TellStick hits Windows Phone, courtesy of Gleam
I love the TellStick Net home automation bridge and what it allows me to do with regards to home automation in Europe. I use my setup exclusively through Tasker on Android, allowing me to do all sorts of things, but both Android and iOS has apps that can handle the system on their own. Now, Windows Phone 7 (and 8) has gotten its own app, called Gleam.
Gleam is similar to RemoteStick on Android and TellEvent on iOS. It’s a third party application, which is fairly common on the TellStick platform, that allows you to control your TellStick-connected home automation equipment from your Windows phone. You can turn on, off, or dim lights, rename devices, and view sensor informationif you have any sensors connected to the TellStick. It also supports sensor information as live tiles, allowing you to put sensor information right on the home screen. Another very interesting feature is sensor information logging, which logs sensor information for the last 30 days and presents it as graphs – something that’s missing from the apps on other platforms.
One notably missing feature is any form of automation or timing. TellEvent for iOS for instance supports location-based triggers, but according to Gleam’s developer, Windows Phone’s way of handling background tasks isn’t ideal for such use. Timed activation as well as device grouping will however be available in the next version of the app. There will also be a Windows 8 app available soon, which means that the entire Windows range is becoming fairly TellStick compatible. The app is $2.99 in the Windows Phone Store.
Download: Windows Phone Store
