Archives - Page 153 of 154 - At Home in the Future

First Look: Nest Protect Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm

November 20, 2014 1 Eric Murrell

Always watching. Never beeping. $100 for a smoke alarm. For many of you, that’s the only thing you’ll see when you skim this post. The thing is, we hate our smoke alarms. I don’t know if it’s bad wiring or…

First Look

First Look: The Kwikset Kevo Lock

November 18, 2014 3 Eric Murrell

The Key That’s Always With You I hate carrying keys. While the smart phone has absorbed just about everything else I carry in my pockets, the keychain seems to be the one item I can’t shake. My notebook is gone,…

Automation

Smart Bulbs vs Smart Switches

November 17, 2014 3 Eric Murrell

The Great Lighting Debate Lighting your smart home can be confusing. A decision that used to revolve around a handful of bulbs must now account for dozens of variables… How important is power consumption? Do I need colored light? Do…

Automation

First Look: The Quirky+GE Tripper for Wink

November 14, 2014 0 Eric Murrell

The folks at Dropcam broke my heart earlier this year. Hot off the heels of the release of their excellent Dropcam Pro web cameras, Dropcam took a small step closer to embracing the home security market with the announcement of…

Lighting

REVIEW: Philips SlimStyle LED 60w Replacement Light Bulb

November 13, 2014 0 Eric Murrell

Good light; right price. As I research lights for our house, I thought it would be helpful to continue to reviewing the most common players lining the store shelves. I covered the excellent Cree LED bulb last week, so lets…

Automation

First Look: The Wink Relay

November 12, 2014 1 Eric Murrell

Mission control for your smart home. Once you have your whole home working together (perhaps through the Wink Hub we looked at yesterday), you’re going to want an easy way to control it. Smart phones are the default interface, but…

Automation

Quirky+GE Introduce 8 New Wink Enabled Smart Home Products

November 11, 2014 1 Eric Murrell

Just hours after we took our first look at the awesome Wink Hub, the folks at Quirky have introduced 8 very interesting new smart home products to complement the rest of the Wink-compatible line up: The Norm – $80 –…

Automation

First Look: The Wink Hub

November 11, 2014 6 Eric Murrell

One device to rule them all. With new smart home gadgets entering the market on almost a daily basis, there’s no shortage of new solutions for common problems. Unfortunately, that also means there’s an abundance of new apps, protocols, and…

Gadgets

REVIEW: Eneloop Rechargeable Batteries

November 10, 2014 3 Eric Murrell

Secret little money savers. We knew having kids would be expensive, but one expense we didn’t account for was keeping batteries in dozens of electronic toys. Every birthday and each Christmas brings with it a new family of chirping plastic…

Lighting

Government Confirms: LED Lighting is Getting Better and Better

November 8, 2014 0 Eric Murrell

A recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (surely a fun place to work), confirms that LED lighting continues to pull ahead of Compact Fluorescents and Incandescents in performance per watt. It’s a great time to replace your bulbs,…