Some may be, but judging people as fools because they don’t share your automotive interests is faulty reasoning. We are never so full of Schlitz as when we are full of ourselves. It took me a while to learn that and I’m glad I did. I could demean everyone here for not buying a BEV but I realize that everyone has different priorities and I respect that. I have no problem with you owning old economy cars. It seems to work well for you and that’s fine.
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One other thing I love about my phone are event tickets and paying with apple Pay. Real convenient. Wife and I like to go to Bruins an/orCeltic games. Nice not having to deal with a paper ticket. It’s on the phone. I like going to the game an not having to even bring a wallet with me. Leave it at home. Just bring my drivers license which I lock in the car when we park. All I need is the phone.
BTW - Some states are now allowing your drivers license to be put on your phone.
Thanks for the info.
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When I fly, usually about 12 times a year, i no longer get paper boarding passes. They are in an app on my phone. The same for Amtrak tickets.
Why on earth wpuld you want to spend $700 to monitor your furnace from afar. I have never even thought of wanting to do that. I carry my cell phone with me when I go somewhere 9when I remember it) So that I can make a call if I need to.If anyone wants to get in touch with me they can leave a message on my home phone. My cell phone costs
$69 for the phone, 1500 minutes and 1500 texts and a tears serice. I have the texts disabled.
I lived 53 years in my house and never had anything stolen from my house,car, or porch. Never bought a security camera either.
I am amazed by the climate of fear that has developed in this country/ Pearl Harbor made us MAD. 9/11 seems to have made us afraid, or maybe it is the media and internet…
Stop being afraid, go do what you want to do , before you are too old or dead.
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I’m not sure if you’re aware but you can buy a $30 remote temperature monitor that will send you a notification if the temperature in your house drops below a temperature that you select.
There’s no fear involved, it’s just being prepared. When you live in one of the coldest climates in the lower 48, having a way to be alerted if your furnace goes out is just smart IMO. I left for a business trip a few years ago and returned home 3 days later to a furnace that went out and a house that was 32 degrees. I was lucky. Now, if I leave for an extended period in the winter, I set up the temperature monitor, shut off the water, then I don’t have to give it a second thought once I leave.
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I never envisioned needing/wanting home security cameras because the crime rate in my area is so incredibly low. But, about 6 years ago, the son of a neighbor thought that it was a dandy idea to go outside in the middle of the night several times to fire-off a few rounds from Daddy’s 9mm handgun.
My home was spared, but the neighbor directly across the street from this young nut wound-up with two bullet holes in his garage wall. After I heard about that event, I decided that I needed security cameras–pronto.
Ironically, Daddy-dearest suddenly sent his errant son to parts unknown, and the security footage from other neighbors was too hazy to be able to identify the perp. Since then, my cameras have only detected foxes on my porch, and UPS drivers delivering packages. But, since I have the cameras, I’m keeping them. Who knows when Daddy-dearest’s son might return to the area?
We live in a very secure dead-end street also. The street is 1/2 mile long too. But I have security camera’s. What I hate about these systems now is it’s almost impossible to find one that records the data on a device in your own home. They all seem to want a yearly service to store it on the cloud.
One last point about driving with a cell phone. Parking. Many of the Boston MBTA stations now have no attendants at the parking lots. You must pay with your phone when you park. If not, you get charged for the full day. There’s camera’s taking pics of your license plate when you enter. And my cell phone keeps track of exactly where I parked so if I forget I can find it with my phone.
A few months ago, I finally visited NJ’s American Dream Mall, which combines high-end shopping with amusement park attractions. I left after about an hour because the wretched excess decor of the mall was so bizarre, and because I had just gone out of curiousity.
Once my curiosity was satisfied, it was time to leave, and–to my great annoyance–I discovered that I had to install the mall’s app on my phone in order to pay for parking. 
The amount of time that the entire process took was ridiculous, with a long line of disgrunted customers waiting to link their phones to the one working kiosk in order to exit from the unattended parking garage.
Needless to say, once I got home, I deleted that app, and I have no current plans to return. (Please note that I did not say “I will never return”, because that type of statement is frequently found to be incorrect, and people who say that they would never do something often have to eat their words.)
Agree the question is not never but when.
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Yup!
Like those who say… I would NEVER buy a car with ABS, or Stability Control, or with a CVT, or…
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Congratulations! I hope your win streak continues.
There are many reasons to have cameras. We have delivery people that have a habit of leaving packages out by the garage, in the rain, when a covered porch is steps away. We get alerted when someone goes near the house so we can see they left something out unprotected. Secondly, it’s a great feature to have when you have relatives and friends that like to do unannounced pop-ins 
It’s a fraction of that amount. But a nice ability to have. Say you’re on a day trip and decide to stay longer. You can adjust the heating without being there. We have some pets that can’t travel. I don’t want to find out when I get home that the furnace stopped working while we were gone. Or frozen pipes. I had a house I was selling so I wasn’t there very often. One Sunday night, the PV valve failed and started flooding the basement. Luckily, I had water sensors tied into the monitoring system and caught it before even more damage was done.
Ironic. You don’t need monitoring equipment when you’re sitting at home. It is because people are out doing things that they prefer to have monitoring equipment.
The costs of providing these services continues to go down. I have a Blink system with no monthly fees and I own all of the equipment. Technology makes things possible that most people could never afford to do or simply weren’t possible before. It’s not fear driven, it’s that it can be done and inexpensively enough for the masses to take advantage of now.
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Yup!
Several years ago, one of FedEx’s lazy contract drivers left two sacks of dry lawn product by my garage door–on a rainy day. As you can probably guess, the covered porch was just a few steps away.
Luckily, I came home before there was any real damage, but if I had been further away that day, those sacks would have gotten saturated by the time that I could have put them in the garage.
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Most of the light bulbs in my house are led bulbs connected to the Philips Hue system. With this system, i am able to set up timers for them to make the house look occupied when im away. This system is controlled by an app on my smartphone. I open the app daily on my phone to make sure from a distance that everything is operating as i intended. The same goes for my Nest thermostat.
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Yeah I’m not particularly afraid. Never had a theft in our area. I’ve got eight guns in the cabinet with ammo if it comes to that. Well seven, my automatic is at the gunsmith.
If you are in Florida for a month or longer though, it’s nice to know your pipes aren’t freezing back in minus ten Minnesota. Still have to call the furnace guy but can’t rely on the kid that does my driveway to constantly check smoke from my chimney.
My brother in law has the thermostat monitor and front and back cameras for his South Dakota abode. He likes to show the deer and turkeys that stop by. But he did notice his inside temp going down and had to call the furnace guy to fix it. Needed a new sensor. So it does happen. Frozen pipes are a total mess and expensive to fix. I always turn the water off so you don’t find out again until you are home. I sometimes use some antifreeze but there are just too mainly pipes and drains so better just to keep the heat on.
As far as the cost, it really was more of an upgrade from a nearly 30 year old system. I have three zones and the control panel take the readings from each thermostat and opens or closes the dampers. I expected it to fail at some point so put a new upgraded panel that can handle Wi-Fi. 30 years ago no one heard of Wi-Fi. Would still have to call the furnace guy but I’m on a service contract so no extra charge for nights and weekends.
I won’t go into details but I’ve had three frozen pipe breaks at two different houses. Luckily I stock pipe fittings since nothing is open at midnight. So I don’t live in fear but think of all the damage that can be done to things like refrigerator water lines, softener, hot tub, etc. along with four bathrooms, kitchen, etc. best just to keep the heat on.
Ok ok, two were due to my poor workmanship and the other due to my wife turning the heat down too much so my shop sink froze up. Cost me $80 diy. It’s an extension of my garage so limited heat source.
I have a lot of family and friends, well, less friends than I used to because most of them have died, but they are all used to me not being available instantly. I have only had a cell phone for a few years and I don’t give the number to people except immediate family. I have a home phone with an answering machine and voice mail because I think it is rude to put someone you are talking to on hold to take an unknown call.
Most of the features of a smart phone are forever beyond my reach, I don’t do well with icons and the ones on my phone are too tiny for me to see. I am also unwilling to waste any of the remaining time I have left learning technology that I have no interest in and that I would quickly forget to us because I wasn’t using it often enough to remember it.
Back to the car apps. My 2017 Chevy Volt has Android Auto, the old version that requires the phone be attached by USB cable. It mostly works for me. Sometimes on a long trip I stop for gas and when I start back up the AA connection won’t re-hook up. So I’m driving along and unplugging the USB cable, counting to ten then plugging back in. That usually works for me. I do love Waze!
From one Minnesotan to another - you are a true Minnesotan! 
Bing was the one that said he spent
$700 to monitor his furnace and he is the one I replied to; I am living in a senior appartment now and have no possible need to monitor anything.