April 5, 2018 - Written By Dominik Bosnjak Many consumers are still skeptical about smart home security and are more confident in traditional solutions than cutting-edge hardware communicating with the World Wide Web, according to a new survey conducted by PCMag. The research itself isn’t based on any representative sample of people, with all of its data being presented as an overview of thoughts some 1,500 PCMag readers have on home automation technologies and related fields, though it’s still perceived to have value in the context of showing how a portion of tech-savvy consumers feels about the idea of connected homes. Only 34-percent of respondents said they deem smart home devices suitable for keeping their households safe, whereas almost everyone else placed more faith in traditional solutions such as neighborhood watch patrols, conventional alarm systems, and police activity.Nearly half of all respondents still believe the main selling point of smart home security … [Read more...] about People Still Skeptical About Smart Home Security: Survey
Smart home
Amazon rolls out music and podcast features for Alexa’s smart home ‘Routines’
Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant has become pretty popular over the years. It's gained advanced smart home control features and a host of user-created "skills" that give the AI extra functionality. However, Amazon hasn't left the development of new features entirely up to the community. Last year, the online retail giant launched the "Alexa Routines" feature which allowed users to issue a single command to perform multiple actions. For example, you could say "Alexa, goodbye" to have the AI turn your home's lights off and lock the doors. Amazon is expanding that functionality further today, finally making it possible to add music to your Routines. As of writing, the feature can pull music from Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, Deezer and TuneIn - Google Play Music and Apple Music are not available at this time. To take advantage of this new feature, you'll need to visit the Routines section of your Alexa app and tap the "Add action" button. You'll find that actions can now play individual … [Read more...] about Amazon rolls out music and podcast features for Alexa’s smart home ‘Routines’
Alexa now lets you play music with smart home Routines
Amazon has a new music feature for Alexa Routines — those automated sets of linked smart-home actions you can initiate on Echo speakers with timers or voice commands. For example, you can assign the phrase “Alexa, good morning” to a Routine that gradually brighten the lights, open the window shades, and start the coffee maker if you already own all the prerequisite gear. Now you can further enhance the mood with music by automatically playing your favorite artist, playlist, or podcast from the Alexa-enabled speaker of your choice. Thankfully, you can also control the volume, because you almost certainly don’t want to hear the morning news read back to you at the same decibel level as last night’s dance party. Music services supported include Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, and TuneIn. No, Apple Music is not on the list. I just tweaked my “Alexa, good morning” Routine to set the volume to 1 (out of 10) before my Echo Dot reads back my … [Read more...] about Alexa now lets you play music with smart home Routines
IDC Expects 939.7 Million Smart Home Devices To Ship In 2022
April 3, 2018 - Written By Daniel Golightly The smart home devices category saw tons of growth over the course of 2017 and the gains are expected to continue along a comparable trajectory over the next five years. That’s according to a new report from International Data Corporation (IDC), which predicts an average growth rate of 18.5-percent through 2022. In total, that equates to around 939.7 million smart devices shipping in that year, compared to the 433.1 million shipped worldwide in 2017 – which is a year-over-year increase of around 27.6-percent. That could place the home smart devices on pace to eventually overcome the figures associated with other technologies and well within reach of the smartphone industry’s figures.Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of that growth is expected to be comprised of connected speaker sales, with a projected market growth of 32-percent from 2017 through 2022. That’s hardly surprising, given the … [Read more...] about IDC Expects 939.7 Million Smart Home Devices To Ship In 2022
Hive’s latest move lets you set up a smart home on a budget
Setting up a smart home is an attractive proposition, one which gets less attractive as you add on the price of each individual item. Before you know it you’ve racked up a bill of hundreds of pounds, and you’re still short a smart plug.If this sounds familiar, then you may be in luck. Smart home giant Hive has created a payment plan called Hive Warm Welcome Home Plan that includes all of the essentials for setting up your smart home, spreading the cost across a year, bringing it down to a much more palatable £27.99 a month. The package includes the Hive Thermostat, a Smart Plug, a Motion Sensor, two dimmable Hive Active Lights, a Hive Hub and receiver, and an Amazon Echo smart speaker.Big bundle, little priceThe Echo Dot isn’t the best speaker on the market in terms of its sound quality, but if you’re just looking to get started with your smart home setup, or already have an Echo and want the smaller smart speaker for a second room, it’s … [Read more...] about Hive’s latest move lets you set up a smart home on a budget