I don’t generally post about Kickstarter products, and I almost never click ads, but when Angee promoted tweet showed up in my feed today I couldn’t resist (on either count). After reading through the description and watching the video for this automated home security system I have to say this seems like a really, really neat idea. If you’ve done […]
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If you’ve ever had a pipe burst or your basement flooded, you know that finding out ASAP is critical. The sooner you know, the greater the ability to pull things out, or turn the water off and start dealing with the problem. Once you’ve made the jump to home automation (HA), adding water detection sensors is a no brainer, but […]
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Where in the past OEMs have happily sold wireless cameras, and the infrastructure to put them on the network, no one has tried to tie it all together into a consumer product that is reliable and easy to use. With the recent release of Arlo, NETGEAR has done exactly that, signaling a strong a desire to build a discrete brand […]
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We saw OOMI at ShowStoppers and while they didn’t have actual product, they certainly said all the right things to indicated a good understanding of what HA is and what HA users want to get from the system. If you’d like to get in on the launch [aka pre-order] price of $229 (SRP will be $449) head on over to […]
Read moreEureka Park is one of my favorite things about going to CES. It’s a special place where pretty much anyone can come to the show and demonstrate their product. Most are actual products (like UPPER DESK), some will be soon, and others are still questing for funding. With Internet of Things (IoT) (which BTW is a horrible name, but since […]
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I don’t remember seeing Zipato at CES last year, so when I noticed their unique Z-Wave ZIPABOX home automation controller (HAC) while roaming the show floor I made a point to stop in and have a look. With all the change in the smart home space it can be tough to select the right hardware; with the HAC the most […]
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Z-Wave sensor/switch maker AEOTEC teased a new switch before CES, so I made a point to stop by and have a look. It was worth it. Losing ½ the size from the previous generation external module the Smart Switch 6 gains USB support and doesn’t give up any of the energy monitoring features present on the previous generation. We will […]
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NETGEAR had a lot to show at CES this year besides routers, and we ended up skipping those because with the rapid release schedule (AC3200 & AC2400 launched earlier) there wasn’t anything new. That’s not to say that they’ve been standing still in the networking space with several new product to enable more bandwidth around the house. […]
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The biggest news from Vera Control is that we finally have a controller with the new Series 500 Z-Wave+ SoC. In fact, there will eventually be three different models; VeraEdge, VeraPlus, and VeraSecure, with VeraEdge available now and the other two expected to ship early summer. The $149/£149(doh) VeraEdge is essentially an upgraded VeraLite, but the really interesting model is […]
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Finding the perfect universal remote is something of a personal quest for me. I’ve seen, and used, a lot of them and unfortunately I’m still on the hunt. With that in mind I will check out pretty much anything in the space where the vendor is trying something new or interesting, and even then I set the bar low in […]
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