Switch for WeMo 4+

- "Attach to Menu Bar" doesn't seem to stick, in the sense that the menu doesn't hide after clicking out of utility, after a reboot or switching screens.

- It would be great to have an option to hide the "Turn On/Off All" buttons. Accidentally hitting either of these buttons could be a headache, for some folks.

Otherwise, it's clean and effective. Would love to see the above-mentioned addressed, if possible.

The action of getting into my WeMo app on an iOS device should not feel like a hassle, but when I am already sitting at my computer and need to manipulate a WeMo switch many times a day, using the iOS app becomes tiresome. Why can’t I just click somwhere on my already open OSX interface? Well, now I can, thanks to Giorgos Trigonakis and this simple but indispensable app. It may be the only option on the iTunes store at this point (though I’m not sure), but in any case it works brilliantly. After installation, without any setup on my part, it immediately detected all of my switches and perfoms the on/off function. It even has handy “power on all” and “power off all” buttons (the icons at the bottom of the interface). You can also make keyboard shortcuts for on and off.

Note that I have only tried this with WeMo switches, but based on the performance with those devices, I would expect others to work equally well.

For whatever reason, the app does not handle the WeMo “rules,” so these cannot be adjusted or activated/deactivated through this app. And as noted, $4.99 seems a bit steep for what you get. On the other hand, I no longer have to go through the small but oft repeated hassle of getting into my iPhone and opening the WeMo app just to turn on a light. So perhaps $4.99 is not so bad...

It’s still quite a stunner than Belkin doesn’t offer a desktop app for controlling their devices. When I go downstairs to the basement family room, I’ve either got to carry my phone with me (which I don’t normally do because Verizon is useless in my basement) or I’ve got to fumble around in the dark to find my WeMo switch to turn it on.

WSwitch fills the gap nicely, doing exactly what it says. It searches your local network for any WeMo devices and makes them available for simple on-off control.

What it doesn’t do (and doesn’t claim to do): It doesn’t control your WeMos while you’re away from home (although it would probably work if you had a home VPN you could tunnel into). It doesn’t let you access and adjust your WeMo schedules. I don’t think it lets you set up a new WeMo. But it doesn’t actually claim to do any of those things.

At $4.99 it seems a little steep for what it does, but I’ve probably already spent more than $4.99 worth of my own time trying to find a way to control my WeMo devices from my Mac. So, in the end it’s worth it.