By Amy Eller

(Amy is an Integrative Lifestyle Advisor)

“Hello Thermostat”. That’s all you need to remember. Those two little words are your key to success in managing the comfort of your home or homes and office, store; many locations can be managed with those two little words, Hello Thermostat.

There is a reason we have been putting our trust in Honeywell for over a hundred years And their new top executive, Beth Wozniak, president of Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Controls, may be a reason why. Recently she demonstrated their new products.

She walked me through the demo and explained just how much time and attention went into creating this first-of-its-kind consumer device.  This is a Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control that uses far-field voice-control technology. You can ask it very politely from across the room or shout it out if it makes you feel better. “Hello Thermostat Make it four degrees warmer” or “Hello Thermostat make it much cooler” – Hey maybe you can use it to train your kids to say please and thank you!

Beth is an engineer in addition to being a technical marketing guru for her company. I have to say that I am crazy about hearing tech talk from a woman, Bravo Honeywell in making such a great choice. She installed her unit in 30 minutes. Of course she did it right the first time. If you are like me then you know you have no business even trying to install a thermostat and will have a professional come and install it for you.

Immediately upon installation, the thermostat recognizes the homeowner’s voice, this is bound to cheer you up when you feel no one is listening to you not even the dog, and the unit adjusts the temperature setting based on your request. Your wish is her command. Talk about gratifying! This is the first cloud-based voice controlled solution that will get smarter over time, adding more commands based on its interactions with homeowners. Honeywell researchers found that people respond better to the female voice and I must say she is very soothing in English with Spanish and French yet to come.

Hello Thermostat costs $349. And you can download an app that will allow you to control multiple locations from all your devices, and if that isn’t enough then hear this, there are unlimited color control options, yes you can even match your paint color.

Hey Hey Get On My Cloud

Hey! You! get off of my cloud, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger wrote and recorded that song for The Rolling Stones in 1965 and here we are fighting to keep our cloud privacy today. The issues are all about cost, security, trust, reliability, speed and ease of use.

Does anyone really understand what’s happening on the cloud? Where are our documents, files and photos going and who can access them while we are sleeping? For me, the thought of life in a totally transparent society makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and the folks at Western Digital are here to help.

My Cloud is easy to use with all your devices, especially Android. Because we all know Apple likes to keep us on our toes when we buy out of brand. WD’s software auto detects the drive to make setup simple , even for the novice. Once the My Cloud Drive is set up you can easily connect your computer and mobile devices with WD’s free desktop and mobile apps. With direct file uploads from mobile devices, important files and videos can be safely moved to My Cloud, freeing up valuable space on users’ tablets and Smartphones.     Customers can also use their My Cloud to back up their computers and digital files. For PC users, WD SmartWare™ Pro software offers options for how, when and where to back up files. Mac users can utilize all the features of Apple® Time Machine® backup software to protect their data.

Yes the directions are way too confusing for any of our team…especially me…but WD’s tech support is terrific, patient and available seven days a week.

Once we had our passwords (got access for my family too), then getting my pictures, videos, music and important documents from my Android Tablet, my IPad and even from my family’s other computer was a breeze.

The hardware, while not small, still fits under or on office desk. The software was a bit daunting to me and my friend since each time you add a tablet, PC or phone you to your backup mix, you have to acquire another authorization by email.

But once installed we were safely able to access my music, digital photos, videos and important documents from our multiple devices or just from the next room safely and securely.

This Helmet Can Grow Hair for Follicularly Challenged

Pardon me, but I couldn’t help noticing the three guys at the IGrow Booth at a recent trade show all had impressively thick heads of hair. I mean really, I saw the thing out of the corner of my eye across the room glowing like something you would find on the head of Peter Boyle in Mel Brooks’ fabulously funny Young Frankenstein and made a beeline to the guys with the hair helmet.

Apira Science claims The iGrow’s® proprietary Low-Level Light Therapy (LLLT) technology utilizes a combination of red laser and LED light diodes to stimulate and energize cellular activity causing an uptake in the natural function of the hair follicle. This 4 to 6 month process treats hair thinning/loss, by growing hair that is thicker, fuller and healthier-looking. Words to live by.

Say three or four sessions a week at 20 to 25 minutes each produces increased hair growth? Then maintenance is 1 or 2 sessions a week. Call me crazy, call me selfish, but I had to know what this device was going to do for me and other women, and men who admit to having color treated or processed hair. Lets face it, Chris Rock did a movie about it. Good Hair. Hey, this aint no party, this aint no disco, this is big business and we take our hair very seriously. The IGrow retails at $695 and for that the Apira team swears there are no adverse medical or cosmetic effects as the light therapy works on the hair follicle not the hair shaft

We spend a lot of our time as well as money on our hair, cutting, coloring , pampering, straightening, curling and most of all growing. The folks at Apira don’t want you to be bored so instead of old magazines at the salon, the IGrow® features a patented headphone-based stabilizing platform, with a standard 3.5mm audio port which allows a quality connection to most music/audio, TV or entertainment source devices, including Playstation® and Xbox®.

iGrow is cleared for men’s hair loss and Apira has filed for over the counter status but until that’s granted, you have to get your Doc to write a script for you or go on line to make your purchase directly and as part of the checkout process you can fill out a questionnaire which they will show it to their staff Doctor and send you your iGrow. And don’t worry; you can use the iGrow with your Rogaine, Propecia or whatever lotion or potion you are currently experimenting with.

TextNow Easy and Snappy  but too  many Ads

If everything were as easy as using TextNow on the Samsung Galaxy SII, I would have a free hand and maybe enough time to make dinner. Maybe.

The TextNow app is a snap to download and the voice activation actually works. I just love that it really seems to listen to what I said and not write its own script leaving me with something else to redo or having my business associates thinking I have lost my mind or invented my own language.

If you are thinking its weird to walk down the street talking to yourself or have the need to remain silent, the tapping away is quiet, oh how I hate all those clicking noises, whose idea was it to have some kind of sound effect for everything we do? TextNow anticipates your vocabulary choices with a high degree of accuracy and so even when you go manual mode it will save you time and spelling, as if anyone cares about spelling anymore. Seriously? I care about spelling and, while I will recognize pig Latin as a viable language some of what I decipher in a day from educated individuals makes me crazy (er).

Now I realize they pay for this service with online ads and partners who have your text now info but TextNow gets you points for more minutes and i am all about getting something for nothing. In fact, I love the whole TextNow experience. Now if it would order my groceries and turn on the oven I would be closer to getting dinner on the table.