Smart Home

this thing’s incredible Mar. 22, 2024

My Family Group Chat Is 95 Percent Birds Now (Thanks to This Smart Feeder)It’s a delightfully lazy way to bird-watch.

By Jeremy Rellosa

smart home Mar. 20, 2024

I Love This Digital Photo Frame So Much, I’ve Bought 8 More as GiftsI’ve spent over $1,000 on Aura frames for me and my family, and I have no regrets.

By Jen Trolio

october prime day 2023 Oct. 11, 2023

Amazon October Prime Day Deals for Every Corner of Your HomeFrom rugs and futons to pillows and bedsheets.

By Kelsie Schrader

gifts they might actually want Dec. 23, 2021

The Best Tech Gifts to Buy This Year (Before They Sell Out)Including smartphones, laptops, smart-home speakers, and video-game consoles.

By Jordan Bowman

trust me i should know June 4, 2021

How to Transform Your House Into a Smart HomeIf you feel like your house needs an upgrade or you want to feel like you live in the year 2077, step it up with some smart-home devices.

By Jordan Bowman

trust me i should know Oct. 26, 2020

What I Tell People Who Ask Me Which Smart Thermostat to BuyIt depends, of course. These are my eight favorites.

By Kyle Schurman

micro sales July 21, 2020

12 Things On Sale You’ll Actually Want to Buy: From Kate Spade to ColemanIncluding a two-in-one cooling fan and a sweat-wicking workout top.

By The Editors

trust me i should know June 5, 2020

What I Tell People Who Ask Me What Smart Plug to BuyThere’s a smart plug for everything — your lamp, your TV, even your pool pump.

By Kyle Schurman

oops June 3, 2019

Some People Couldn’t Turn on Their A/C When Google Went Down over the WeekendGoogle Cloud outages across the world over the weekend meant some users couldn’t unlock their doors or turn on their air conditioners.

By Madison Malone Kircher

google Feb. 20, 2019

Google Sorry It Forgot to Mention Nest Security Systems Have Secret MicrophonesTurns out that piece of tech you bought under the guise of self-protection actually has the capability to spy on you.

By Madison Malone Kircher

q&a Feb. 12, 2019

How Four Ex-Amazoners Made a Crazy-Good Wireless Cam for $20One of the co-founders of Wyze Labs tells us how they made a camera that performs just as well as products ten times the price.

By Jake Swearingen

tech boot camp Oct. 19, 2018

How to Not Trap Your Partner in a Smart-Home Techno-Prison HellSmart homes are great. Unless your partner hates them.

By Max Read

tech boot camp Oct. 15, 2018

5 Smart-Home Products That Make Controlling Your House a SnapWhy crawl out from under the sheets on a cold winter morning when you can just ask your Alexa-paired unit to turn up the heat?

By Steven John

select all Aug. 31, 2018

This Smart Summer Cottage Has No Running WaterIn some ways, the spirit of hacking together a homemade IoT setup is remarkably similar to the spirit of surviving in the woods.

By Molly Schwartz

select all Aug. 20, 2018

The Fight to Secure Vulnerable Medical Devices From Hackers“The big problem is that hospitals don’t buy new devices, and they keep using really dangerous ones ad infinitum — until they just stop working.”

By Lindsay Gellman

select all Aug. 13, 2018

Inside the Decades-Long Fight to Protect Your Children’s Data From AdvertisersWhat’s stopping internet companies from using everything they can to target kids? Surprisingly little.

By Joseph Bien-Kahn

select all Aug. 10, 2018

Google Can’t Understand Me Unless I Speak Spanish in an American AccentJust as train conductors are taught to pronounce local destinations, voice assistants have a responsibility to understand a variety of accents.

By Ximena N. Larkin

select all Aug. 10, 2018

How Smart Lights Can Help You Sleep Better and Wake Up EasierMy smart lights got me to stop snoozing, helped my toddler stay asleep, and made my home feel safer.

By Amanda Derrick

select all Aug. 10, 2018

The Case for Setting Your GPS to Your Own VoiceIn their ability to predict and react to our needs, voice assistants are fundamentally extensions of ourselves. Should they also sound like us?

By Sarah Nechamkin

select all Aug. 9, 2018

My Smart TV Made Entertainment a ChoreOur smart TV seemed to amplify a sense of urgency. The simple, daily question, “What should we watch?” suddenly had stakes.

By Lauren Michele Jackson

select all Aug. 8, 2018

Smart-Home Robots Are Using Their Cuteness to Spy on You BetterIf self-driving cars need a good sense of physics, social robots need the tools of a confidence artist.

By Marc DaCosta

select all Aug. 2, 2018

Should You Spy on Your House With a Smart-Home Camera?We never thought we would need a camera in our home — our cat would be fine without us — but found the Yi Dome to be surprisingly comforting.

By Jamie Burke

select all July 31, 2018

Smart Homes Will Pollute the World, and Then We’ll DieAll the gadgets I love are falling apart and going to waste. And there’s no way to fix them.

By Rick Paulas

select all July 27, 2018

Review: Netflix’s Tau Is Not a Good Movie, But It Takes Place in a Nice HouseThere are a few moments when the horror gives way to almost hominess — when it’s a little less Saw and a little more Better Homes and Gardens.

By Luke Burns

select all July 20, 2018

Can Tech Help You Sleep Better?Plug in, drift off. The world of hyperconnected sleep monitors claims to make you snooze smarter. But most of the solutions don’t address the problem.

By Lauren L'Amie

select all July 18, 2018

The Messy Future of Connected BathroomsDo we really want tech everywhere with us? Even when we’re nude? Even when we’re taking a poo?

By Lexi Pandell

select all July 17, 2018

The Complete, No-Nonsense Guide to Smart LightingI just wanted to control the lights with my voice. Why is that so hard?

By Jake Swearingen

select all July 17, 2018

The Case for Buying a Doggy Spy Cam (If You Really Need One)The Amazon Cloud Cam is not strictly geared toward dog-based spying. It is just one of the many cute new options in home surveillance.

By Kelly Conaboy

amazon prime day July 17, 2018

9 Amazon Alexa Products for Lazy Entertainment LoversGreat gadgets for Prime Day.

By Dan Reilly

select all July 16, 2018

This 60-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart TV Is the Best Prime Day DealPrime customers will save more than $500. You won’t find a better deal on a better TV.

By Graham Starr

amazon prime day July 16, 2018

Roku Just Gave You Another Reason to Buy a TV on Prime DayThey’re releasing wireless speakers that will tidy up your life

By Zoe Haylock

select all July 16, 2018

I’m Buying This $9 Speaker Because I Know It’ll Get Wrecked at the BeachIt’s on sale for more than half off today.

By Madison Malone Kircher

select all July 16, 2018

A Simple Guide to Navigating Prime Day Smart-Home SalesA whole bunch of Echo models are on sale today.

By Madison Malone Kircher

select all July 16, 2018

Everything You Need to Build a Budget-Friendly Smart HomeAutomating your home can cost thousands of dollars. These budget picks can help you build one that’s “good enough.”

By Scott Bay

select all June 19, 2018

Amazon’s Alexa Is Your Next Hotel ConciergeFinally, you can get extra toilet paper by just screaming at your hotel room.

By Mack DeGeurin

select all May 21, 2018

How Smart Homes Make Living With ALS EasierTechnology has helped Josh Gentry maintain a level of independence that’s unusual for people who have lived with ALS as long as he has.

By Kaveh Waddell

select all May 14, 2018

I Tried to Build My Own DJ Roomba and It Nearly Broke MeParks and Rec fans be warned: Tom Haverford made it look easy.

By Devon Ivie

select all May 11, 2018

‘Our House Is Having a Nervous Breakdown!’: A Survey of Smart Homes in FilmIt can be thought-provoking and enlightening to examine how that technology is portrayed in works of fiction. It can also be silly and weird.

By Luke Burns

select all May 11, 2018

Should You Get a Robot Vacuum?A guide to Roombas and the not-quite cleaning revolution.

By Allie Volpe

select all May 10, 2018

What Does Smart-Home Tech Look Like in New York City?Trying to figure out what smart-home tech looks like in a very expensive, very weird housing market.

By Jake Swearingen

select all May 10, 2018

Making My Baby a Smart Baby Was a MistakeWearable smart baby sensors promise parents peace of mind, but for the cost and functionality they deliver, parents should feel more like preyed upon.

By Jake Swearingen

select all May 9, 2018

Meet the Home-Automation ObsessivesMost people have fewer than 15 devices in their homes. These people have hundreds.

By Andrew Zaleski

select all May 9, 2018

Does Alexa Know I’m Gay?Why does Amazon keep suggesting I buy gardening products and granola?

By Nicole Boyce

select all May 8, 2018

Google Assistant Is Going to Help You Never Talk to Anyone Ever AgainThe new Duplex AI can process complex speech patterns and make phone calls for users, the company says.

By Graham Starr

select all May 8, 2018