The Ring doorbell is a great little device. It notifies you when someone is at the door, and they help protect your property by recording after motion is detected. However some would-be burglars have considered just ripping the Ring doorbell off the wall (or door). Is there any protection against this? The short answer is … Read more
Smart bulbs are one of the most popular – and fun – smart products available on the market. After all, you can change their color to anything you want, and sync the bulb to music or your TV (depending on the bulb manufacturer). But sometimes they don’t work too well with wall switches – whether … Read more
Ring devices are some of the most common smart technologies out there today. This company makes everything from smart security systems to home lighting. It would be great to have a full home of Ring technology, but how much internet data would that take? Ring systems are dominantly WiFi based. This means that they are … Read more
We’ve probably all seen movies where a secretive company has dozens of CCTV cameras along their perimeter, and the security control room has multiple TV monitors that display the live feed from these security cameras. All of a sudden, Jack Bauer bursts in and knocks out the security guards in the room, before carrying on … Read more
A single-zone smart thermostat can either put the whole house’s heating on, or off. It can’t control individual rooms (well, not without automatic dampers – which are rarely fitted in residential homes). In my opinion, this is one of the many flaws of smart thermostats. But what about smart radiator valves? Can these swoop in … Read more
Underfloor heating provides soft, gentle heating from underfoot throughout the day, giving a nice, natural feel to a house’s heating provision. This is especially compared to an occasional blast of warm air (or heat from a wall-mounted radiator) that many houses provide. So I wanted to explore how well the Nest Learning Thermostat range and … Read more
The Ring Alarm Pro’s key feature is the Eero 6 routers built right into the Alarm’s Base Station. They’re marketed as being able to work with Z-Wave and to a certain extent, Zigbee. Being as the Ring Base Station works with Z-Wave, might the Ring Alarm Pro also be used as a smart hub for … Read more
The Echo Show has proved useful time and again, and in so many ways. It’s a step up from the classic Echo Dot as well as other versions of the Echo. This is because the Show’s screen adds a world of possibilities for controlling the modern smart home. Of course, you can watch videos on … Read more
I’ll openly admit that when I first started looking into smart lighting, I got confused by all the different terms. Should I buy WiFi or ZigBee bulbs? Do I want RGB, RGBW, RGBWW… or RGB-CCT?! Should I care? And when I finally settled on Philips Hue, I was confused as to whether I should buy … Read more
I recently purchased a Ring Indoor Cam for around $20 in an Amazon bundle, far cheaper than the outdoor Ring Stick Up Cam which is $99 when not in a sale, or still $40+ as part of a bundle/sale. The same is true of Nest: their indoor camera costs $129, compared to $199 for the … Read more