HAI brings home automation control to your smartphone

There's certainly no shortage of solutions out there for those looking to control their home from their cellphone, but it looks like the select few with a HAI home automation system will soon have an app specially tailored to them. Set to be officially unveiled at CES, HAI's Snap-Link Mobile app will work with any Windows Mobile-based smartphone or PDA, and promises to give you control over lighting, security cameras, heating, alarms, and music in each room of your house, among other things. No word on what it'll cost, but HAI says it'll be sold without any subscription fees and should be available by the end of the first quarter of 2008.

[Via CE Pro]

[marks @ Dec 31st 2007 3:33PM]

That's a pretty cool feature for home security, and lighting controls. Another company called Computrols has, nearly identical functions through its CBAS energy management software. The main difference though is that, they use it on a MUCH larger scale for high rise buildings and huge facilities around the world.

[Chris @ Dec 31st 2007 4:30PM]

Where's the Symbian support?

[Pete @ Dec 31st 2007 4:49PM]

LinuxMCE has done this from the start. Plus, it's Open-source which means it's both free and in desperate need of development help.

http://www.linuxmce.com

[michael @ Dec 31st 2007 9:18PM]

Yeah, but if it's in need of development help, wouldn't that mean it's not much of a service? Where you're doing some of this work, when home automation should be as simple as 123?

I don't know why open source fanatics always have to go on about how free always = good. Sometimes paid works out better because you get less hassles, extra features, and somebody gets to keep a job.

Not saying LinuxMCE is bad, but it's not something that needs to be posted.

[Pete @ Dec 31st 2007 11:02PM]

I'm definitely no open-source fanatic, but it does have the potential to accomplish some pretty neat stuff. I posted this because this 'new' feature in a pretty expensive piece of proprietary softwrae has been availalable for a couple years with a piece of software that people can get for nothing. It's obviously not perfect, but it's pretty damn good. Also, it, like a lot of open-source projects, does have 'professional' (full-time) developers working on it.

[dave @ Dec 31st 2007 5:40PM]

We have been able to do this with HomeLogic for several years now, its definatly a very useful app for both selling and operating. Good stuff HAI.

[Jeff @ Dec 31st 2007 5:43PM]

I've installed HAI's OmniPro II system in several homes and it is a great system. It's not priced for everyone, but it's well worth it for any techy. Although I have all of their other software, I won't be a user of this product since it's targeted to Windows Mobile.

I've said before, and I'll say again, HAI should just build a web server into their system (which is already networkable anyway) and provide a built-in web interface for it. (Yes, they already offer a web interface, but it requires a dedicated PC). That way it's cross-platform and can work on any decent webified phone, particularly the iPhone.

[Alexander @ Dec 31st 2007 5:44PM]

cool, now I just need a home with lights, cameras, and music in every room. Wait, actually I first need a home.

[Natedog @ Dec 31st 2007 6:22PM]

Did anyone else read that as "HAL" at first? Creepy...

[pjnofrills @ Dec 31st 2007 6:40PM]

I read it as "hai", like as in the way an lolcat would say Hey.

"OH HAI GUISE, I REPORGRAMMED UR PHONE"

[The_Steven @ Jan 1st 2008 12:34PM]

Originally, that was the name of the company, Home Automation Labs....

[Dan @ Jan 11th 2008 2:22PM]

For those of us who try and stay away from WinCE devices I have an iPhone version that's open source at http://www.digitaldan.com.

[Tarry @ Aug 11th 2008 2:12AM]

This is great news!

http://www.chasetheglow.com