The Unintimidating Guide to Homebridge

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When I first read about Homebridge, I was very enticed by the possibilities of integrating many non-Homekit devices into Homekit, but the idea of setting up a Homebridge server sounded too intimidating. Many sites and guides mention things like Raspberry Pi, shows lines of codes, write terms like Node.js. Many resources were on Github and … Read more

Logitech K380 Keyboard Review with the iPad 2018

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Logitech K380 Review

Logitech K380 Review

I always get an itchy feeling after buying a new gadget. Start shopping for the all accessories to make a gadget a better one. Like a new lens for my Sony camera. Or a new Surface Mouse for my Surface 3. Sometimes not so much an accessory but an upgrade – like my Sonos Play 5 and a Sonos One after getting a Sonos Play 1.

This time, it’s my iPad. I bought the new iPad, sometimes also known as the iPad 9.7” 2018, or the 6th Generation iPad, or the 2018 non-pro 9.7” iPad. It supports the Apple Pencil and I wanted to use it for taking notes at work. Also, I imagined it to be nice to have around.

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Setting up Alexa on the Sonos One in Singapore

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Sonos One and Sonos Play5

UPDATE (26/1/2020): I have given up (since last year) on Alexa on my Sonos Ones and just used Google Assistant, since it is so much easier to activate. More than that, though, I’ve been using Siri on my Homepod Mini to Airplay them to my Sonos Ones.

UPDATE (18/12/2018): I haven’t had to set up any new Sonos Oneses so I don’t know if any of the steps below are still necessary! I do know that the Alexa app is still not available in my iPhone, though. I recently fired up the Alexa app in my old Android phone, and now I am able to do the following:

  1. Set Spotify as the default music player (no need to specify “through Spotify” when asking Alexa to play a song or playlist).
  2. Set up the speaker’s location to Singapore, so I get proper weather reports
  3. Add in frequently travelled routes to ask Alexa for traffic information
  4. Change the units to metric, instead of imperial.

UPDATE (27/12/2017): Looks like Alexa and Spotify are now integrated! You’ll need to use your Alexa app (I had to do this on my old Android phone) to set it up. Now, I can ask Alexa to play certain songs from Spotify [Alexa, play Love on the Weekend from Spotify] and it plays it on my Sonos One, and whatever was grouped with it. I can also ask Alexa to play “Chill Hits”, a Spotify playlist I am following – but it won’t recognize my words when I ask it to play “Weihan”, a playlist I created. Time to change my playlist names. (more info)

I bought a Sonos One speaker knowing full well Alexa is not supported in Singapore, thinking – let’s just give it a try. I’ve read a bit on forums by some Singaporeans saying they got Alexa working on their Sonoses, so I thought, if they can, so can I!

Unfortunately, most of the threads say they did it, without saying how. Time to find out myself.

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