1 Year Electronic House Magazine - $9.95

Sounds like they are getting a little desperate for subscribers.

I know I dumped my subscription a while ago. W-A-Y to much emphasis on high-end multi-million dollar houses. I can accept a large percentage of those type of articles, but there was just too little information usable for normal homeowners. As I live in an area where the average new home is in the $500,000 range, my definition of "normal" is a bit high, so I'm sure it was even more useless elsewere. At the end, they added a few articles that were at the complete other end (X10 using active home) so I just said the heck with them. Useless both from the professional standpoint, and from the DIY standpoint.

All of the above times 4 for their "Automated Living" mag.
 
I get ElectronicHouse for free. I don't know why, it just started showing up. That alone must mean something. Like jlehnert said, it's geared to the wealthy, way to impractical, a waist of good trees.
 
Totally agree with the above - I cancelled Electronic House over a year ago. But what really kinda annoyed me about EH was the incessant repetition of their main message - "go hire yourself a professional integrator because this stuff is way too complicated for you".

Who do they think their readers are? It seems to be written for consumers. But the handful of consumers who are rich enough to hire an integrator probably won't be interested in reading about it every month. DIY consumers find it pretty useless. And while integrators might find the featured homes and advertisements to be interesting, most of the articles are so simplistic that they would be useless to a professional. I must not be understanding something.

Best of luck to them.

Mark
 
EH is used by pro installers as sales literature and they give a couple copies to their high end prospective customers. Hence the mantra, "hire the pro installer that gave you this pretty magazine".
 
I started getting mine when I signed up for a free entrance ticket to last years EH Expo.
 
Agree with many of the comments above and I too get it for free.

One observation:
In reading the magazine for over six years, I have only seen a control cord or cable in their photos only once. If you look at their pictures of home, which are great, I;ve only seen an AC cord once.

Are all those Crestron LCD screens [shown in the photos] 'really' illuminated all the time? (Not just when the camera snaps.) :unsure:
 
jeffx said:
any recommendations for HA mags, then?
None.

"The One" used to be Home Automator magazine. This was a very good, but very small DIY magazine - vaporized several years ago.

Then there was Popular Home Automation (DIY sister to EH) magazine, but it morphed into Tech Living. Tech Living is now basically a "gadget news" magazine - very little to do with home automation. Every issue seems to repeat ridiculously simple articles on HDTV, wireless networking and DVRs - "hey, did you know about 802.11(g)?" or "golly, HDTV is going mainstream, go buy one!". The magazine is designed to sell advertising, not to inform readers.

I learn much more right here on CocoonTech. (no advertising fee for that plug :unsure: )

Mark
 
I agree with all of you. I found out years ago that EH editor's picks were just the most expensive items in their new item list that month. I cancelled my subscription years ago, too, but they still send it. It even "miraculously" followed me through my recent moves, even though I was hoping it would be lost inthe mail.

The latest ones I get have an Ingram Micro sticker on them. I called to cancel that and I can't cause I didn't pay for the subscription! Gee, thanks! I just thumb through it while I'm on the toilet and file it in the box of paper I used to start the logs in the fireplace. I hope the inks they use aren't toxic!

There is a mid-level enthusiast that isn't served by most magazine companies today - the hobbyist/DIY market. Same for electronics projects, too. Years ago we had all kinds of DIY mags like that - where'd they all go? I can't believe that the kids these days aren't interested in building their own devices and systems...

I also get Tech Living, which is ok but lacking as noted above. I'm sticking with Cocoon and other Inet sites, and the people who frequent them like this bunch!
 
You know - huggy's right! The only time I read a print magazine is on the toilet, and on the occasional flight. Other than that, I get all of my news - whether HA related or whatever online. The two magazines I subscribe to - Sound and Vision and PC Magazine - are primarily read on the thrown, and usually don't tell me anything I didn't already read online.

One day, when I have a PC in every bathroom, I'll cancel my subscriptions!
 
I have to say, I thought I was the only one (on BOTH points)! One, EH is definately catered to very exclusive homes. Two, I have it sitting next to when I am "sitting" and will just thumb through it now and then. Usually, however, they just go from the mail box straight to the trash.

I also started receiving it when I signed up for the EH Expo in Orlando last February....
 
jeffx said:
One day, when I have a PC in every bathroom, I'll cancel my subscriptions!

that is what a pocket pc is for
Then you may also want to get one of these: Otterbox PDA Cases

You will be prepared in case of accidents ("You dropped your PDA where?") and it will allow you to read in the shower, too.

I have a 1900 but I don't think it's ever actually been in the bathroom.
 
Back
Top