Gadgets That'll Turn Your Home into a Smart Home

By admin - August 15, 2016

In the tech world’s rush to make everything Internet-connected,homes seem to be the area with the most potential for change and lasting effect. There are certainly no shortage of startups and corporations trying to make it work. For now, only a handful of these gadgets look like they’ll bring more convenience than frustration. It’s hard to say that any smart home device is smart enough to be essential, but if you have an appreciation for forward-looking tech, there are devices out there that can help your day-to-day. Give them a chance, and it might be hard to go back. Here are a few we like.

ecobee3 Smarter Wifi Thermostat: While the Nest Learning Thermostat is the current face of smart home tech for most, the ecobee3 could be superior depending on the amount of
living space you have. At their cores, both devices have the same benefits: learning preferences and schedules, and adjusting temperature accordingly, sleek design, and heating or cooling your home from your phone (no more getting out of bed!). The perk of the ecobee3 really becomes clear if you live in a larger household. It can be more convenient if you pick up a couple more remote sensors. It does add to the cost, but it gives you more control over the temperature in different parts of your home.

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1. ecobee3[/caption]

Nest Protect: Like the Learning Thermostat above (#1), the Nest Protect spruces up and smartens a device many of us take for granted. The connected smoke and carbon monoxide detector does well with gauging potential dangers, while looking much nicer than a plastic chunk on the ceiling. It's capable of alerting your phone if something goes awry while you're not home. Plus, it has a "Pathlight" feature which lights up while it senses you walking around in the dark!

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Amazon Echo: Technically the Echo is a Bluetooth speaker, but it also serves as a Siri or Google Now for your home. It can be your digital assistant that can fill you in on weather, start up some music, set alarms or calendar events, and search the web for random info! It's a friendly, hands-free bridge to information and helpful to have around.

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Nest Cam: This gadget delivers a functional, high-res, and connected wireless security camera. It puts out a wide-angle, 1080p stream that you can watch right from you phone, limited to one every half-hour. It's not a replacement for a full home security system, but it's useful if you have a child that needs monitoring. A perk is that you can save and access past footage through the cloud!

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Roomba 980: You've probably heard of the Roomba by now...it's shamelessly expensive, but now you can schedule it to automatically start cleaning at specific times, regardless of whether or not you’re near it! It’s tidier at actually doing that cleaning, too, though it’ll still charmingly bash itself into a post every now and again. Imagine being able to tell it to clean while you're out of town, or simply having less chores to do on weekends or after work!

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August Smart Lock: This is a niche device among niche devices, but it does let you remotely control a door lock. Keys have never really been particularly complicated, but having your door open without having to touch a thing is pretty neat. It's quite simple to install, and unlike other devices...it goes over your deadbolt instead of replacing it entirely. If you pick up August's Connect accessory or use a compatible hub (like Logitech's Harmony Home Hub, #7), you can also program the device to allow certain people into the house without you being there.

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Logitech Harmony Home Control: This is the best value for anyone with a few smart home devices. The included Harmony Companion remote can connect to things like the Nest thermostat, in addition to the usual suite of TVs, media streamers, cable boxes, game consoles, and so on. Using it isn’t constantly seamless, but for something that’s controlling up to 8 things at once, it’s far from unruly. It also ditches the IR blaster in favor of an RF signal, which means you don’t have to point it directly at what you want to control in order for it to work. Now that it’s dropped about $40, it doesn’t charge an outrageous amount for the perks either.

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