smart home

SwitchBot now makes a robot that closes your curtains

switchbot curtain 2

CROWDFUNDING NEWS – Making your home smarter is awesome. For example, I love my Neato Botvac robot vacuums and my Liftmaster WLED smart garage door opener. But one thing I don’t yet have are smart curtains because they are expensive and I’m a little intimidated to install them myself. And that’s why I’m so interested

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Brilliant Home Control Smart Switch review

Brilliant 17

REVIEW – How would you like to transform your house or apartment into an easy-to-use smart home without the hassle of setting up hubs, adding wiring, and changing batteries every few months? The Brilliant Smart Home Control panel and its all-in-one mobile app let you turn regular lights into smart lights and integrates with your

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Awair Glow C air quality monitor and smart plug review

Awair Glow 1

REVIEW – Each day when I walk back and forth to take the railroad to and from work, it seems that there is a new building being constructed in the city. With all of the construction and materials and digging and trucks going back an forth, pollution seems to be at an all-time high. Since

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Nanoleaf makes smart home control as easy as touching a button

nanoleaf canvas

NEWS – Nanoleaf is all about smart home lighting that is both beautiful and functional and now their customizable eco-friendly Nanoleaf Canvas light panel system goes one step further by adding new Touch Actions capability that turns their smart light panels into smart buttons. Integrating with all Apple HomeKit devices, the new FREE upgrade for

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Airstream Classic travel trailers are your smart home on wheels

airstream classic smart trailer 1

NEWS – Earlier this month, Airstream announced that all of their new Classic travel trailers can be outfitted with Airstream Smart Control Technology.  With a smartphone app, you’ll be able to monitor and control many of the functions of your Classic trailer.  Smart Control adds the following features: Stay connected – to your Classic, to

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Retrofit your existing downlights with smart Philips Hue kits

philips hue retrofit downlight

I have an old-style downlight in my foyer, and I wanted a smart bulb for it.  I saw a lot of  retrofit kits for recessed lights with the light source and trim kit in one.   But those weren’t what I wanted, because none I found were wirelessly controllable.  I gave up on those kits

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The new Nest Temperature Sensor helps rid your home of hot and cold spots

nest temperature sensor

My house is probably like most houses out there.  There are some rooms that are hotter than I’d like and some that are colder than I’d like, no matter the season.  Because of the location of the thermostat and the long shape of the condo, our bedrooms tend to be chilly in the winter and

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Sonoff S31 WiFi socket and Slampher RF bulb adapter review

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Turning your home into a smart home is a whole lot easier if you add the home automation tech during the building phase instead of waiting years later to retrofit tech into an existing home. Although that’s great advice, it won’t help you if you want to get into the home automation game with an older

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Lenovo Smart Assistant releases this May with integrated Amazon Alexa

Lenovo Smart Assistant 3.31.17

The Amazon Echo costs $179.99.  Would you like the same functionality (and then some), but save $50?  Of course!  Introducing the Lenovo Smart Assistant, featuring Amazon Alexa.  This will be released by Lenovo in May 2017, at a cost of $129.99.  Don’t want a giant black tower in the middle of your room?  The Lenovo

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LOFTEK SANSI 10W Wifi LED Light Bulb review

SensiLoftek 1

LED technology keeps getting more and more common. As it does, the costs keep going down, and the cycle of innovation and placing them into more and more common items continues. Sansi, through their Loftek brand, has an LED bulb that doesn’t need a hub to be “group-able” and controllable from an app on your

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