smart homes

Soundbars can be the answer to a homeowner’s home audio prayers, but there’s no one-size fits all solution.

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The Internet can be a great resource, but that doesn’t mean the information on the web is always accurate. There has been a lot written recently about the topic of smart homes, smart grids and other technologies that are designed to enhance the lives of homeowners. For example, it has been stated that smart solutions […]

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One of the biggest challenges of adding technology to a home is finding and comparing the many options available. You can scour the Internet for hours and still leave scratching your head. While the selection of home automation systems may not be as immense as stereo speakers or smart TVs, it’s still impressive … and […]

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As smart home devices continue their march toward mainstream adoption, people are finding that electronic products are playing an increasingly prominent role in their day to day lives. At a core level, these connected devices are miniature computers, built with sophisticated components, including network interfaces, on-board memory, and processors. Moreover, these miniature computers are susceptible […]

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There’s this annoying glitch that happens sometimes in an automated home called “latency.” It occurs when you press a button to, say, activate all the lights in the house, and you’re left standing at the threshold tapping your foot waiting for the lights to turn on. Those few seconds of lag time might seem inconsequential, […]

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Various analyst groups and industry prognosticators have been tossing out some very big numbers. According to these fortune tellers, within the next few years there will be hundreds of millions, tens of billions, even trillions of smart homes connected by the Internet of Things (IoT). However, if you take a careful look at what is […]

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TEN YEARS AGO, we conceived the idea of honoring home systems integration firms for their stellar smart home projects. As was the industry back then, the awards-program started out small, with most companies submitting information about and photos of home theaters. Very few homes with comprehensive control and automation systems ended up in my inbox. […]

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The biggest boost to the growing smart home market was pretty obviously the Nest smart thermostat. Who would have guessed that a thermostat would be the technology device to inspire people to start linking up systems in their homes through their smart phones? Could the next big thing for DIY smart homes be smart water […]

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Sitting inside in a home theater while it is snowing outside feels wonderful but, when the nights are warm, why not take the theater outside with you? Thanks to a wide variety of portable screens and projectors available, coupled with the pervasiveness of wireless technology, it’s easier than ever to pull together a fantastic outdoor theater.

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Every industry has its watershed moments: those singular innovations that come along and shift the landscape virtually overnight. For owners of smart homes, that moment came in June 2007 with Apple’s unveiling of the first iPhone. A second and perhaps even more significant moment came when Apple announced the first iPad in 2010. In a little over seven years these two devices, along with competing products from dozens of other manufacturers, have become so ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget just how recently they came to market. What is not so easy to overlook is the impact these devices have had on the smart home environment.

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