If the tech world has its way, almost everything you touch will soon be connected. We’re not just talking about lights and music and video doorbells either. We talk about everything.
Beds. toilets. cutting boards. Stroller. Mirror. bird feeder. The list goes on.
At this year’s CES technology conference, which sets the stage for the technology that will shape our lives in the days and weeks to come, we saw an oven that can livestream your dinner while it’s baking and a blender with a built-in scale and connected app. Your mattress can tell you how well you slept – or tossed it about – and suggest improvements. And none of us will be quick to forget a palm-sized puck that Withings wants us to put in our toilets to analyze our health from the inside. Literally.
While there’s no shortage of things to connect these days, how much is new versus needed?
Recent Articles
Is smart home technology worth it?
So far, there’s been an imbalance in smart home devices – much more lopsidedness on the side of a gimmick than a must. Do we need a mood ring disco fridge? Cool? Yes. Does it save time, money, sanity, or the planet? Not as much.
There is also an ongoing issue of consumer privacy. Businesses large and small have historically not been honest about what personal information they collect or share from our connected worlds. Why trust them now?
“One question everyone should ask themselves when looking at a new product,” Cindy Cohn, executive director of privacy organization Electronic Frontier Foundation, said during iFixit’s “Worst In Show” CES presentation, “is whether the company sold to you or if they sell you.”
Why are smart gadgets important?
With all that said, 2023 will likely go down in history as the year when a new breed of smart(er) home gadgets ushered the masses toward more widespread home automation.
It’s like when Apple introduced the iPhone 16 years ago last week. Most people didn’t own “smartphones” until Apple made them simple, intuitive, and ubiquitous in a short period of time. Even if you’re using an Android smartphone now, Apple has ushered in this era of widespread adoption. We are at the same tipping point with our smart home devices.
According to NPD, a global market intelligence company, about half of us currently have a smart home device or two in our homes, like a video doorbell or smart lights.
They’re often not the same brand, and they don’t work together in any way that actually makes our lives easier.
What is a must for smart home?
However, a newly launched open-source smart home standard called Matter is changing the basis for this category of connections. Matter offers compatibility with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home and Samsung SmartThings within a single wireless protocol. In other words, most of our gadgets will now play well together in the sandbox. Finally.
Here’s a handful of additional gadgets and tech tools we first saw at CES that could pave the way for smarter home tech…that we can actually live with.
- Samsung’s SmartThings Station: Samsung’s small push-button puck is at the forefront of this evolution. It’s like a new remote control for your life, connecting and managing smart home devices with the push of a button. You can use it to control TVs, speakers, thermostats and much more – regardless of which company makes the device. The new hub even doubles as a wireless charger for smartphones and earbuds. It’ll be out next month for $60.
- SkyX Skyplug Smart Lighting Base: Some of the biggest barriers to smart home adoption are cost, installation, and buying a bunch of new equipment to make everything work. However, SkyX Platforms aims to change that with its new Skyplug smart lighting base, which it claims can turn any light fixture or ceiling fan into a smart light fixture. It is compatible with Siri, Alexa, Google Home, Samsung, SmartThings and Cortana. You manage everything with the SkyHome app on your smartphone. It includes voice control, scheduling, eco/power saving mode, color changing night lights and more. It’s expected to hit around $120 in March.
- Shelly Next-Gen Smart Home Automation: Several of this year’s top smart home contenders are already household names in other countries. For example, Beko, a company about to launch a line of new fridges that promise to keep your produce fresh for a month, has been around in Europe for 60 years. So does Shelly, a company that promises to make every circuit smart, among other things. Shelly introduced eight new home automation devices at CES 2023, including the Pro 3EM, which lets you know where you’re wasting power via its companion app.
Is the smart home market growing?
Steven Brous, Shelly’s business development manager, said demand for smarter home appliances continues to rise in the United States as energy costs hit all-time highs. But he said there’s still a general fear that connected devices could spy on you in creepy ways, which is why Shelly gadgets can work without being connected to the internet.
“Each individual device is intelligent on its own without requiring a connection to the cloud,” explained Brous.
Shelly’s next-generation Motion 2 WiFi motion sensor is also worth mentioning here. The tiny device sticks to your wall and detects motion, temperature and vibration in less than 200 milliseconds. In addition, it can trigger good actions, e.g. B. Turning on lights the moment you enter a room without tapping an app or flipping a switch.
Some of Shelly’s latest smart home automation devices are available now. For example, the Shelly Pro 3EM costs around $145, while its latest smoke alarm, the Shelly Plus Smoke US, costs almost $50.
Smart gadgets for the home
As mentioned above, Beko’s smart refrigerator promises to keep vegetables fresh for 30 days and increase the levels of essential vitamins in the vegetables themselves. It uses a new technology they call HarvestFresh, a tri-color light technology hidden in the crisper drawer. It glows blue in the morning, green at noon, and red at night to mimic the 24-hour solar cycle.
This is an example of a “smart” product that can pay for itself in just one year. The latest statistics show that Americans waste more than $218 billion on food every year, with a family of four spending $1,600 a year on produce alone. This will appear in April in 20 different Beko refrigerator models. Costs start at $1,300.
Working from home on an island outside of Seattle means backup power is a must for my husband and I. It’s our first full winter here and we’ve already lost power to two storms for more than 48 hours straight. So when we priced in replacement generators that would keep the lights AND the internet running, it looked like we’d have to spend around $20,000. gulp.
Instead, we tried the Geneverse HomePower Two Pro solar generator. At $3,600 (including two solar panels) it’s still a sizable chunk of pocket change, but wow, was it ever worth it.
If you’ve used portable generators before, you’ll understand why this one is different. There are no fumes. It’s whisper quiet compared to the gas guzzling generators of years past. You can use it indoors and power pretty much anything from lights and Wi-Fi to medical equipment and most home appliances. It even runs your fridge for 35 hours on a single charge.
With the ability to recharge with solar panels, it’s a cool, next-generation, self-sufficient energy source. It’s available now and costs $3,600 for the generator and two panels. The company also displayed an eight-foot-tall, expandable pergola made from telescoping solar panels that capture the sun’s energy for later reuse. Energy independent homes are a growing goal; This is a company to watch when it becomes a reality.
I’ll be reviewing each of these products in more detail, and more over the next year, to let you know which ones – if any – deserve a place in your home. Let us know what you think in the comments section.
Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy Award-winning consumer tech columnist. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.