An end-user device can aggregate information as pertains to a variety of appliances that otherwise utilize incompatible communication protocols to present a shared opportunity to accommodate current information regarding those appliances. This information can include status information regarding such appliances as well as, or in lieu of, instructions to be acted upon by those appliances. Gateways can serve to provide a communications interface between such appliances and, for example, an internet. By one approach one or more middleware platform intermediaries can interface between one or more of those gateways and the end-user device.