Looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? If so, why not consider a smart technology product? Our Holiday Gift Guide features several stylish products that not only provide environmental control and help cut costs with energy management, but smart home technology also increases the value of your home by making it more appealing to future home buyers. Whether you’re buying gifts for family members, friends, or associates this Christmas, these popular, smart home products will allow you to cross all the names off your holiday shopping list. Merry, merry!
Amazon Echo
Amazon Echo is a trainable talking black cylinder that responds to your voice commands to play music, answer questions, create shopping lists, place online orders, and perform lots of other cool tricks. Using the Alexa app, it operates across various smart devices and also works with third-party services like Philips Hue to do things like dim your lights or turn them on and off. The early leader in the smart-home speaker market, the Echo will read you audio books, give you the latest traffic report and, if you allow it to access your Twitter account, even rattle off the top tweets on your timeline.
Philips Hue LED Lighting
Philips Hue is personal wireless LED lighting system controlled from your smart device, allowing you to choose any number of brightness and color combinations to set the mood. It will even suggest a mood for you, such as Relax or Beach. A smart bridge plugs into your WiFi router, connecting the Hue LED bulb to the app on your device. This is a fun solution to the phasing out of inefficient incandescent bulbs that combines brilliant LED light with intuitive technology.
Lutron Caseta and Belkin WeMo Smart Switches
Both Lutron and Belkin offer in-wall power and light switches and smart plugs that use WiFi to work through your smart device. You can install these switches to operate the lighting you currently have in place, and both work remotely. The Lutron Caseta gives you dimming control and will even raise and lower your window blinds. The Belkin WeMo works well with the Amazon Echo/Alexa protocol if you’re a fan of voice control. Both brands of switches and plugs offer easy, straightforward smart-home technology.
Logitech Harmony Hub
Logitech’s Harmony Hub turns your smartphone or tablet into a universal remote, giving you control over your home entertainment and smart-home devices. Through the Harmony Control app, you can change channels and volume, program favorites, control lights and other smart devices, and build multi-device experiences called Activities. And you can even do it while you’re away from home, making this a useful addition to your current home security system.
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Photo credit: logitech.com
Nest Learning Thermostat
The Nest Learning Thermostat is the world’s first electronic, programmable, and self-learning Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat. Easily installed in place of your current thermostat, the Nest will learn your heating and cooling habits after just about a week of use, adjusting to changes in seasons and in your lifestyle. Built-in sensors even alert the system to shift into energy-saving mode when it senses that no one is home.
August Smart Home Access System
Your smartphone becomes a smart key with the August Smart Home Access System—through any handheld device, you control who has permission to enter your front door. The August app can be configured to grant occasional access to guests or service providers, to follow a regular routine of entry for family members, and to give temporary access codes to anyone you choose. The Doorbell Cam feature allows you to see who’s right out front right from your device and gives you secure control over your front door, no matter where you are.
Chamberlain MyQ Garage
The Chamberlain MyQ Garage Smartphone Garage Door Control is the first-ever WiFi-controlled garage door opener. The simple device works with almost any garage door, giving you the ability to open, close and monitor the garage door through an iOS or Android device. The app shows you an image of your garage door and tells you how long it’s been open or closed. While it’s a great security device that can give you peace of mind while you’re out, it’s also pretty handy for giving someone quick access to your home when you need to, like a neighbor or a pet sitter.
Ring Video Doorbell
Another great way to use your smartphone for home security is the Ring Video Doorbell. This high-tech doorbell lets you use your smartphone to see who’s standing at your door before you open it. And you’ll feel even safer knowing it offers motion detection, push notifications, and video recording.
Additionally, there are several other smart home products of note that assist with security, energy management and/or environmental control. The Nest Security Camera, August Doorbell Cam, Tile Mate Key Finder, Samsung SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit, Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller, and SingleCue Gesture Remote are all recommended products that also make great gifts!
