It’s really complicated to connect the Home of the Future

The smart home was supposed to make things simple. It was supposed to cook for you, clean for you, pick out your clothes, and gently wake you up by parting the curtains.

But that old ideal has been replaced with a vastly different new one: the smart home plays music, when you command it; it turns on the lights, if you've bought enough smart bulbs; and it reminds you to take the roast out of the oven, so long as you've manually set a timer. And that's all assuming you've somehow managed to set all this up to work correctly and in concert.

There's a reason our vision of a smart home has shifted. Part of it comes down to what's technologically possible right now — Roombas are a far cry from Rosie the Robot. But much of it also has to do...

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