To get the most from your smart home, youll need a smart hub, which allows you to control the other smart devices in your home. Amazon Echo uses Alexa as its digital assistant. Its main competitor is the Google Home. Both devices are essentially speakers with a digital assistant that allows you to control connected devices with your voice.
The WireCutter has a good review to help you decide which hub might be a better fit for you. Both have strengths and weaknesses but in general, if youre looking primarily to control your other smart devices or to have a digital assistant, the Echo is likely the better choice; if you already use a lot of Google services or need your hub to answer random questions, the Home is probably better.
The Echo has about a 2-year development head start on Google Home so it has a larger list of what Amazon calls Skills - tasks that the hub is able to perform, such as calling an Uber, ordering pizza, streaming music, and so on. If you want higher- or lower-sound quality, while also being able to perform the other functions, you can get a lower-priced Amazon Echo Dot. The Dot is a smaller device that can perform the same functions as the Echo but with a cheaper speaker that isnt great for playing music. For superior sound, it can be plugged into a high quality speaker.
If you dont need a speaker or digital assistant, but just want to be able to control all your other smart devices in one place, you may want to explore getting a home automation hub, such as the Wink Hub 2, Samsung SmartThings Hub, or Lowes Iris Smart Hub. These devices are cheaper than the speaker-based hubs above, and still allow you to connect and control many other smart devices from a single app; according to PCmags review of the Wink Hub 2 its the option that can sync with the largest number of other systems.
All of these hubs will allow you to coordinate and control many of the numerous other types of smart devices that are on the market now. Well wrap up this weeks post with a lightning round of a few of the less common of these devices, and then next time will take a detailed look at some of the more popular items.
With the number of smart devices that currently exist, it would be impossible to cover them all in depth so heres a quick look at top options for some less common smart devices:
- Smart switches allow you to smarten up many other items around your home; per cnet.com some top switch options include the Belkin WeMo Insight Switch (best indoor smart plug), the iDevices Switch (best for apple users), Zuli Smartplug (best for automation), iDevices Outdoor Switch (best outdoor smart plug), and Lutron Caseta In-Wall Wireless Smart Lighting Kit (best in wall switch).
- Flood detectors can ease your concerns about your home or a vacation home while youre away; some of the best options include the D-Link Wi-Fi Water Sensor (best smart flood sensor), Fibaro Flood Sensor (best Z-wave* flood sensor), or the Aeon Labs Aeotec Water Sensor (best sensor for sump pumps). These recommendations also come from cnet.com.
There are numerous ways add smart technology in your kitchen too.
- Some top kitchen devices according to wareable.com include:
- Amazon Dash Wand (basically a handheld Alexa)
- Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator
- GeniCan (a smart trash can)
- Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker with WeMo,
- SmartPlate (which can track your calories)
- Anova Precision Cooker
- Finally, once youve finished cooking and need to clean up, you can have one of these top robot vacuums do some of the cleaning for you! Per toptenreviews.com the best few options (in rank order) are the Neato Botvac Connected, the iRobot Roomba 980 (for a more detailed look at where iRobot may be headed next, check out this article), the Samsung POWERbot, and the bObsweep bObi.
Hope you enjoyed this post! Well see you again soon when we look at some items in more depth!
*Z-wave is a radio frequency method of linking smart devices
Image from pcmag.com https://www.pcmag.com/article/348496/google-home-v...
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