ADVANCEDPROJECTS
ISSUE 381|COMPUTERSHOPPER|NOVEMBER 2019 127
IFTTT can also be an easier waytolink
and sync your social media activity,assetting
this up through some services can be fiddly.
In IFTTT,you only need to search foryour
preferred service,click the Services tab
(under the search field) and find apremade
Applet that links to another social media
service.These Applets automateeverything
from sharing updates on one platform with
another,tosynchronising your profile picture,
to automatically backing up shared images to
Dropbox or Google Drive.There’s even an
Applet to save URLs from your tweets and
Retweets in your Pocket account formore
comfortable reading later.Weshould remind
you that sharing articles you haven’t fully
read can lead to embarrassment.
SMARTMEUP
Many Applets focus on linking various smart
home devices and services. There are
Applets to notify you when asmart
appliance has completed atask, whether
that’s the laundry,dishwashing, robot
vacuuming or even your Wi-Fi-enabled slow
cooker.Tofind an Applet that’s relevant,
search forthe manufacturer of your smart
device; Whirlpool, Samsung and LG have
solid support in IFTTT,while Bosch and
Neffappliances maybesupported via the
Home Connect service.
Perhaps the ultimatesmart device Applet
is the UltimateWake-up Button. This links a
Flic smart button with aNest Thermostat,
WeMo Coffeemaker,Slack (a messaging
service), Google Calendar,Philips Hue smart
bulbs and Qapital. Just pressing your Flic sets
your lights to wake-up mode,starts the
coffee,makes anoteinGoogle Calendar as to
when you woke up and alerts your colleagues
at the office that you’ll arrive within the hour.
Less complex, but possibly more useful,
are the smart thermostat Applets. For
example,you can use IFTTT to send yourself
an alert should the temperature fall below a
certain level. While Nest sets asafeminimumtemperature,perhaps abroken
window or vicious cold snap
could put your home at risk
of burst pipes in the winter.
Youcan also link your smart
thermostat to cooling or
heating devices, or link asmart
smoke alarm to your smart
lights, so if carbon monoxide
is detected, the lights could
flash red, forexample.
Equally fascinating are the
Applets forAgile Octupus
(seetinyurl.com/381projects2
andtinyurl.com/381projects3).
Octopus is an energy provider,
just like Npower or E-on, but
its Agile service uses wholesale
pricing updated every half an
hour.Asthe grid’s power
creation is so variable and
potentially mismatched to
demand, the wholesale price
of electricity also fluctuates.
There have been times when
production has outstripped
demand so greatly that the
energy price has actually
dropped below 0p/kWh: the
grid was paying users to
consume energy,knowing that
this would offset demand later.
By using acompatible smart meter,
the Agile Octopus passes these potential
savings on to you by billing you forthe
energy you use at the half-hourly wholesale
price when you used it. The Agile Octopus
Applets plug intothis service and can fire
up high-energy devices when the electricity⬆You can use IFTTT to sync Alexa To-do lists with your phone,soyou have your reminders when you’re out of the house
⬆The UltimateWake-up Button Applet gives you the ability to
control every smart device in your house