In this digital age, it’s becoming more common for people to listen to audiobooks as opposed to reading actual physical books. Couple with that the fact that most people are incredibly busy, and taking time to sit down and read is becoming less commonplace. Podcasts, with the wide variety of topics they cover, have also … 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
In today’s modern smart home, Amazon’s Echo devices have become a common and useful item – around a quarter of all American households have one, in-fact! Through Alexa, they perform a wide range of functions such as providing news updates, weather alerts, and even recipe ideas. When it comes to the Echo Show, you can … Read more
Amazon’s Alexa and products like the Echo are always advertised as being great for creating the ultimate smart home. And in concept, a lot of the time, they are great! However, especially as of late, Alexa can also present some hassle. Let’s face it, sometimes Alexa gets on our last nerve! Between misunderstanding, acting like … Read more
Having a smart voice assistant like the Amazon Echo is great due to all the smart home features it offers, but sometimes it seems to ‘wake up’ by itself and play a random noise or sound. Sometimes this sounds like a genuine notification (even though there’s no reason for the notification), whilst other times the … Read more
I live in a town called Cwmbran, but yet when I ask my Echo device for “the weather today”, I get the weather forecast for Caerphilly – somewhere I haven’t lived in over 3 years. Why?! Equally, the weather forecast I get from Alexa (who use AccuWeather) seems to contradict the one I get from … Read more
Routines using Alexa have time and again proved extremely useful in the everyday function of our smart homes. They help make our daily lives that much easier – most of the time. Now, what if you want to take routines a step further? Perhaps you want them to run only when you’re home and can … Read more
Our Amazon Echos no doubt do a lot of awesome things. Sometimes, however, they don’t always work as they should. Error messages happen, and while sometimes they’re valid – sometimes they aren’t. Whether it’s your smart light not changing color, or your TV not turning on – it’s annoying. You ask Alexa to do something, … Read more
When people think of smart lighting, they usually think of the obvious: full color (RGB) bulbs. Setting rooms to bright green, or dancing to strobe lighting effects. But I actually prefer a less discussed smart lighting feature: motion sensitive lighting. This is simple to set up, and it feels like something out of sci-fi. I … Read more
There’s a big security update that’s coming to Wi-Fi routers across the country and it’s coming soon. The WPA2 standard is set to be replaced by WPA3 over the next few years. This leaves us with some pretty big questions about our smart home ecosystems that are all tuned to run on WPA2. WPA3 is … Read more