It’s no secret that both Apple and Google have sights set on your home, hoping to create an ecosystem of apps, gadgets and sensors that will automate everything from your lighting to your laundry.
But what if you want to give your house an IQ boost right now? Here are five products that let you do just that.
The Nest Learning Thermostat ($249 www.nest.com)
This Wi-Fi enabled thermostat uses a host of on-board sensors to learn when you and your family are most likely to be at home and adjusts your heating and air conditioning settings automatically in order to save you money.
It’s a system that, for the most part, works well, assuming you are able to mount the Nest in a location that is highly trafficked when you’re at home. You can access all of the Nest’s settings remotely from any smartphone, tablet or computer.
This enables some neat scenarios like turning up the heat in your house as you return from a trip away, or enabling vacation mode if you forgot to do so before leaving.
Installing the Nest is relatively straightforward for those who have thermostats from the last 10 to 15 years, but the company website also lists local professional installers that’ll do the work for an additional fee if you aren’t feeling confident in your abilities or if you have an unusual set-up.
Since its debut in 2011, Nest Labs’ Nest Learning Thermostat has not only become the poster child for the smart home revolution, it’s now at the centre of Google’s smart home strategy following its acquisition of Nest Labs last year. The launch of a Nest Developer Program means that third-party gadgets and apps will soon be able to “talk” to the Nest thermostat, possibly leveraging ways to act on its environmental data.
Sonos Wireless Hi-Fi (Starting at $219 www.sonos.com)
Sometimes, making a home smarter isn’t always about automation. Sometimes it’s about being able to access services and content at the touch of a button. That’s where Sonos’s Wireless Hi-Fi system excels.
Designed around a modular system of speakers that range from $219 to $749, Sonos lets you stream all of your digital music to any room in the house. You can play the same music in every room simultaneously (and in perfect sync) or, you can play a different track in each area. Sonos is compatible with iTunes, which means you don’t need to change a thing about the way you organize your music if you use Apple’s software, but it can also handle just about every other music format too.
All of this music magic is controlled via a free app that can be downloaded to any iOS (Apple) or Android product plus there are versions for Windows PCs and Macs as well.
The app’s built-in search feature can find that old favourite track or album in a split-second and it will also scan music services like Songza, 8Tracks, Slacker, internet radio stations and more.
The company’s dedicated wireless speakers sound great, but if you’ve already made an investment in a high quality sound system, you can easily connect it to your Sonos system via the Sonos Connect ($399) product or the Connect:Amp, which is designed to work directly with your existing speakers ($499).
Chamberlain MyQ Garage ($129 www.chamberlain.com)
If you own a garage with an automatic garage door opener, I guarantee that at least once in your life, you’ve driven away only to wonder (sometimes less than a block away), “Did I close the garage?”
For some of us, especially those with kids or a tendency to be thinking about a million things at once, this is a frequent occurrence. So how great would it be, to simply pull out your smartphone (once you’re safely stopped, of course) and check the status of your door? Better yet, if you did leave it open, to then close it at the tap of the screen?
That’s exactly what the Chamberlain MyQ Garage add-on device does, and it works on any modern garage opener, not just those made by Chamberlain. There are two parts to the MyQ: A Wi-Fi Hub which acts as the go-between for your home’s Wi-Fi and the garage opener, and a door sensor which can tell the Hub whether the garage door is open or closed. Installation is quick and easy.
Of course, peace of mind is one reason why this smart home product is attractive, but there are other uses too. Let’s say a neighbour wants to borrow something and you’re not home? Let them in remotely and close the door when they’re done. Perhaps the battery in your car’s garage remote has died – you now have the perfect backup.
Philips Hue Personal Wireless Lighting (Starter Pack $199 for three bulbs, www.meethue.com)
Of all the smart home products that have hit the market recently, Philips’ Hue LED Wireless light bulbs might seem like the least likely candidates for your hard-earned dollars.
They’re expensive. They do gimmicky things like change colour or pulse. And naturally, they must be controlled via a tablet or smartphone.
And yet, once you get beyond thinking of these devices as nothing but overpriced toys, you start to see a whole host of potentially interesting applications. You can use the Hue app to set timers, so that instead of waking to the nasty blaring of an alarm clock, the Hue lights in your bedroom gradually adjust from fully off to fully on over the course of a few minutes, waking you gently and naturally instead of abruptly. This could be a boon for people who need to wake before the sun is up (which is almost all of us here in Canada during the winter).
The lights can also be programmed via the IFTTT (If This Then That) service, an elegant and easy way to create actions that automatically take place when events that you select occur.
For example, let’s say you wanted to be away from your computer and your smartphone -- but you still wanted to know the moment an important email came in. You could program the Philips Hue light bulb nearest you (or all of them if you wanted) to flash red when the email arrived. Similarly, if you lived in an earthquake or tornado-prone zone, your lights could warn you of an imminent emergency, allowing you precious extra moments to escape to safety.
These are just some of the more sophisticated ways in which a wireless lighting system could be used, but we still haven’t touched on the most obvious: Simply being able to set timers on each light in the house--without ever actually plugging in a single timer--might be worth the price of admission on its own.
Individual lights can be bought for $59 but you will need the $199 three-pack starter kit at a minimum because it ships with the Hue Bridge -- an essential part which lets your smart devices talk to all of the Hue bulbs in your home.
The Revolv Hub ($299 www.revolv.com)
There’s a wee problem with a home that has had its IQ raised thanks to a proliferation of these so-called smart gadgets: All of the devices use separate apps on your smartphone or tablet for control, which means that you could end up having to switch back and forth a lot just to manage some basic activities.
The folks at Revolv saw this challenge coming and decided to address it with -- you guessed it -- another smart home device. The difference is that the pricey $299 Revolv hub promises to be One Gadget To Rule Them All.
Effectively, the tear-drop shaped CD-spindle-esque Revolv Hub is a collection of wireless technologies (such as Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Insteon, Zigbee, and some others they’re being a bit coy about) all packed into a single gadget and controlled via yet another app.
The intent of all this technology is that you will no longer need to deal with individual apps -- all of your smart home appliances can be controlled through one central unit. Using a technique that mirrors the IFTTT process mentioned above, the Revolv Hub can act as a relay between your smart devices, following “actions” that you determine.
For instance, Revolv could be set up so that when you leave your home, it automatically checks to see if the garage door is still open and if so, closes it. At the same time, when your Nest switches to its Auto-Away mode to save you money on heating, the Revolv immediately notifies your Philips Hue light bulbs to turn off. After all, if you don’t need the heat, you probably don’t need light either. And since your dog gets kind of lonely when you’re not around, Revolv will turn on your Sonos speakers and set them to play something soothing from your favourite classical internet radio station.
