Hey I know that we’re only in month three of 2026 and there are new products being introduced all the time. However, Aqara came out with a banger of a smart lock, the Aqara U400 that has now raised the bar.
It actually dethroned my previous favorite smart lock of all time, the Lockly Visage Zeno on one of my doors.
Why is the Aqara U400 so cool?
The Aqara 400 is the first available smart lock to support UWB (Ultra Wide-Band) here in the U.S. This technology enables you to unlock your door just by approaching it with your phone in your pocket or Apple Watch on your wrist. I’m not talking about waving your phone or watch in front of the lock (that’s Apple Home Key technology which this lock supports too), no I mean just having a compatible device on you.
I had one Ring camera left and this was the wakeup call I needed to dump it!
It’s been a while, but if there was ever a time to talk about ditching the blue ring, it’s right now. Honestly, the honeymoon phase with Ring didn’t just end—it hit a wall during this year’s Super Bowl. What was supposed to be a “heartwarming” ad about using AI-powered cameras to find a lost puppy (the “Search Party” feature) actually ended up creepier than intended.
For a lot of people, seeing a neighborhood-wide surveillance net tracking a golden retriever felt like a one-step jump away from tracking them. Toss in the leaked internal emails about “zeroing out” crime, the constant subscription price hikes, and that messy (and now-cancelled) partnership with the license-plate-trackers at Flock Safety, and it’s easy to see why so many of us are over it. If you’re tired of “surveillance-as-a-service” and want your privacy back, it’s time to look at some better ways to keep an eye on your front porch.
My first recommendation is to move to a camera system with local storage and no subscriptions!
If you say, “All water tastes the same.” You can stop reading this and go on about your day. There’s nothing I can do or say to help you. All jokes aside, I’m pretty picky regarding the taste of water. I’m originally from Detroit, and I believe Detroit has some of the best-tasting tap water in the country. When I moved to Atlanta, I could definitely tell the difference. Atlanta’s water is OK, but nowhere near as good as Detroit’s water.
All tap water has stuff in it that should be filtered out. Depending on the location, the pipes and plumbing have manganese, copper, and lead, which can corrode over time and leach different metals into your drinking water. Acidic water (i.e., water with a pH below 7) causes pipes to corrode quickly, giving the water a sour, tangy, or metallic taste.
Bottled Water
I had become more reliant on bottled water; even different bottled water brands have different tastes. I’m about to list some brands; some of you will agree, while others will disagree, and that’s fine. It just proves my point that water definitely has a taste, and because of these different tastes, different brands will appeal to some while completely turning others off. It’s usually the purity and mineral count that affect the taste:
Unifi Protect G5 Bullet POE Camera under my front awning.
I’m a fan of having security cameras around my property that allow me to look at my surroundings at any time, day or night, and best of all, when I’m traveling. I’ve used various cameras/brands over the years, and at one point, I had cameras from Ring, Google, Logitech, and Eufy simultaneously. While I had each camera for a different reason and feature set, it was really a mess. Of course, each camera had its own app, and the only thing that made this setup bearable was that I could bring them all into Apple Home to see them all simultaneously.
In My Experience, Event-based Cameras Suck!
Ring Floodlight Cam Events
The first cameras to get booted were the Logitech Circle View cameras. While these cameras tend to work well most of the time, they were the flakiest when it came to staying connected to WiFi. They required regular reboots because of regular WiFi disconnects. The second problem is that while they worked natively with Apple’s Home and HomeKit Secure Video, this means that they only recorded if they thought an event was taking place. This sounds reasonable. If something triggers the motion sensor, it should start recording. The problem with “event-based cameras” is that sometimes they miss events. In other words, when you go back to look at the footage at a time when you know something happened, the clip is nowhere to be found because it didn’t record.
A prime example of this was when a very large package arrived at my house by mistake, and it was for a neighbor. I informed my neighbor that their package was next to my garage and that they could pick it up anytime. While my neighborhood is relatively safe, I still wanted confirmation that the right person took the package. When I went to review the footage from the Ring cam, the package was there one second, and the next, it was gone. There was no recording of the package actually being taken. This package was so big that it would have taken two people to carry it. So it’s not like it didn’t record the event because it was grabbed quickly. This is when I realized just how much event-based recording sucks! They are hit-and-miss.
Ever since I ventured into the realm of smart homes in 2016, upon moving into my newly constructed abode, I’ve been managing a variety of gadgets such as thermostats, garage door openers, security cameras, alarm systems, and more, all via the Apple Home app on my mobile devices and Mac.
My smart home journey has been a constant evolution. Over the years, some devices have proved their worth and remained constant companions, like my trusty Lutron Caseta products. Others have given way to innovation, like my August WiFi smart locks, which have since been replaced with the more advanced Schlage Encode Plus locks.
Back in 2021, I shared my first smart home tour video. I skipped the 2022 tour, but I’m excited to announce that I’ve returned with an upgraded Smart Home Tour Video for 2023!
In this new video, I didn’t get into every single device I use. Instead, I focused on showcasing the new additions to my home automation ecosystem and the devices I’ve phased out. Nonetheless, I thought it would be a good idea to provide a comprehensive list of all my smart home devices right here:
I have 1GB Internet (1200Mbps down/35Mbps up), and when everything went downhill, this was the AWFUL WiFi speed I started getting.
I’m not an IT guy. I have had to learn about networking out of necessity, not out of desire or fascination. I view a home network as something that should just work, and you shouldn’t have to think about it day-to-day, just like your refrigerator. You open it and expect things to be cold. You close it and forget about it. You don’t spend hours trying to optimize it. You don’t look for Facebook groups looking for support because it either works or doesn’t. There isn’t much in-between. If it doesn’t work, you get it repaired, replace it, and then forget about it again. In my opinion, a WiFi network should be the same way. You never know how much you depend on your WiFi and internet until it dies!
I went from being apprehensive about adding a smart lock to my smart home to having one on every entry door. I’ve tried a few different models and just finished comparing two of the latest and best, especially if you have an Apple HomeKit smart home.
Level Lock+ vs. Schlage Encode Plus
These two locks have the latest and greatest technologies in them. Rather than write it all here, I put together this short video review/comparison. Watch til the end to see which one I choose as the best smart lock available today. Check it out:
The Bottom Line
Smart locks have come a long way over the years, and 2023 promises to be a great year for smart homes in general as the new Matter standard starts to bear fruit.
Two Enphase IQ 10 Batteries were installed in my garage
Those of you who have been around me or this blog for the past few years know that I’m a fan of tech, green energy, electric vehicles, and of course solar power. At the end of 2019, I went solar and documented it here. My electric bill dropped by more than half and I’ve been very happy with my system. No complaints. It just works! However, there was something that I knew I would ultimately want to complete the system and I mentioned it back then. battery storage!
A solar system without battery storage will only go so far
Most people that know me, know that I love smart home tech. I’ve been building my ultimate smart home since 2016. One of the things that I hadn’t done yet was to make my outdoor holiday lights smarter. I had been using a simple outdoor plug that turns on at dusk and off at dawn. However, If I wanted to turn them on or off at any other time I’d actually have to go outside and do it manually.
This year my lights got smarter thanks to the Lutron Caseta Outdoor Smart Plug
I got one of these when it first came out earlier in the year to automate the lights on my back patio. I knew then I’d want another one for the winter holiday season for the front lights.
I’ve been building out my smart home since 2016. I use all three leading smart home platforms: Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa and Google Home and while each one has its advantages, Apple HomeKit is my platform of choice as it does the most. While just about any device can be controlled via an app, what makes a smart home really smart is when you can control multiple devices with a single voice command, scene or automation. With HomeKit I have automations setup like “Going Upstairs” which locks the entry doors, turns off the patio fans, turns off the family room lights and fan, turns on the hallway lights, changes colors of the Hue lights in the bedroom, makes sure the garage doors are closed, arms the alarm “home”, closes the blinds and turns off the TV downstairs. There is no other platform besides HomeKit that would let me do all of those things using devices from so many different manufacturers, with one command.
I wanted to create this video last year and then the pandemic hit and I decided to postpone it. I finally sat down to create it and here it is:
Although I put the links to everything in the video description, there is a character limit and I couldn’t go into much detail. Therefore I’ve also put the descriptions and links to each product below:
