Lately, everything has been about the smart home. Having a connected doorbell, a connected set of lights, connected appliances even. The home is beginning to get smart, and there are some really cool and unique items out there to spruce up your home. Let’s check out a few for this month’s edition of the Best Smart Home Products.
Mr. Coffee Smart Wifi-Enabled WeMo 10-Cup Optimal Brew Coffeemaker
This coffee maker from Mr. Coffee is part of the Belkin WeMo platform. Allowing you to control your coffee maker from your smartphone. So you can turn it on as soon as you wake up and before you’re out of bed. This way your morning coffee is ready to go when you are, or aren’t. All it requires is the free WeMo app on the Google Play Store.
Mr. Coffee Smart Wifi-Enabled WeMo 10-Cup Optimal Brew Coffeemaker
Philips HUE Starter kit (White Bulbs)
Philips HUE is one of the more popular smart lighting systems out there. It’s also one of the more expensive, likely due to the fact that it does indeed work with several other platforms like IFTTT and Alexa. With HUE you can control your lights from your smartphone, and with IFTTT you can set them to turn on when you get near your home. Making things pretty sweet.
Philips HUE Starter Kit (White Bulbs)
Nest Cam
Having security cameras around your home can lead to a bit safer peace of mind. Nest recently bought Dropcam and then released their own Nest Cam. It’s a security camera that can be accessed from your smartphone so you can see what’s going on no matter where you are. It also features motion detection. So if you’re camera senses motion near where it is, you’ll get a notification about it.
Ring WiFi-Enabled Doorbell
This doorbell from Ring is pretty interesting. It’s a doorbell but it also has a camera inside. Allowing you to see who it is, without them knowing your home. And since it is WiFi-Enabled, you can see who it is when you aren’t home. Like the Nest Cam, you can also get motion detection alerts on your smartphone when your doorbell senses motion outside.
Nest Learning Thermostat
Perhaps the most popular product from Nest, their Learning Thermostat. This thermostat can be controlled from your smartphone, and also help decrease the amount of energy you are using. Thus lowering your electric bill. Making things much easier. You can control the temperature whether you are at home, or across the world.
Amazon Echo
One of the more interesting products on this list. The Amazon Echo is much more than just a Bluetooth speaker, but it’s a personal assistant. Alexa continues to get better over time, and recently she was given the ability to order Domino’s Pizza for you, as well as request an Uber for you. Making things pretty simple.
Crock-Pot Smart Wifi-Enabled WeMo 6-Quart Slow Cooker
What’s cooler than a Crock-Pot you can control with your smartphone? Nothing, right. This Slow Cooker can be controlled using your smartphone on the WeMo platform, so all you need is your smartphone and the free WeMo app. This is great for starting the slow cooker while you’re not home (perhaps at church on Sunday) or when you’re in bed and need to get it started early in the morning.
Crock-Pot Smart Wifi-Enabled WeMo 6-Quart Slow Cooker
SONOS PLAY:1
The SONOS PLAY:1 is a great speaker to put in your home. It can connect over WiFi and work with your smartphone to stream music. Unlike other speakers, SONOS streams music over WiFi instead of Bluetooth. Which leads to better quality music and audio. SONOS also can be paired with other SONOS products very easily.
ROKU 4
The ROKU 4 is the latest from ROKU. It brings 4K streaming to your TV. ROKU is known for having one of the best set-top boxes around, it includes all sorts of channels like Netflix, Hulu, Google Play Movies and much more. It also has content from other countries that you wouldn’t usually be able to access in your country.
NVIDIA SHIELD TV
Another great set-top box here. This one actually uses Android TV and has some pretty amazing games that can be played on it. The NVIDIA SHIELD TV has all sorts of apps already available through the Google Play Store. Including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Instant Video and much more.