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Every smart home owner is likely to be familiar with "passive infra red" (PIR) motion sensors as they're an easy way to start off making a home a little smarter They're quite distinctive too, with the slightly opaque domed window on the front. While they're popular and inexpensive, their downfall is in their name, i.e. motion sensor. If someone's in
Anyone who's serious about Christmas knows about Twinkly. Their lights can transform your ho-hum set of twigs into a truly showstopping Christmas tree that tops off the festive season. How? Twinkly have this great set of Xmas lights which you drape round your tree as you would normally, but then the Twinkly app works it's magic using your smartphone to
It was back in 2012 when the two big stalwarts of the smart home market, Philips Hue and SmartThings, first arrived on the market to automate our homes. Ten years later, almost every home has something "smart", whether a few lights, Amazon Alexa or a video doorbell. Perhaps instead of smart homes, the focus should have been on safe and
Flic has featured in GNC a couple of times in the past and for those unfamiliar, Flic is an automation system that focusses on small push buttons to trigger actions. They're really rather handy. Want to turn on the lights? Push a Flic button. Want to play music from Spotify on your Sonos? Push a Flic button. Personally, I use
Philips Hue saw a major boost with Spotify integration and whole raft of new lamps and lights for the smart home, including some super bright 1600 lm models. There's news for gamers too, with an upgrade to Hue Sync. Let's step through the changes. While there are several smartphone apps that will synchronise the Hue lights with sound, this is
Scandinavian air quality specialists, Airthings, have announced the View Plus smart air monitor which senses over half-a-dozen air quality metrics: particulate matter (PM), carbon dioxide (CO2), radon gas (Rn), temperature, humidity and air pressure. Designed to help create a healthy home, air quality has become all the more important during the pandemic lockdowns with people remaining in their houses to
The fabled smart home as a building that responds your needs as they arise is still somewhat legendary and will likely remain so until the technology can be built into the fabric of the structure. Regardless there are many practical ways where the new technology can be used on a practical basis. For example, my living room uses a combination