Tag Archives: smart home

Most people have a lot to do in their daily lives: a 9-5 job, caring for kids, making dinner, cleaning the house, finding time for hobbies and extracurricular…some people even work two or more jobs to make ends meet!

Well, the good news is that you can streamline your daily life with smart home technology, and it is amazing! It’s trending in 2020 and becoming a staple of many home and kitchen appliances. From the simple things in life, from turning your lights on and off or setting your alarm to the more complex voice activation and surveillance, smart home technology can do it all.

Here are four of the most popular modern smart home appliances.

Amazon Echo

The Amazon Echo is a Bluetooth smart speaker that features a familiar voice: Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant. You have easy access to the breadth of content on the internet if you need to look up recipes, gifts for your family, play your favorite YouTube video…whatever you need!

You can also integrate Alexa with your smart lighting system, Nest thermostat, cameras, and much more. We’ll go over more of these modern smart devices below. But before we do, here’s a cool way you can integrate your Alexa with other devices.

Pair Alexa with IFTTT, which stands for If This Then That, and you’ll have increased functionality across the board. IFTTT allows you to connect your smart devices to one another, and automate all reminders, alerts and toggle chains (for lights, thermostats, and more).

The Echo family includes smart tablets and speakers as well that you can check out here.

Philips Hue Smart Lighting

Even something as simple as turning on and off your lightswitch can be made even simpler and automated. The Philips Hue Smart Lighting products allow you to change the intensity of your lights and the color! Sure, colorful lights aren’t a necessity for your home, but they can be a great surprise for your guests or a fun way to inject some life into a party.

At the very least, you can integrate the lights with your Google Assistant, Alexa, or IFTTT for incredible ease of use.

Check out Philips Hue Smart Lighting here.

Google Assistant

Like Alexa for Amazon, Google’s developed its own virtual assistant, Google Assistant. Google has incredible access to its own search engine data. This makes it tremendously powerful when it comes to assisting and alerting you and helping you get through your day more efficiently.

In October 2019, Perficient Digital conducted a study that showed that the Google Assistant answers more questions than Alexa, Siri, and other voice assistants – it’s also more accurate than its competitors. The Google Assistant was found to be about 90% accurate and uses natural language better than its rival Amazon Echo.

You can find the Google Assistant here.

Nest Thermostat

Rounding out this list is the Nest Thermostat. This smart thermostat works with most heating and cooling systems and allows you to control your thermostat from your smartphone! It will even automatically turn up and down your home’s temperature as you come home and leave. That way you only pay to heat or cool your home when you are there. It’s brilliant!

Not only that, but Google reports on their site that “Independent studies showed that Nest saved people an average of 10% to 12% on heating and 15% on cooling.” So you’re getting great savings and exceptional convenience!

With the Nest, you can ensure your home is comfortable, always.

Thanks for reading about four of the most popular smart home technologies. These products will bring you savings, convenience, and they’re great conversation starters. When was the last time you saw someone with red and green lights in their family room?

So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy the latest in home automation.

Hardware, Internet

Amazon Echo Vs. Google Home: Which Is Best?

December 8, 2017 Technologer

Many of you will be thinking about buying a smart speaker. You may have read articles and looked at prices, but you’re left a bit confused when one person says they prefer the Amazon Echo and says Google Home is superior. This infographic from Half Price takes you through how the two compare in different areas.

Let’s look at the voice assistant feature and according to the infographic the Echo wins because of an extremely comprehensive skills category. Skills are essentially smartphone apps and can help you do things like learn a new word.

However, for music and movie playback, it looks as if the Home is the clear winner. It allows you to listen to audio from Google Play Music and of course YouTube. You can also stream music and movies to the speaker or even connect to other speakers in the house if you’re using a Chromecast.

The reality is that both devices are always improving, and it will be interesting to see how they develop over the next few years. Find out more in the infographic.

General

Smart Appliances & the Kitchen of Tomorrow [Infographic]

April 15, 2016 Nir Shein

Some of us might be slow to adopt new technologies, while others will have the latest gadgets and software as soon as it appears on the market. People in the latter category have most likely embraced the concept of the smart kitchen, where appliances such as fridges, cookers and washing machines are programmed with unprecedented intelligence and can be controlled from your smartphone.

With the smart appliance market growing from $40 million in 2010 to $9.7 billion today, and projected to break $26 billion in the next three years, it’s clearly a market that is rapidly growing. Already there are numerous apps and smart kitchen products on the market, including the Egg Minder, which updates you on the number of eggs you have at home; and the Prep Pad, which detects the nutritional content of any food item placed on it. Meanwhile, apps such as How to Cook Everything and Jamie Oliver’s Recipes come stocked with enough recipes to suit even the fussiest eater.

This infographic from Pennywell shows that smart kitchen appliances can provide numerous benefits and make your household chores a great deal easier. If you want to learn more about fridges that can tell you what’s inside when you’re 100+ miles away, or ovens that know how much cooking time a recipe needs, then feast your eyes downwards to gaze into the kitchen of tomorrow.

Technologer