Smart Home

The Home app has officially arrived with iOS 10, finally letting you control all your smart home devices in one place, from light bulbs to thermostats to security systems. In order to take advantage of this application, you’re going to need some HomeKit-compatible hardware. In this article, I’ll share some of the best smart home products on the market today. As a home automation enthusiast for more than 30 years now, I am extremely impressed with how easy HomeKit makes the setup and configuration process. If you’re still intimated by the idea of installing new hardware, no need to worry. I’ll walk you through the process!

I love the Echo series of products from Amazon. Being able to just talk to Alexa is the stuff I dreamed of as a kid. It's as close as the average person can get to being Tony Stark of Iron Man. That said, Amazon has some surprising gaps in the Echo (and Tap) product line. The are now have four devices, the Echo, the Echo Dot, the Tap, and the Echo Look. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. The models with Echo in their name allow you to just say "Alexa" and ask a question or issue a command. It's magical.

In the Spring 2017 of iPhone Life magazine, I wrote a roundup of HomeKit-compatible home-automation gear, which included Elgato's Eve Room indoor temperature and humidity sensor, its Eve Door & Window wireless contact sensor and the Eve Energy electricity toggle switch. This brief post reviews two more members of the Eve family, the Eve Motion ($49.95) wireless motion sensor and the Eve Weather ($49.95) wireless outdoor sensor.

We’re in a golden age of home automation right now, with so many nifty smart-home options that even the Jetsons would be jealous. Although companies often design their smart-home gadgets to be installed permanently, renters aren’t left out in the cold—there are still many ways to automate your temporary home that don’t require screws, wiring, or major alterations.

Control Center in iOS 10 got a big upgrade that divides the single page into multiple tabs you can swipe through. And if you have Homekit devices paired with your iPhone, you'll be happy to use the new Home app, which allows you to easily organize and manage all of your HomeKit devices within a single app. Better yet, part of the redesigned Control Center is a tab that's dedicated to your HomeKit devices. When you open Control Center, simply swipe left twice and you'll be able to change the temperature in your home, turn the lights on, unlock a door, and whatever else the HomeKit devices you own can do. Here's how to access your Smart Home from Control Center with iOS 10.

Our homes are about to become much more visible, to us, and potentially to others. The so-called Internet of Things includes in its arsenal of technologies network enabled cameras. Networked cameras themselves aren’t that new, but today’s sophisticated, app-controlled cameras bring a wealth of new features that go well beyond monitoring a door for unauthorized entry. With today’s cameras you can play with your pet, broadcast 360-degree video or control home automation hubs that turn on lights based on movement or sound.

I will be honest, I talk to my Amazon Echo’s agent, Alexa, more than I talk to Siri. In many ways, the Echo is a completely different creature than Siri. I don’t need Siri to use my iPhone. Apple hopes that Siri makes me more dependent on my phone, but there is no using the Echo without Alexa. Echo is designed primarily as the home for an intelligent assistant and little else.

Internet-of-Things technology vendors want to take over your home, car, person—you name it. And the trend will continue to pervade further into our lives as portable tech becomes ever more sophisticated. At WWDC 2016, Apple announced expanded integration with smart-home product vendors, one of which is a monitoring product called Canary ($179). I just happened to be reviewing their current 1st generation product when the announcement was released. HomeKit (and newly minted products that leverage it, like the Canary Plus to be released later this year) teases with an Apple-centric vision of smart appliances, apps and online monitoring services to come. The current Canary offers a slice of that vision.

In this fifth installment of my series on HomeKit-compatible devices, we'll look at yet one more gadget that Elgato has given me: Eve Door & Window ($39.95). Its simple function is to tell you whether a door or window is open or closed, and it keeps a log of openings. Previous posts have covered iHome's SmartPlug ($39.99) and Elgato's Eve Room ($79.95), Eve Energy ($49.95), and Eve Weather ($49.95). 

I'm enjoying making my home smarter via Apple HomeKit-compatible devices. So far I've written about iHome's SmartPlug ($39.99), which lets you set up an on/off schedule as well as control an appliance remotely, and Elgato's Eve Room ($79.95), which lets you monitor volatile organic compounds in the air in a room, as well as humidity and temperature. In this post I'll cover a handy gadget from Elgato that lets you monitor how much electricity an appliance is using: Eve Energy ($49.95). Elgato has also given me Eve Weather and Eve Door & Window and I'll cover those HomeKit devices in future posts.

My home is getting smarter all the time. When Apple first announced HomeKit, it was hard for me to imagine how it all worked. But now that I have several HomeKit-compatible devices installed, I'm starting to understand how it all works together. First up in my series of HomeKit devices was my introduction to HomeKit and review of iHome's smart plug. In this post I'll review the first of four devices that Elgato has given me to try: Eve Room.

I had the best Halloween ever, and I didn't even leave the house. Instead, I used the holiday as the perfect opportunity to try the Ring Video Doorbell ($199). Not only did I have a great time with it, the visitors were very intrigued by the bright blue ring around the doorbell and they loved hearing the musical chime when they pressed it. The Ring Video Doorbell lists for $199, but is available at retailers like Brookstone, who frequently offer discounts of 20 to 25 percent. For $150, the Ring Video Doorbell is a steal, and could help prevent folks from stealing your packages, thanks to the motion sensor alerts and recording.

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