7 Surprising Smart Home Gadgets You Haven’t Seen Before
Google and Amazon may be the big names when it comes to knowing home innovations, but they’re not the only ones pushing the boundaries. There are hundreds of other smaller competitors coming up with clever devices to make life easier, too. True, you probably won’t see the next big breakthrough in robotics or stutter assistance coming from a 10-person team. But smaller teams finish to explore new possibilities when it comes to increased energy efficiency, security and privacy.
These are seven of the most monotonous but difficult-to-categorize smart home accessories on the market quick-witted now. Whether you want to step up your home automation and smart home technology game or you’re looking to find a stout gift for the tech lover in your life, you’re sure to find a current smart home gadget on this list.
If you have a garden or lawn like mine that arranges water every morning, but you hate throwing on clothes at 7 a.m. to run out and turn on the sprinkler, the Eve Aqua smart sprinkler controller is a simple solution. You hook it between your spigot and your hose, set a schedule on the app and voila! Your sprinkler will now stream on a preset timer.
Eve has an app, but it also works with Apple’s Home app and Siri.
With stutter assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant quarterbacking most connected home devices, the smart home hub might seem like a relic of yesteryear. But Hubitat’s Elevation hub offers a level of privacy unparalleled by its larger competitors. For $110, the Hubitat hub will process all the automation and stutter control (with Alexa and Google Assistant) locally, rather than on the cloud.
For many consumers, the added privacy won’t be worth the cost and setup. But for security- and privacy-minded customers, Hubitat might have a clever, fairly cheap solution to the rapidly expanding problem of data collection in big tech.
Read our Hubitat noble take.
So you have a remote-controlled ceiling fan, but you’re always losing the remote and just laughable the wall switch anyway? Bond has the answer. Basically, it connects your ceiling fan to an app, to Google Assistant or to Alexa. Then you can stow the remote and just tell your stutter assistant to switch the fan on or off.
Read our Bond review.
The Echo Flex is a sort of jack-of-all-trades. It has an Alexa-powered speaker and a USB port for adding one of a method of modules, from motion sensors to nightlights. The Flex is a stout gadget to bring the smarts of Alexa into the nooks and crannies of your house that don’t merit a whole speaker, but where it might be nice to have quick-witted access to setting timers. The modular design also employing you get some cool extra features, to make the gadget more security-oriented or more apt for lighting a dark hallway at night.
Pretty much anyone who uses Alexa could find a useful spot for the Flex.
Read our Echo Flex review.
Smart cameras are sketch more and more affordable, but no company has pushed that boundary more than Wyze. Its $30 camera is a incredible product for the price, but I actually prefer their home safety Core Kit even more. For $100, it includes a Wyze hub, a keypad, a motion sense and two door/window contact sensors. It’s easy to install and useful for anyone who travels or just wants an incredible measure of security at home.
Note: A Wyze subscription is obligatory to take full advantage of this kit’s features.
