Welcome to my technology blog!
It’s that time of year! It’s time for my Top 23 Gadgets of 2023. In no particular order, I’ve listed the best gadgets I’ve gotten in 2023. Each product is linked below.
Here’s the video:
Check out Unifi Products here.
Check out Unifi Products here.
See my Unifi Protect blog post here.
I’ve worked from home most of my career. Having a great home office setup for me is very important. We had the Forth of July week off, and I took this opportunity to revamp my home office setup. This included some cleaning, decluttering, and painting.
This is the office that I use to do offices work, remote meetings and record tutorials.
I posted some pics of my new setup, and my followers insisted I do a video tour.So I recorded one that you can check out here.
Although I put links to all the gear in the description of the video, I putting in this post for your convenience as well:
Continue reading “I Just Revamped My Home Office”
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:
Continue reading “My 2023 Smart Home: New Additions and Recent Evictions!”
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.
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:
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.
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:
WiFi Router
Continue reading “23 Products That Make Up My Ultimate Smart Home”
I recently added three new items to my smart home. The first one is one I’ve been waiting for the longest. When my home was built in 2016 I went with a Ring Pro doorbell. It was a good choice at the time and has worked well for me. However, my smart home platform of choice is Apple’s HomeKit and Ring is not native to HomeKit. While I was able to integrate it through unofficial HomeBridge support, HomeBridge doesn’t give it all the available features of HomeKit and now HomeKit Secure Video. While there have been a couple of entries into the HomeKit video doorbell market, one is extremely expensive and the other one doesn’t yet support HomeKit Secure Video. That all changed last week with the introduction of Logitech’s Circle View Wired Doorbell.
Logitech is no stranger to HomeKit. Their Logitech Circle cameras are in use and loved by many, but this is their first entry into the video doorbell market. Sometimes it’s better not to be first. By taking their time they got many things right out of the gate that others still struggle with. First and foremost this doorbell not only supports HomeKit but also supports HomeKit Secure Video which is Apple’s locally encrypted video stored in iCloud. Most others promise this feature in an upcoming software update or not at all. Logitech built it in from the start. They also did a great job including everything you would need including a choice of mounting brackets.
Here’s my video review:
Continue reading “3 New Additions to My Smart Home”
I’ve been into home automation and smart home gear for years. I really got serious about it when we built a new house in 2016. A new house meant being about to start from scratch with the best solutions for every aspect of home automation that I wanted. When you talk smart home the usual suspects come to people’s minds: lights, cameras, thermostats, locks, security systems, shades/window blinds, garage door openers, etc. Beyond simple control from your smartphone, smart home automation is really about Scenes and Routines. It’s about using one verbal command, or press one button or come home and have a series of things happen.
Continue reading “HomeKit vs. Alexa vs. Google Home – Which smart home platform is best?”
I’m a huge fan of automation in general especially when it comes to smart home stuff. My new home was built two years ago in May 2016. I got the chance to start with a clean slate and put in all the smart home tech that I wanted pretty much from day one. Sadly the builder wasn’t really into smart homes (aside from running ethernet drops) yet so I had to do it all after the house was completed. When people think smart homes one of the first things that comes to mind is lighting and that is pretty much where I started too, but it didn’t stop there. Since most of the things in a smart home are controlled via your mobile devices I also wanted to make sure that most if not all things I did worked with Apple’s HomeKit since I’m an iOS user.
Continue reading “My 5 Favorite Smart Home / HomeKit Gadgets”
Continuing my Smart Home Product Review Week it’s time to talk about the smartest garage door opener I’ve ever seen and it’s by Chamberlain. When I moved into my new home one of the things that wasn’t included was the two garage door openers I’d need. I thought this was a weird item not to include, but when I saw the price that the builder wanted to install theirs, I decided to just go get my own. This was another one of those things that I hadn’t had to shop for in over 25 years. I hadn’t realized how far they’ve come. The first option I noticed was a battery backup and I definitely wanted that. There had been times where storms had taken out the power in my studio (10′ door) and that while I could get up on a ladder and use the manual release to raise the door, it just wasn’t worth it. My car remained trapped until the power came back on. Having a battery backup means that the garage door opener will still work even if the house loses power.
It’s Day 3 of my Smart Home product review week and now it’s time to talk about wireless lighting and shade controls. Once again I wanted something that would be Apple HomeKit compatible and my search led me to the Lutron Caséta system. This is not my first wireless lighting system. As a matter of fact I go all the way back to the Radio Shack X10 system (remember those?) Thankfully things have gotten a lot better in the last 25-30 years and now you not only get in-home wireless control but you also get the ability to control your lights and shades from (yep you guessed it) anywhere in the world from your smartphone.
Continue reading “Lutron Caséta Wireless Lighting Control Review”