alzheimers. I want to be able to call her from my own home using Skype and a Mini PC installed in her house will automatically answer the call and switch my mother’s television to the correct HDMI input so that she can see and hear me. Continue reading “Home Assistant and Harmony Hub – the ultimate Skype Solution for the Elderly?”

Automating Skype for the Elderly using Harmony Hub and IFTTT

I recently wrote a post about a trial to automate the Skype Solution for the Elderly that I was building. My aim was to find a solution that enabled a person to make a Skype call to an elderly relative and remotely control their television to play the audio and display the video. The trial was very successful and worked brilliantly for me with my mother who has Alzheimers. However,   Continue reading “Automating Skype for the Elderly using Harmony Hub and IFTTT”

Syncing iCloud Mail, Calendar and Contacts on Android using Outlook

I was recently asked to help solve a problem of printing web browser-based email from an iPad when I stumbled over what must be a common problem for a lot people. That is keeping emails, contacts and calendars in sync between Windows, iOS and Android devices.  I was also surprised to find that Microsoft Outlook provided a really elegant solution to  the problem of accessing  Apple iCloud Mail, Calendar and Contacts on a Samsung Galaxy S6 running Android 6.0.1. Continue reading “Syncing iCloud Mail, Calendar and Contacts on Android using Outlook”