Thats great to hear about roomie 2.1!
I understand your points about voice control. You make a strong point about your concerns. I did notice smart things home automation hub included voice commands in their new app, not sure how it works though but they were hyping it as a selling point at ces. Although I dont think that does things like avr volume either.
I was also looking at droid moto x and how much love thats getting about the always on voice control, and apparently more google products might incorporate it. So i looked to see what apple was doing and all i could find was a dock patent submitted about always listening. I was just thinking it would be cool to yell activities (from a marketing standpoint for roomie as well) and it execute the activity, the tony stark house… I seen a few demos of android users who would say “Ok google turn off lights” and it would respond “turning off lights” and it would go off, it was pretty neat. But not nearly as user friendly as roomie to set this up. I wish apple would offer siri api.
Anyway I hope im not getting off topic or high jacking, just thought discussing the evolution of roomie was interesting and it is great to hear roomies concerns and hesitation about doing certain things as I also see where your coming from with voice control. And its great to see timed commands are included!
I would like to request though unless its impossible (from my research it should be possible but i could be wrong) roomie allow timers to run when roomie is not open. Idevices are multipurpose and i plan to create an activity to run every morning when i wake up at 7am.
I wont always remember to leave roomie open, i have many things I do on my idevice but i still want it to execute the activity. I hope this is looked into for the next update.
Also on that note, but on a lesser note (i dont want to overwhelm) beacons are really cool, but could we have proximity based automation when we simply join our network? maybe that would be to difficult for roomie to do, and it would also require not be physically open to accomplish, but i would like a turn on the lights activity to execute whenever i join my home network. This can be done with beacons i assume instead but those require additional idevices.
Those will be my last requests.
Your “Timer” request has just been implemented in Roomie with the latest 2.1 update. They call it an “alarm.” You can configure the alarm to run any command, or set of commands, you can perform with your Roomie Remote currently…
Not sure if wifi connection automation is on their road map, but iBeacon support may end up being more flexible in the long run.
I tried 2.1 and it does work, but roomies app has to be open for it to work.
I am requesting the alarm run whenever i set it with roomie open or not.
Since idevices are multi purpose, im not always going to remember to leave roomie open before bed.
Unless it can be done right now without roomie open? Maybe someone can confirm and try themselves, im using a very old 3gs and getting a new phone any week now, and a ipad mini. I just havent had time to buy a new phone and work out a new deal with my carrier.
Otherwise my request is for timers to run if roomies not open. When roomies not open i just see a notification popup on my remote saying “roomie alarm” it does not actually execute an activity or do anything.
When you say open do you mean as the foreground application and your device on? What happens if your device goes into sleep after x minutes even with Roomie as the foreground app?
Like any “alarm clock app” for iOS, there is a very clearly prescribed list of things one can do when your app is in the background. These include playing a specially formatted sound (in other words, not just any sound or song), displaying a message, and a list of a few other very specific things you can continue while you’re in the background. That list includes for instance a VoIP call, or playing a song. Anything beyond the approved list of things has no chance of getting approved by Apple which is why nothing on iOS executes in the background beyond those basic VoIP/play a song/download today’s newspaper examples.
One way around that in the future obviously is to have Roomie Agent perform any command that goes beyond a simple alarm sound. The common use case with 2.1 is a dedicated Roomie device that is probably also serving as a clock while you’re sleeping or not in the room. In the future, we’ll likely add a way to have Roomie Agent serve as the backbone centralizing commands so that it’s not necessary to leave Roomie running. If your primary mission is to execute commands on a time schedule, the cheapest route is a dedicated Roomie device anyway, but yes we’ll likely offer an additional route via Roomie Agent.
Another piece we’re considering is a Roomie Agent for iOS that might run all the way back to iOS 5 and have essentially no interface. So you could get your iPad 1 out of storage and have that as a cheap always-running Agent.
Thank you.
Just want to say thanks for clarifying.
Your alternatives sound like very good ideas and could basically serve as automation for your home. I really like the last suggestion, i have a cheap 3gs i could dedicate to this. I think thats a great idea, tons of people have cheap phones sitting around for ios they could use. Unless your idea wouldnt support an old 3gs, i see your no longer supporting it in september, but i dont know if this idea would apply.
I guess this is where android would be a strength over ios, i think apps can run and do things in the background.
The roomie agent idea is also cool as well but i use windows 
Have wanted roomie agent for awhile but dont want to switch to mac.
Dont want to bump this post, but just want to reiterate what a great idea your second idea was having a roomie agent for ios.
I was talking with some freinds over the weekend who have older iphones and have no use for them, as a roomie user who now has has a 4s and 3s sitting around, i could essentially tuck these away and have them automate my home. Maybe the 4s could even act as a beacon.
And looking into home automation systems, roomie could essentially simplify everything as the insteon options seem to have to many moving parts and to pore of interface for what i want to do (timers, and a beacon), the only obstacle is having to have roomie always open, but if i could stick an old iphone or two in the house to always run as a roomie agent, that would solve every issue and be incredibly cost effective.