Home Automation
GE Appliances Adds Voice Control Via Amazon Alexa
GE Appliances, which has collaborated with Amazon on its Dash automated replenishment system, has tapped into the e-tailer’s technology yet again. Effective this month,...
Home Automation
Home Automation
TWICE/CCS Survey: Security Trumps Price As Consumers’ Chief Smart-Home Concern
With data breaches and hacked email servers making headlines, it should come as no surprise that personal data security is the No. 1 concern...
Home Automation
CEDIA 2016: Crestron Adds Alexa To Its Smart-Home Roster
Custom home automation and control supplier Crestron is the latest company to incorporate Amazon’s Alexa smart voice assistant into its products. Crestron-certified installers will...
Home Automation
Amazon Debuts Cheaper Dot That’s Better At Talking With Alexa
Amazon has improved its portable Echo Dot device, shaving a few millimeters off the top and dropping the price down to $49.99. It also...
Home Automation
CEDIA 2016: URC Offers MX HomePro Smart-Home System
URC is introducing a new a new Cloud-based smart-home control system for the CEDIA channel. MX HomePro offers users one-touch control of home entertainment...
Home Automation
IFA: Philips’ Hue Motion Detector Turns On Light Bulbs When You Walk Into A Room
Next month, Philips will start shipping its new Hue smart-bulb motion detector, which will allow consumers to control their Philips Hue smart bulbs by...
Home Automation
Capitol Spotlights Connected Home At CEDIA 2016
Installer-focused distributor Capitol is focusing on the connected home market at this year’s CEDIA. Video will be one of the most prevalent categories in...
Home Automation
LG Expands SmartThinQ Ecosystem To Include Amazon’s Alexa
LG expanded its smart-home ecosystem at IFA, announcing a series of partnerships that were highlighted by cooperation with Amazon to allow voice control of...
Home Automation
Swann Smartens Up Its Home Security With Smart-Series
Swann is getting a little smarter about home security. The company, which entered the home-automation market last year, took the wraps off its new...
Home Automation
Huawei Joins ZigBee Alliance Board of Directors
Huawei is the latest technology giant to join the ZigBee Alliance at the Promoter level and be named to the board of directors. The...
Home Automation
Lowe’s And Alexa Are Now A Thing
Lowe’s has welcomed Amazon into its Iris family of home-automation products with open arms. The No. 2 home improvement chain has joined the growing...
Home Automation
Best Buy Builds Connected Home Demo In Mall Of America
For the next three weeks Best Buy is calling Minnesota’s Mall of America home, or rather Tech Home. That’s the name given the multi-room,...
Home Automation
Video Security Cameras: Project Nursery HD Baby Monitor
TWICE VIP Award 2016 Winner! The Project Nursery Baby Monitor includes both a 5-inch HD monitoring unit and a compact mini-monitor with a 1.5-inch...
Home Automation
Home Automation Hubs: Savant Pro 8.0 Remote
TWICE VIP Award 2016 Winner! The Savant Pro 8.0 Remote is the latest in the line for Savant Pro homeowners, and offers full control...
Home Automation
Video Doorbells: Smanos Smart Video Doorbell
TWICE VIP Award 2016 Winner! The Smanos Smart Video Doorbell is an all-new addition to the company’s smart home portfolio. The wireless, battery-powered doorbell...
Home Automation
Wireless Door Locks: Kwikset Signature Series Motorized Deadbolts
TWICE VIP Award 2016 Winner! Utilizing the Kwikset single-cylinder deadbolt as its foundation, Signature Series Motorized Deadbolts are an ideal lock for the first-time...
Home Automation
Pop & Switch: Logitech Simplifies Home Control (Again)
Logitech is corralling home control with the push of a button — and no, it’s not with a remote. The company has launched a...
Home Automation
Smart Baby: Target Adds ‘Connected Nursery’ Sections
Target, an aggressive player in the smart-home category, has extended its IoT beachhead into baby products. The No. 2 discount chain has added Connected...
Home Automation
Somfy Joins ZigBee Alliance
Somfy has joined the ZigBee Alliance at the Promoter level and accepted a seat on its board of directors. Somfy develops, manufactures and distributes...
Home Automation
Amazon Adds Another Dash Of GE
GE Appliance, an early adherent of Amazon’s Dash automated reordering system, is about to bring some more products to the replenishment party. As a refresher,...
Home Automation
Staples Unplugging From Staples Connect Smart-Home Platform
Updated! Staples is no longer selling Staples Connect, its proprietary smart-home platform. Instead, the No. 1 office supply chain and is handing off sales and...
Home Automation
Is It A Dog Or The Delivery Man? Nest Cams Will Know
Nest Labs stepped into the great wide open with its newest security cam, the Nest Cam Outdoor. The Nest Cam Outdoor is essentially the...
Home Automation
Wiser Air Smart Thermostat Will Remember Feedback
Schneider Electric’s smart thermostat is a little (more) wiser. The Wiser Air Wi-Fi smart thermostat has been updated with a new Eco IQ feature...
Home Automation
Amazon’s Alexa Is Getting Even Smarter
Alexa has been busy. One year after Amazon opened up its personal digital assistant to developers, the disembodied voice of Echo, Dot, Tap and...
Home Automation
Banks Race To Incorporate Amazon’s Alexa
“Alexa, pay my rent.” Citigroup said it is testing Amazon’s Alexa voice-command assistant as part of an upgrade to its mobile banking app. The...
Home Automation
New Smart-Home Leak Detector Rules The Roost
Roost has expanded its smart-home portfolio with a leak and freeze detector. The company, which markets smart battery and smoke alarm products, adds the...
Home Automation
Nest Now Selling Others’ ‘Works With Nest’ Smart-Home Devices
Nest has begun selling third-party smart-home products directly from its online store for the first time. All of the products carry the Works with...
Home Automation
Bluetooth 5 Will Be Faster, Have Longer Range & Be Better For IoT
A new Bluetooth specification due late this year or early next will boost range, speed, and broadcast-message capacity to enhance Bluetooth’s capabilities in home-...
Home Automation
Russound Plans Commercial Products; Rajeev Agarwal Returns As Engineering VP
Custom-audio supplier Russound is expanding into light-commercial products and building up its engineering capabilities on the eve of its 50th year in business. The...
Home Automation
D-Link Jumps On Apple’s HomeKit Bandwagon
D-Link plans to launch its first smart-home product with Apple HomeKit certification, the company announced. The first product, due later this year, will be...
Home Automation
Apple’s HomeKit Getting Smarter
Apple used yesterday’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) to smarten up its HomeKit home-automation platform, adding control of Wi-Fi security cameras, doorbells, air conditioners, and air...
Home Automation
Logitech Takes Aim At Custom-Install Channel With Harmony Pro
Logitech unveiled its first product dedicated to the custom-install channel and said it will offer additional products in the coming months to meet installers’...
Home Automation
Nortek Brands To Get A Voice Through Nuiku Acquisition
Nortek, the supplier of residential and commercial control and HVAC systems, made its second acquisition in as many months, this time purchasing a company...
Home Automation
Google Unveils Smart Speaker, Android Wear Updates, Better VR
Virtual reality and Android Wear wearables starred at Google’s annual developers conference, where the company also unveiled its Google Home voice-controlled wireless speaker and...
Home Automation
Parks: Many Smart-Home Products Used Daily
Consumer intentions to buy smart-home products jumped in less than two years, and many people who own a smart-home product use them daily, Parks...
Home Automation
Nest Looks To Jump-Start Thread Standard With OpenThread
Nest introduced OpenThread today, an open-source reference code implementation of the Thread networking protocol. With OpenThread, Nest aims to make the wireless connection technology...
Home Automation
Roost Enters Smart Smoke Alarm Business With RSA-400, RSA-200
Roost launched its first pair of smart smoke detectors following the CES 2016 launch of the Roost Smart Battery, which turns existing smoke alarms...
Home Automation
Intraix’s Klug Adds Home Control To Any Wi-Fi Router
Singapore start-up Intraix wants you to turn an existing Wi-Fi router into a smart-home hub by plugging in a USB stick incorporating smart-home technology....
Home Automation
Smart-Home Penetration Could Double In A Year, Survey Finds
Smart-home ownership could double to 30 million households in the next year, if a survey commissioned by August Home and Comcast Xfinity Home is...
Home Automation
Why Get An Echo When You Can Get A Triby?
You can now talk to Alexa on a non-Amazon speaker. Invoxia, a speaker and telecom manufacturer, has launched the Triby, a magnetic portable Bluetooth...
Home Automation
What The Future Of Smart-Home Voice Control Looks Like
Is voice control the new disruptor? With the popularity and visibility of Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana, and by future...
Home Automation
Legrand Buying Luxul Wireless To Tap Into Pro-Grade Network Growth
Home- and commercial-automation supplier Legrand signed a definitive agreement to buy Luxul Wireless, the supplier of pro-grade IP-network products to residential and commercial integrators....