Miscellaneous articles, news, tips and tricks relating to smart home tech and home automation devices.
Move aside WiFi: much like the Zigbee protocol, Z-Wave is an alternative way to control your smart home devices. It operates on a mesh network, doesn’t require a lot of power to function, and is constantly growing its network of brands that are compatible with it. One of Z-Wave’s best features, is that it operates … Read more
In today’s connected world, there are many ways for devices to interact with one another. While most people opt for the more popular options like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, there are alternatives. One such alternative is designed specifically for home automation: Zigbee. Zigbee is a wireless technology much like Wi-Fi, that allows several smart devices to … Read more
I’ve loved smart homes since I purchased my first Amazon Echo device (well, apart from when Alexa completely mishears me…!). I’ve since purchased a range of other smart devices, and pretty much every part of my house contains at least one smart home device – including my attic and detached garage! It’s so easy to … Read more
After much soothing, your baby is finally asleep. You tuck them in for the night, dim (or turn off) your LIFX smart lights and slowly close the door, inching away so that you don’t wake up your child. Phew, finally – there’s nothing more peaceful than a quiet house! You go to bed a few … Read more
Even though I’m only 31, I always feel old when I start a sentence with “Back in my day, things were so much better”. However you can’t blame me for thinking this when Ring used to only charge $10/month for Professional Monitoring, right? Actually, let’s back up a bit. Ring released their smart alarm system … Read more
Google’s range of smart speakers – the Google Home range – are a rival to Amazon’s Echo range. Google Home devices (including the Google Mini and Nest Mini) give weather updates, play music, supports timers and gives reminders, and a whole lot more. But does this cost money? Also the devices can be controlled by … Read more
When you have dozens (or even hundreds) of smart home devices – from smart speakers to smart bulbs, and smart plugs to cameras – you might be struggling to manage them all. After all, they’re probably all from different brands – meaning that you’ll probably have 10 different mobile apps! And even if the devices … Read more
Ring’s devices can be linked together to provide closer integration, and it’d be nice if motion detected on a Ring camera (especially an outdoor one) could trigger the Ring alarm to sound. But is this possible? I’ve always been curious about this so I wrote this article to find out can ring camera trigger alarm. … Read more
I purchased my first Echo device back in 2016, and I’ve always found it quite useful, although my wife wasn’t convinced at first. But over time, as we’ve discovered more Echo features – and also purchased new smart home devices – we’ve both come to appreciate smart home technology a lot more. At the same … Read more
The Ring Alarm is there to protect you and your house 24/7, right? After all, it’s an alarm system so it should be built to withstand a range of basic security systems attack… which includes obvious attacks (e.g. a window being smashed) but also the less obvious attacks: someone jamming the WiFi signal of your … Read more