Smart home technology is no longer a luxury only available to the wealthy or tech-savvy, and the tech industry has responded with ever sophisticated solutions. Although many people associate technology with gadgets such as Google’s Nest or Amazon’s Echo or Apple’s HomeKit the term is much more broad than that and encompasses many different options for your home. This encompasses everything from remote-controlled lighting and heating to CCTV, home security systems doorbells, smart locks. Some even let you keep track of children, elderly relatives and pets; monitor water or electricity usage, and so on.
The main ingredient in any smart home system is integration. That is why the most effective products on the market are those that can work with other systems and devices to make your home smarter. A smart light bulb, for instance can communicate with a central hub in order to set your lights on a schedule or turn them off when you leave the house. Or a video doorbell can alert you to visitors coming in and cause your alarm system to call the police or fire department. Once you’ve learned IFTTT (If This Then That) and Stringify, you can utilize services such as Stringify to automate your devices in more complicated ways.
Of course, bringing new smart devices to the home is not without its own set of issues. CNET is determined to learn about the policies of companies, raise privacy concerns and direct questions to companies.
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