Sony Xperia Enters the Smart Home Realm

Sony knows exactly what you’ve been thinking—how can we make our homes smarter? It’s no longer enough for them to limit themselves to helping us stay entertained during our leisure hours; they’re now determined to improve our productivity as well.

Enter the Sony Xperia Ear, Xperia Agent, and Xperia Projector. All of these products are designed to help you stay organized and effectively manage everyday tasks, but they do so in different ways.

The Xperia Ear is basically the latest product in the electronic personal assistant trend. From its convenient place in your ear, this device can search for things on the web, read your text messages out loud, and communicate with your other smart devices. Since it’s easy to take with you wherever you go and is built to comprehend voice commands with astounding accuracy, it seems to have some distinct advantages over other electronic personal assistants currently on the market.

Next is the Xperia agent. Imagine if you lived in a mansion and had a virtual butler. That butler would be the Xperia agent. Programmed with a charming personality, it efficiently centralizes all of your smart devices, controlling and managing them according to your desires and whims.

As for the Xperia Projector, its purpose to let you turn into just about any space into your own personal computer. After placing it on a flat surface, all you have to do is connect it to your smartphone, and then it can project an image of your keyboard on which you can type. Of course, you can also use that projection to watch videos or surf the Internet.

The point is that it’s versatile enough to be relevant in many common household tasks and activities. This means that if you’re not a fan of the small screen of a smartphone and/or you enjoy sharing what you’re doing with those around you, the projector will make it more convenient for you to do what you want.

Clearly, if Sony has anything to say about it, the future will continue to run toward us at record speeds. Welcome home, smart homes.

 

The post Sony Xperia Enters the Smart Home Realm appeared first on Smart Home Automation System Reviews.

Google Presents IoT OS Android Things

As technology continues to becoming a defining factor in nearly every facet of life, the demand for fast and insightful improvements seems never-ending. When it comes to the gathering and exchanging of data, Google is practically unparalleled. It should come as no surprise, then, that they’ve further revolutionized the Internet of Things by presenting to us the Android Things.

With this technology, Google will help its users employ Android to build IoT products without compromising security. Inspired by Project Brillo and utilizing the platform Weave, Android Things uses tools such as Android Studio, the Android Software Development Kit, Google Play Services, and Google Cloud Platform to make IoT easy.

Semiconductor and telecommunications companies are already picking up on the new technology, including Qualcomm, which intends to update its Snapdragon processors to support it. The company looks forward to seeing a surge in participation from developers in regards to taking advantage of the opportunities offered by IoT.

They’re hoping that Android Things will offer the perfect solution to the problems that developers and manufacturers face when trying to keep up with all the ways that devices are being connected nowadays.

Thanks to the combined forces of cloud integration, optimization tools, and security reinforced by hardware upgrades, it looks like their dreams might just come true. With this technology, the IoT process should be improved to the point where it can be quickly scalable for a great value, considering the price.

What does this mean for the rest of us? Well, as we mentioned earlier, it’s obvious to everyone that our world is increasingly emphasizing the importance of connecting everything. Once developers learn to use Android Things to its greatest capacity, we should find our IoT demands being met and even exceeded. Prepare to have everything constantly in tune with everything else—and all the implications that come with it.

The post Google Presents IoT OS Android Things appeared first on Smart Home Automation System Reviews.

Kidde Recalls Combined Fire and Smoke Alarm

For the safety-conscious, a combined alarm for both smoke and carbon monoxide is a necessary tool in the home. After all, according to the National Fire Protection Association, seven people die each year from house fires. Forbes also reports that between 20,000 and 30,000 people are poisoned by carbon monoxide annually, with about 500 of those incidents ending in death, usually at home.

What’s worse than these statistics is the fact that most people wouldn’t even be aware of a problem until it was too late, at least not without the help of alarms. House fires have a way of getting out of control rather quickly, and carbon monoxide is infamous for its ability to kill without its victims even noticing it.

Knowing that your alarm can warn you of danger well before any real damage is done is a crucial comfort. Of course, knowing that the alarm is working is even better.

Unfortunately, that was not the case with the Kidde Nighthawk alarm, model KN-COSM-IB. Manufactured between June 1^st, 2004 and December 31^st, 2010, these alarms were recalled because once their battery life ended after seven years, they would no longer chirp once the batteries were replaced.

About 3.6 million units (in addition to 1.5 million in Canada) were sold before the malfunction was discovered. Luckily, although eight reports were submitted regarding the problem, no injuries occurred before the recall.

The items were sold through Amazon and brick-and-mortar distributors nationwide between June 2004 and December 2010. Regardless of where or when they were bought, consumers were advised to stop using them right away and ask Kidde for a replacement as soon as possible.

This serves as a great reminder that it’s not a good idea to just buy an alarm like this and then think that all of your problems are solved. Be diligent about checking items like these to make sure that they’re working. Otherwise, what’s the point in buying them?

The post Kidde Recalls Combined Fire and Smoke Alarm appeared first on Smart Home Automation System Reviews.

Skybell HD Video Doorbell Review

Skybell HD Video Doorbell Review

In this day in age, unfortunately, the world doesn’t seem to be as safe as it used to be.  We as homeowners have been forced to take the safety of our families and possessions into our own hands.  Thankfully technology has kept up with the security needs of today!

One of the companies leading the way in home security is Skybell.  Today, we will be doing a review of the Skybell HD Video Doorbell. This doorbell can stream 1080p high definition video of visitors of all kind on your front steps right to your smartphone or tablet!  That’s pretty amazing, but there are lots of HD video doorbells on the market today that can take pictures of visitors at your door.  How do you know this specific Skybell doorbell is the one for you?

 

What We Loved

The Skybell HD Video Doorbell, which retails at $199, has a lot of great qualities that set it apart from its competitors.  Here’s our list of its greatest assets:

1. Automatic Photos – This is our favorite thing about this doorbell compared to its competitors. The Skybell doorbell not only takes pictures when someone rings your doorbell, but it uses motion sensor technology to capture and stream the image of anyone (or anything) at your door.  Now you can catch those pesky raccoons red-handed in your trash or stop a would-be burglar in his tracks without any buttons needing to be pressed.
2. 5X Zoom – This is an issue that to us is often overlooked but Skybell got it right. Many other doorbells on the market only zoom at 1X, which is enough to capture a face right at your door, but what about a face at your mailbox or a license plate of a suspicious vehicle?  The 5X zoom on the Skybell HD Video Doorbell allows for a full view of the front of your home.  This in my opinion makes it as good a security camera!
3. Monitoring & Recording – Skybell strikes again! The monitoring and recording functions of this doorbell also set it apart from the rest.  At any moment, without triggering motion sensors activating the doorbell, you can live stream the video feed right to your phone.  This gives you complete control over your home, knowing at any time who may be in the driveway or coming up to the door.  And if the button is pressed or motion sensor is triggered, Skybell records and stores the video on a cloud server until you are able to go over the footage yourself.
4. Night Vision – A simple but very useful characteristic of the Skybell HD Video Doorbell, night vision is a no-brainer for me when it comes to home security cameras, even on the doorbell. Nighttime is when we are all more vulnerable, and it would be a waste, in our opinion, to invest in a doorbell camera without it.
5. Built-in Speaker – Last, but certainly not least, is the built in speaker that comes standard with this device. Now you can speak to anyone that’s at your door, whether it is a complete stranger or a door-to-door salesman who won’t leave you alone.  On the flipside, it’s great if the pizza deliveryman is early and you’re still in your bathrobe. Not only that, but the person at your door can talk right back!  The ability to have full exchanges with anyone at your door without opening it gives a huge boost to the overall effectiveness of this device. We give this feature a huge thumbs-up!

The Skybell HD video doorbell has a lot of fantastic features, but there is one negative that you should definitely keep in mind before you purchase…

What We Didn’t Love

This doorbell has one flaw that we have to mention.  It seems that a very strong Wi-Fi signal (as high as 95% strength) is needed for reliable streaming of your video feed.  That being said, this is not reason enough to choose a different doorbell for your home security requirements.  If anything we think it’s a reason to go out and buy a new router!  All kidding aside, make sure to test your router’s signal strength before buying so you can have access to this video doorbell’s HD video stream.

Skybell HD

Buy this item

Our Verdict

We hope this Skybell HD Video Doorbell review was helpful to you in your quest for a more secure home.  We highly recommend this product to anyone attempting to beef up their home security system and don’t forget that upgrading your Wi-Fi in order to gain access to all the upsides of this doorbell would be worth the investment.

That being said, you should take the safety of your family and possessions very seriously!  Shop around and read customer reviews like this one to find out which one is best for you.  If you’re asking us, though, for the price, the Skybell HD video doorbell is worth every penny.  Go get yours today!

The post Skybell HD Video Doorbell Review appeared first on Smart Home Automation System Reviews.

Become a Contributor

If you enjoy Best Home Automation Systems and would like to contribute quality content to our blog, then submit a article for consideration below.

Not all guest post submitted for consideration will be accepted, to improve your chances her are some tips.

• All articles must be at least 700 words in length
• Shouldn’t be on a topic already featured in our blog
• Must be well written
• Needs to be relevant to our audience

We respond to all approved articles within 7 days, if you don’t hear back within 7 days then your article was not accepted, although we encourage you to keep trying.

[contact-form-7]

 

The post Become a Contributor appeared first on Smart Home Automation System Reviews.

Mark Zuckerberg Presents Jarvis AI

Mark Zuckerberg‘s demo of the Jarvis AI

We are very excited to see what Jarvis has to offer

The post Mark Zuckerberg Presents Jarvis AI appeared first on Smart Home Automation System Reviews.