I love the concept behind MySmartBlinds { https://www.mysmartblinds.com/products/automation-kit} solar powered $99 2.5” automation retrofit kit. I would love to have automated blinds, but the cost of a complete replacement is prohibitive. Especially considering that the blinds we have are in great shape. If rollers are more your thing, a kit should be available in a few months for $149. […]
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Installation cost is one of the major barriers to home automation. In addition to the cost of your switches, bulbs, etc. you also need to purchase a home automation controller (HAC) in most cases. The other major issue is complexity, which is where the development budget of large companies like Amazon and Google help immensely. They have the $ to […]
Read moreNear the end of the last day of CES, we stumbled into the Guardian kiosk in the Z-Wave pavilion. Having seen quite a few leak detection/water control devices over the previous week I wasn’t holding out much hope. As it turns out, what they have to offer is a really neat approach to solving this problem. Unlike the other […]
Read moreInteroperability is one of, if not the biggest, challenges to adoption of home automation (HA) in the non-geek market. In order to get to this segment, or most people, we need to solve the “how do we get devices to talk to each other” problem. The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) is trying to solve exactly this via an open source […]
Read moreIt would be impossible to tell the WiSA and Axiim stories separately for CES 2018, so we are going to have to combine the two here. From a straight technology perspective, not much seems to have changed with the WiSA standard. Aside from Axiim there have only been some minor changes to the available consumer hardware. Although some major brands […]
Read moreI wasn’t surprised at all that SVS puts on a good audio demo. Naturally both the SB-4000 and Ultra 5 speaker system I got to listen to briefly sounded great. But, I was not prepared to as impressed as I was by their “coming soon” Prime Wireless DTS Play-Fi enabled speaker. The speaker works as a single, or can […]
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In every conversation I’ve had since returning from CES ’18, LifeDoor has come up near the top of my list of interesting products that we saw at the show. And, the response has been universally positive as well. After all, what’s not to like about a simple, easy to install, device that listens for a smoke alarm, illuminates the room, […]
Read moreThis isn’t the first time I’ve run across Skyworth at CES, but it is the first time I’ve noticed an OLED display in their booth. Like everyone else, the panels are sourced from LG, so that’s not particularly interesting. What is quite engaging however is the expected price point of the displays when they come to the US later this […]
Read moreOne of the great things about actually going to CES, is that you get a chance to explore a little; and sometimes experience new and interesting things before they make it to market. The MPEG-H demo at the Fraunhofer booth was a perfect example of this. For those who are unfamiliar with it, MPEG-H is a modern object based audio […]
Read moreEven when they don’t have a lot to show off, it’s always nice to stop by and visit with SilconDust. Fortunately that wasn’t the case this CES, with several new and interesting things on offer. We will finally be seeing that six stream Digital Cable Tuner (DCT). It will retail for $199 and should arrive mid-year. The […]
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