It's happening. Google Nest has quietly rolled out the capability for current Nest Account holders to migrate to Google Accounts, as part of their plan to fully integrate the Nest and Google Home brands under one device ecosystem. However, current Nest users should not be…
You’ll be surprised how far technology has come in recent years, and the latest gadgets for the home are slick and super useful. Move over, sandwich toaster, and make way for smarter and more utilitarian devices that are internet connected and can be controlled remotely.…
Are you ready to bring your home into the 21st century? With automation products like lights, outlets, security systems, lamps, humidity sensors, and more, you can control your entire home from the palm of your hand. But managing dozens of products can get tricky. That's…
If you plan to turn your house into a smart home, choosing a digital voice assistant is one of the first steps. On the surface, it seems like a simple decision—pick the one you’re familiar with. But the choice of a home assistant shapes the…
Smart outlets have become de riguer in modern homes, as they offer an express route to automating non-smart devices such as lamps, fans, and myriad other appliances. Moreover, their rapid adoption can largely be attributed to the integration of voice assistants, enabling the use of…
Shall we call it KB Homenomics? The national home builder has just trickled down smart health, wellness, and automation technology from its futuristic KB Home ProjeKt concept home to production builds in California. Located in the Genoa at Orchard Hills community in Irvine, the new…
Following the announcement by Google and Nest of the impending sunset of the Works with Nest third-party integration program on August 31 2019, major players in the connected home sphere are beginning to advise their customers to plan for the inevitable disconnect of these services.…
In a move to streamline the connected home accessory lines of Alphabet Inc. sister companies Google and Nest, the new Google Nest brand has been hatched as an umbrella for all Google Home and Nest Labs products. Announced at the 2019 Google I/O developer conference…
Haiku Home fans and lights just got smarter. These high-end products from the home division of Big Ass Fans have been uplifted by new integrations with Google Assistant and the Google Home ecosystem. We just tried out the new voice-activation features with the Haiku L…
As March Madness rolls into its final days, the drudgery of work can get in the way. But seriously, what's more important than NCAA hoops this time of the year, particularly when your alma mater is still in the mix? Solve that dilemma by asking…
As we wrote in Part 1 of our coverage of the KB Home ProjeKt, this Las Vegas-area concept home endeavors to deliver connected home and holistic design features aimed at the long-term health and wellness of its eventual occupants. In this segment, we will take…
The soaring popularity of virtual assistants has set the stage for competition. With contributions from Amazon and Google, consumers across the country have to choose between two of the tech industry's leading brands. Neck and neck, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant and each deliver value…
First revealed at CES 2019 in January and carrying over into the 2019 NAHB International Builders' Show (IBS) in February, the KB Home ProjeKt near Las Vegas strives to deliver on connected home and design features to focus on the long-term health and wellness of…
Adding to a repertoire of voice commands for its smart door locks, August Home has added a smart unlock feature for the Google Assistant. Designed to work with the August Smart Lock and Smart Lock Pro, the new integration pairs a voice command with a…
While Google Translate may have a bad and sometimes hilarious reputation for mistranslated text, that doesn't mean Google Assistant won't understand you when speaking another language. The new Google Multilingual AI upgrade for the Google virtual assistant is adding three new Spanish dialects, and earlier…
Making a wager on the existence of connected home life beyond pure voice activation, Google has announced Google Home Hub, a 7-in. touchscreen tabletop display with the Google Assistant built in. As part of the growing Google Home speaker family, the device dutifully processes voice…
Filling a gap in the Apple HomeKit home automation ecosystem, Rachio has added HomeKit compatibility to their latest smart irrigation controller, the Rachio 3. The Colorado-based company says this is the first smart irrigation controller with onboard HomeKit firmware. The integration facilitates control with the…
Smart home technology is among the best things to come out of Silicon Valley in recent years. The ability to control your home from your smartphone or with your voice, even when you’re not there, can be quite compelling. Summer can be the perfect time…
Your family has a voice-controlled home assistant, but you’re tired of asking silly questions like “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” If you haven’t explored the technology’s ability to help with more useful things—like supporting your child’s education—it’s…
There are smart door locks and intelligent room lights and thermostats, so why not smart garage door controllers, too? As it turns out, you can buy those and there are a growing number to choose from. Here are five of the best ones. [1] Chamberlain…
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