Smart Home

Smart home thermostats are becoming quite common and, for the Nest at least, downright popular. But most of these systems only monitor from one direction—that is, the user remotely checking the home. The new Ecobee 3 system, however, works both ways; the device is watching its watchers with remote sensors. The Ecobee 3 from same-named Continue Reading →

Nest’s thermostat and Protect smoke detector may help automate your home, but they haven’t actually talked directly to home automation systems so far — a bit of a discrepancy, don’t you think? All should be well now, though, since the Works with Nest program has just expanded to support the whole-home automation gear from Control4, Continue Reading →

Before I consider my home smart, I’m going to need to replace my appliances. While the smart fridge is a cliché, having a smarter kitchen (that might include the fridge) or a washer and dryer that are connected to my air conditioning system will make my home more energy-efficient and could help me take full Continue Reading →

While the Hue lights from Philips are capable of producing more than 16 million shades of colored light, flipping between functional white light and playful colored light can be a bit of a pain. And while the native app’s scene selections feature can help to partially alleviate this issue, Philips has just unveiled another option: Continue Reading →

Samsung is plotting an expansion to its Smart Home platform, opening up the service to make it work with third-party technology. Ahead of IFA 2014, a major tech trade show that kicks off this week in Berlin, the South Korean smartphone-maker says you’ll be able to activate air conditioners, robot vacuum cleaners and smart LED Continue Reading →

If you’re like me, you love your Philips Hue light bulbs, but hate paying $60 per bulb for a connected light that can do almost all colors of the rainbow (a true blue is a problem). For half the price you can pick up one of the new Hue Lux bulbs from Philips that work Continue Reading →

How many companies does it take to connect a light bulb? Why connect the light when you can connect the switch? Or outlet? Or socket? How many companies does it take to turn on a connected light? One to make the light and 40 or 50 to access the API. Okay, these aren’t funny jokes. Continue Reading →

Satu Niemelä and Erasmus van Niekerk, the husband and wife team behind the Onni baby monitor, knew what they wanted out of a baby monitor. Instead of a cheap black-and-white camera they wanted full-color HD video. And instead of looking like a CCTV camera from the Island of Misfit Toys, they wanted the design to Continue Reading →

Google has Nest, Apple has HomeKit and Samsung has…SmartThings, we’re hearing. The deal was completed for around $200 million dollars, though it might have been less according to one source. (Update: The deal is not done yet, says another.) SmartThings is in the home automation space, and allows you to connect devices like lights and Continue Reading →

Samsung, ARM, Nest and four other companies have gotten together to build a new radio standard for the smart home. Dubbed Thread, it is a low-power, mesh network protocol that also supports IPv6. The standard is built on the existing radio hardware used by ZigBee devices (802.15.4), which means that a company could update its Continue Reading →