Home Automation

As smart and somewhat useful smart speakers and smart assistants have become, they have also become good for one unintended purpose. They have sometimes become the butt of jokes when citing comical anecdotes about smart speakers suddenly butting into conversations. They have also become sources of horror stories about unintentionally recording or, worse, sending audio clips that were not even meant to be heard by others. Fortunately, Google is now letting users decide how well or how hard Google Assistant will hear them with a new setting.

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Ecobee has launched a home monitoring system, adding the Ecobee SmartCamera to its new Haven line-up. Following the path of smart home rivals like Nest and Ring, Ecobee's platform combine its connected thermostat with contact sensors, motion sensors, and a new connected security camera.

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The Internet has become the backbone of many critical services and activities during this pandemic but, unfortunately, much of our Internet infrastructure and technologies were not prepared for this situation. The Internet groans under the sudden weight of users, forcing governments and ISPs to ask services to implement measures that will lessen their bandwidth usage. The latest to adopt that is Google's Nest home security system and it's doing it in a slightly different way.

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Leviton has a new WiFi smart switch in its Decora range, and the cleverness doesn't stop at being able to remotely control it via an app or smart speaker. Dubbed the Decora Smart Wi-Fi Tamper-Resistant Outlet, as the name suggests it also has a safety system which blocks the outlets from foreign objects.

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Many people are being advised or even forced to stay indoors but that doesn't mean you can be lax about home security. Keeping tabs on what happens indoors, especially at night, can sometimes be just as important as knowing what goes on outdoors. Fortunately, indoor cameras are often less sophisticated and less expensive than outdoor ones. Especially when you take into account the latest Blink Mini camera from Amazon, offering many basic features at the fraction of a price of its rivals.

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Self-isolation has a lot of people paying extra attention to just how welcoming their home is, and if cleaner air and fewer smells are important then an air purifier is a good place to upgrade. Coway's Airmega AP-1512HHS takes one of the company's most popular models, the AP-1512HH Mighty, and gives it a WiFi upgrade like the more expensive Airmega purifiers.

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Smart home security company Ring was so popular that Amazon bought it up just a few years after it launched. Most popular for its smart video doorbell, Ring quickly cornered that market and its name almost became synonymous to that category. And then came the exposé that showed how the company was too quick to share users' data with third-parties. Now Ring has put its data collection on hold but it won't be forever.

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You would expect that companies whose business is to sell security products would themselves implement good security practices but reality is often stranger than fiction. There are times when they themselves are prone to be compromised or, worse, leave their customers unprotected. These days, passwords or PIN codes are no longer enough and two-factor authentication or 2FA has become the most-advised second defense against hackers. Fortunately, Arlo will be making that system a requirement for all its users before 2020 is over.

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Although it was recently involved in a few security and privacy scandals, Ring, now owned by Amazon, remains one of the more popular smart video doorbell options in the market today. And to make sure it doesn't lose that lead due to controversy, the company is getting ready to launch its next mid-range video doorbell, which has now all but leaked completely. But while the Ring Video Doorbell 3 seems to offer a reasonable upgrade over its predecessor, it is the unexpected "Plus" model that could give competitors a reason to worry.

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Some things, like keys and remote controls, are often too easy to misplace, which is one of the reasons Bluetooth trackers like Tile were born. But when you're frantically searching for them, the last thing you'd want to be doing is fiddling with your phone. Fortunately, if you have a Google Assistant-powered device, like a speaker or, OK, your phone, all you need to do is ask where it is or even ring your keys, not your phone.

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There was a point in time when smart speakers were hot and new and it was the perfect opportunity to join the bandwagon. These days, the market has mostly settled on a few key players and ecosystems, making it harder to break into that market, even if you're someone as big as Samsung. That doesn't seem to faze the electronics giant who will finally be launching its second smart speaker after the first one never launched at all.

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Our homes today are equipped with some smart device or another, even if it's just a smart TV. But despite their seemingly intelligent features, not many of them are smart enough to foresee problems in advance. That may be true for their own self-diagnostics but even less for diagnosing other smart devices. That's where Google Nest is trying to lead the way by making its smart thermostat really smart enough to notice if there's something wrong with your heat or cooling systems before it's too late.

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