Category Archives for Smart Homes

At CES 2019, I trekked my way up to the suites of the Venetian to meet with the team behind RoomMe and to get a firsthand look at their Innovation Award-winning sensor. RoomMe is an indoor positioning system that customizes your smart home by user. It’s a mountable, battery-powered device (uses 2 Alkaline D batteries) […]

Home security cameras are becoming more affordable, but functionality isn’t being sacrificed for affordability. If anything, they have more features than ever before. EZVIZ is at the forefront of this “pay less, get more” movement. They’ve developed several home security cameras, each with a low price tag and each unique. Our first encounter with EZVIZ […]

CES 2019 was the year of video doorbells. There were two-way video doorbells, dual camera video doorbells, peephole video doorbells, and more. The question I had to ask myself is, “What makes this one different and would I buy it?” When it comes to Netatmo, the answers are HomeKit and yes. What Makes Netatmo Video […]

Do you know what makes smart homes smart? Processing. Smart cameras can only recognize your face after they’ve processed an image; voice-controlled devices can only understand you after they’ve processed a sound, and your smart home hub can only tell what’s going on in your house after it’s processed the input from your sensors. As […]

Very few smart home hubs can claim they function locally. Those that do often offer limited features when running locally. Hubitat is an exception. Soon, Hubitat will launch a new hub. Like the original, it will be called Hubitat Elevation. We were lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the new hub at Pepcom […]

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Eyecloud is preparing to bring new home security cameras to the market. I was able to meet with the team behind the company at CES 2019. Today we’re going to take a frank look at the device Eyecloud is calling the “Smartest AI Home Security Camera EVER.” What is Eyecloud […]

At CES 2019, I had a quick visit with the makers of Hipcam. They displayed a trio of smart home security devices including Indoor Pro, Outdoor Pro, and a video doorbell. What is Hipcam? The names of the three products are self-explanatory and nothing new. But hang in there, there is something unique about this […]

At CES 2019, Wyze Cam announced that they would soon open the option for users to back up their Wyze Cam cameras to a new product called Wyze MaxDrive. MaxDrive Basics Wyze MaxDrive is a storage enclosure. It supports 2.5″ and 3.5″ internal drives with a maximum storage capacity of 12TB. You simply twist off […]

I was lucky enough to meet with Arlo at CES 2019 where I (along with a couple of YouTube friends) was provided with a hands-on demo of Arlo Ultra. Arlo Ultra vs. Arlo Pro 2 Ultra isn’t meant to replace Pro or Pro 2. Instead, it’s an addition to their existing lineup. The first thing […]

What Works With What? When building a smart home, figuring out what works with what is one of the most confusing parts. Another confusing part? Figuring out how connecting to one hub differs from connecting to another. Philips Hue being a great example. You can connect the bulbs to