Home automation is basically in its infancy. Right now, the technical development reminds me of early days of personal computing. Lots of companies had competing visions about what a PC should do. Handful of companies will realize that, for the home autiomation technology to achieve its destiny, something radial has to happen. Home automation has
Home security can be a do-it-yourself project, one of the systems is Arlo, a wireless solution for indoor or outdoor use. I like the Arlo because it doesn’t try too hard to upsell you on a service plan: For no extra money it saves seven days’ worth of video recordings online. Arlo has introduced a
A survey of smart speaker owners found that 6% are using it to control smart home devices like lighting and heating. Even for HomePod, playing music was only the third most common use. Answering a question and checking the news or weather led the way, with discovering and controlling music in third place. Controlling other smart
Flo Technologies announced HomeProtect, a home water damage reimbursement program, which will pay up to $2,500 for out-of-pocket homeowner’s insurance deductible expense. For monthly HomeProtect subscription fee, homeowners get access to greater-than-standard levels of support for problems, questions, and water use analysis. HomeProtect is available to customers who bought the Flo smart home water-monitoring and
With two neighborhood burglaries, it was time to consider a security system. One I investigated was offering a free Ring doorbell, had armed response from local security force and reasonable fees. I didn’t like the required three-year contract, but I figured that with free installation it was worth it. For another $30 a month, I
Sonos just announced a compact home theater smart speaker, the Sonos Beam. The cheaper device boasts a smaller footprint than its previous home theater products; the company says Beam is 60 percent smaller than the Playbase. The speaker is available for pre-order starting today. The company’s new home theater product will support Amazon Alexa controls
