I had a chance to chat with Hubitat at CES a few weeks ago and was very impressed with their home automation controller. What impressed me more, was their approach and passion for doing things right. So I’m very interested in their new Elevation hub. It checks all the right boxes, with Z-Wave/Zigbee radios, and Amazon Alexa/Google Home integration. Best […]
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The Nvidia Shield TV has had Plex server support for ages, so the news that Emby has added the fantastically flexible steamer to the list of supported sever platforms wasn’t entirely unexpected. It still came as a welcome surprise to me. Great news! We’re pleased to announce Emby Server is now available for NVIDIA Shield. Please see the Emby website […]
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I recently had the chance to ride on the outskirts of Las Vegas, and while I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with the drivers there from a car before. It was a wholly different experience on my bicycle. To be fair, this concern isn’t geographically isolated; there are unsympathetic drivers everywhere. More that riding in an unfamiliar location alongside the […]
Read moreThe promise of autonomous cars holds a great deal of interest for me. Both as someone who loves to drive, and someone who would love to have to actually drive the car less. For me these are discrete activities. Bit of snow on the ground, or a nice (empty) winding road, I want to have some fun. But the slog […]
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Ok… I am a sucker for fancy kitchen gadgets, and adding “smarts” to the mix only makes them more interesting. I like the idea of being able to check in my my food from another room in the house via the camera in the oven/toaster/air fryer, dehydrator, etc. Which is there, and this is the awesome part (assuming it really […]
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Personalized room based home automation is tricky business. Not everyone wants to install RFID readers in the doorways, or carry around the cards :). Roomme takes on this problem by using a $69 smoke alarm sized BTLE sensors attached the ceiling in each room that senses when your mobile phone enters the room to trigger a scene. The approach is […]
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We have a love/hate relationship with our robot vacuums. Our Roomba mostly works OK (apart from the persistent beaching events), but the Neato is affectionately* named “Help Me” because of how much intervention is required to actually get it to complete a run. Some of this comes down to the underwhelming intelligence in the device, and some of it is, […]
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Smart bicycle safety products are becoming more common, and I think it’s great. I especially like that the COSMO bike light provides several features that are fantastic for safety oriented road cyclists while allowing you to supply your own helmet. Aside from the obvious tail light, it also acts as a brake light, and turn indicator (via handle bar mounted […]
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The BTLE/Wi-Fi (via hub installed within BTLE range) enabled LOCKLY deadbolt is one of the fuller featured smart locks I’ve run across. Naturally it has the keycode entry method, but not only do the numbers move for extra security, it also sports a fingerprint reader. Oh, and a physical key – if you’re into that sort of thing. It also […]
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I’ve never been good with patience. Or getting the timing right around when I open a bottle of wine. So it’s quite common that we pull out the aerator at serving time. Not being aware that the the humble aerator had been smartened, our’s is still stuck in the pre-technology era. Fortunately, while wandering Eureka Park at CES 2019 I […]
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