HomeSecurityGearLab – Informed Advice and Product Reviews
Smart energy meters are coming to a home near you; there is government backing to get one in every home in the UK, US and Australia. The goal is to make it easier for you to see how much electricity and gas you’re using, while at the same time sending your usage figures directly back to …
Smart home switches and sockets can turn any dumb home into a smart one, without the cost and hassle if replacing every light bulb in your house. Purchasing hundreds of bespoke smart home bulbs for your house can be quite a costly endeavour. Maybe you have certain lamps or bulbs that just won’t have the same appeal …
By combining the promise of smart lighting and devices that respond to your whims, your home cinema set-up really can impress. Recreating the richness of the cinema – or movie theatre – experience in the home has a lot of appeal. We can’t often get to the cinema, and it certainly isn’t always showing our favourite movies, …
Tech can smarten up almost any gadget that you have lying around the home, even fridges, but four categories have emerged as the most popular places to start, and for very good reason: they’re all useful, and they all offer something genuinely new when compared to their ‘dumb’ predecessors. None should be seen as working in …
In a sci-fi movie, we take it as read that when the disgruntled space-cop walks into a room they just need to say ‘lights’ to trigger illumination, or when the starship captain has brought an alien woman back to show her some more of this Earth thing called kissing, he can order the computer to …
One of the most frustrating things about Wi-Fi is how vulnerable the signal is to interference or obstruction. Rather than stand next to the router, laptop in hand, you can improve performance with a smarter router and some simple tricks. Everything from brick walls to other Wi-Fi devices can seriously deplete your Wi-Fi from the 50m (160ft) …
Digital assistants are taking over US, British, Canadian and Australian homes. Chances are you or someone you know has had a recent conversation with Siri, Apple’s virtual helper, or Alexa, Amazon’s version. In fact, there are now four AI voice assistants available – Microsoft’s Cortana is less well-known, but Google Assistant is also a big player. So for …
Now You’re Talking: Your Guide to Smart Speakers Read More »
With an array of skylight designs now available, I take a look at what you need to know before making your choice. A skylight is a glazed aperture or window in a roof designed to let in natural light – no technical jargon there. But now that the market offers so many designs, how do you …
The garage door, along with the front door, is a focal point of many homes. It’s expected to do its job, but its looks are neglected. A garage door is no small feature, though, and it’s often either part of, or right at the front of the house, so not paying attention to its appearance can compromise …
From security to cinema rooms, I explain the options available, when to call a smart home specialist and why it pays to plan for a smart home before you start work on site. There are an increasing – and sometimes overwhelming – number of options now available to make our homes smarter, from a host of …
