At $15,000 Will Best Buy's Smart Home In A Box Also Paint My House Blue And Yellow?

from the Flicker-your-lights-from-work dept

Tue, Dec 26th 2006 11:32am — Karl Bode

Sure, many a technophile has their house already wired cheaply with home-brew media network solutions, but for individuals with an abundance of disposable income and a little less know how, Best Buy has a solution that offers you everything you'll ever need to play poster child for the connected age (via Slashdot). For a mere $15,000, the retail chain is selling a box that includes a Media Center PC, an Xbox 360 (usable as a media center extender), one communicating thermostat, two Panasonic wireless cameras, and various dimmers, light switches and keypads -- all of which are integrated via a home powerline networking kit. After shipping you a four foot square box, one of 27 trained technicians will come to your home anywhere in the country to install the system (everything but the electrical outlets) and train you. For an additional $20 a month, you can access all of the gear remotely via web browser. Best Buy has had a somewhat rocky road on the home integration front; they already offer a Best Buy for new homes service, and was looking for a way to woo customers with older homes looking to retrofit. Unfortunately the pricey system lacks the smart bricks, smart lightbulbs, or smart fridges we've been promised for a decade -- and people who have crunched the numbers note that as usual, you'll spend much less if you buy the parts yourself, and give your neighbor's kid fifty bucks to lend a hand.

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12 Comments

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gavin, 26 Dec 2006 @ 12:17pm

one step closer...
is Best Buy the company that created HAL?
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- JC, 26 Dec 2006 @ 12:38pm
  
  Re: one step closer...
  is Best Buy the company that created HAL?
  
  No, that would be IBM.
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Evil_Bastard, 26 Dec 2006 @ 12:25pm

crap
Wonderful, mediocrity at it's sharpest point!
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Sitekeeper, 26 Dec 2006 @ 12:47pm

No HAL was one step ahead of IBM!!!

HAL
IBM
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- ME, 27 Dec 2006 @ 1:15pm
  
  Re: HAL
  I thought Microsoft invented HAL as part of Windows??????
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Bignumone, 26 Dec 2006 @ 12:50pm

The Pope was right
People get sucked into these things. It is not going to make you happy, folks.
Just save $14,990 and buy a six of your favorite malt beverage and watch monday night football on your 14" using rabbit-eared "peasant-vision". Watching a fuzzy picture builds character!

Better yet, save $14,995 and go to church and put $5 in the poor-box so someone can eat.
Sheesh
The Pope was right!
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CHL instructor (profile), 26 Dec 2006 @ 12:51pm

Reminds me of...
Reminds me of the song "The Future Isn't What It Used To Be" by Josephine Thane, Wendy Zdrodowski, and John Wiseman, (Minstrosity) which was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2003 John Lennon Songwriting Contest.
--
Texas Concealed Handgun License courses in Plano, TX
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Jackal, 27 Dec 2006 @ 12:20am

Why Not.
heck... they already have their geek-mobiles... might as well try to finance the suckers with over-priced crap one could install themselves if they cared enough to. I guess the funny thing is, within three or four years that technology will already be obsolete.

If you have an extra 15,000 I'd be happy to waste it on better things.
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2006 @ 3:38am
  
  Re: Why Not.
  It's all horribly obsolete, unless you build it yourself. All the stuff you can buy has been around for awhile.
  
  You could spend the same amount going to a tech college, and learn more.
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Jman747, 27 Dec 2006 @ 5:57am

Kid Next Door
I will do it for $50 and a 12 pack
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KJH (profile), 8 Jan 2007 @ 5:21pm

Comments aren't that fair
Granted this is a ridiculously expensive system, and that you could do it yourself for less, the fact is that it does contain quite a few expensive components, and in particular the most expensive one of all: knowledge and time in the form of an installation guy. Knowledge is power and money and those that know get to charge for it. Those who don't get to pay for it.

A Windows Media Center PC does not cost $50 and a six-pack! ;-)
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Shalkar, 8 Jan 2007 @ 7:48pm

My Opinion is:
When it comes down to it, the kind of people that have that kind of money to "blow" probably aren't going to buy their stuff from Best Buy. They're going to have some other company that does that does specifically home "upgrading" come in and put in all that, connect to your coffee maker/fridge/freezer/de-humidifier/humidifer/sex slave machine and more. There will be very few people that can afford this, especially these days. This idea was doomed before it began...
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