Design visionary aims to squeeze $300K tiny homes into Silicon Valley backyards
Lauded designer Yves Béhar is turning his attention to California's housing shortage by working in collaboration with prefabricated home manufacturer Plant Prefab to design and build a series of tiny homes meant to live in families' backyards and that cost $300,000 or less.
This foundation is giving disabled vets independence via smart home tech
The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation in New York City started out supporting first responders but has recently turned its efforts to building smart homes for disabled veterans that include motorized appliances, voice-activated technology, and smart security systems.
You should stop handwashing your dishes now. Here’s why
Hand-washing your dishes seems logical because that's how most of us have been doing it all these years but it turns out that handwashing dishes is a counter-intuitive exercise that actually costs way more time, effort, and money than sticking all the dishes in a dishwasher.
Pandora Premium joins Alexa’s Amazon dance party today
Amazon has just upped its music game for its popular Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show smart speakers by adding a new integration that allows users to play music from Pandora Premium, the ad-free music streaming service that can now be controlled by using voice commands.
Amazon rejoins the fight against HIV/AIDS with a (Red) second-gen Echo
You can outfit your smart home and give to a good cause this holiday season by buying Amazon's new limited edition red Echo, which has all the same features of the popular smart speaker, but has a crimson hue and donates to Project (Red), the humanitarian organization founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver.
Amazon’s new trade-in and recycling programs gives your gizmos a ‘second chance’
Electronic rubbish is a drag, as more than 45 million tons of potentially hazard electronics are generated every year. That's why Amazon is introducing Amazon Second Chance, a new set of portals and tools designed to help consumers recycle, reuse, and purchase refurbished electronics and devices.
New wireless power kit puts a charge into your smart speakers via infrared light
Wi-Charge is leading a new movement aimed at providing wireless power to smart home devices, starting with a kit to transform wired Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini smart speakers into fully functional, untethered devices. The company has earned a CES 2019 Innovation Awards Honoree for its breakthrough product.
Wynd’s new air-purifying bundle lets smart home owners breathe easier
Wynd is launching a new combo package on Kickstarter that includes a brand new version of its popular air purifier as well as a new air quality monitor that can identify a variety of substances including allergens, odors, chemicals, mold, pollution and more.
This super-cool tiny home with a living wall lived at the UN this summer
Of course it lived at the United Nations for a while — this fascinating, totally off-grid tiny home is a collaboration between Yale University and Gray Organschi Architecture. The project was an attempt to produce a fully functional and sustainable tiny home at a cost of less than $50,000.
Schlage and Amazon lock up a partnership with devices enabled by Alexa
Schlage is doubling down on its growing partnership with Amazon by enabling compatibility with the Amazon Key app via the Zigbee smart home protocol in the latest iteration of its popular locks for the smart home.
With its turd-burning toilet, this tiny house is for septic skeptics
For those of us who really want to get off the grid yet still have a sustainable place to live, Modern Dwellings is offering this 160-square-foot tiny home, dubbed the True Studio, that features smart home controls, heated floors, and an incinerating toilet.
One hacker is ‘shocked’ at vulnerabilities in the Google Home Hub
Is Google Home Hub vulnerable to hackers? Security expert Jerry Gamblin says he is "shocked" by exploits he discovered in the device's software code that could allow anyone to restart the device, delete the currently enabled network, or disable all notifications.
Google Home enhances Disney storytimes with sound effects and music
Disney has always been known to sprinkle a little fairy dust on its magical experiences and it's continuing that tradition with ten new storybooks that Google Home can recognize and augment with sound effects, music and even an A.I.-enabled friction-less interface.
Blue Apron doubles down on deliveries by hooking up with Jet
Jet is expanding its mission to deliver tailored shopping experiences with curated things by offering to deliver Blue Apron meal kits to discerning consumers in New York City, allowing home chefs to make four flavorful meal kits within 30 minutes or less.
LG’s new nuclear-hot ovens offer some of the fastest cooking times ever
LG Electronics has been expanding into the smart home market in a big way with new smart appliances designed to work with digital assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Now the company is launching two new smart ovens that are also equipped with Innit and SideChef for meal planning and recipe services.
The Google Home Hub will support video calls, but only for one person
Industry watchers were baffled by the fact the new Google Home Hub doesn't have a camera but it turns out the internal coding was crafted to allow the device to make Duo video calls to other devices that have cameras on them, enabling one-way video calls where only the Google Home Hub users can see the recipient of the call.
Security platform Abode has produced a new smart home automation engine
A fairly rogue operation launched by a former ADT exec is taking a big step with its new product, Abode Cue, a smart home security platform that allows users to create, customize, and manage all of the smart home devices that the platform controls.
Angee’s security service switches from sales to subscriptions
Angee, a London-based startup with resources in San Mateo, Prague and Shenzhen, China, has pivoted its business model to a subscription-based service that will offer the company's proprietary hardware unit for a flat rate starting at $17 per month.
Facebook’s new Portal device can collect your data to target your ads
Facebook's latest gaffe with its users involves its new Portal smart displays, which were designed to enable video calls using Facebook Messenger. It turns out that the company technically could use the camera and mic to gather data to target users with advertisements.
Simplisafe steps outside the smart home with its Video Doorbell Pro
SimpliSafe is well-known to many homeowners because of its recently relaunched home security system, but now the company is expanding its push into the smart home market with a new high-tech video doorbell that includes a dual-sensor motion trigger and a body heat detector.
Here are the five new Amazon Echo devices available now
Five new Amazon devices start shipping right now, including the Echo Show, Dot, Sub, Plus, and a smart plug. Here are all the details on the devices, including price, what these new products do, and how they might augment your smart home setup.
Speakers gone wild: Alexa, Google spook customers with reefer reminders, F-bombs
Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant sometimes freak users out in spectacular and sometimes humorous ways. From F-bombs to alarms for cocaine and reefer, here are some examples of colossal smart speaker fails. Has anything weird involving smart speakers ever happened to you?
The Google Home App just got a major overhaul
Google is on a roll this week, announcing several big new devices at its hardware reveal event in New York City and with new devices like the Google Home Hub comes a completely redesigned Google Home App that can control multiple smart home devices and even multiple smart homes.
Google is porting some Home Hub features to other smart displays
Google is understandably proud of its new Google Home Hub, which goes on sale later this month, but in a surprise move, it's bringing many of the improvements and features associated with the new device to all of the Google-enabled smart displays in its product ecosystem, including some competing devices.
GE Appliances augments its new smart kitchen hub with SideChef
GE Appliances is getting into the smart kitchen market in a big way and recently announced two big partnerships including a venture to outfit its new smart kitchen hub with the SideChef app that can access more than 5,000 recipes and a plan to integrate Hestan Cue's automation technology into its ovens and cooktops.
The Google Home Hub smart display: everything you need to know
Google officially unveiled the Google Home Hub at a hardware event in the fall, and began selling it October 22 for $150. The smart display and speaker integrate with Google Assistant to provides a visual element to augment the smart speaker. Here's everything you need to know.
Starbucks will see how Taiwan store made of shipping containers stacks up
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has unveiled his latest sustainable design for a Starbucks store in Taiwan that uses 29 reclaimed shipping containers to form a two-story, 3,500 square-foot store that even has a drive-through and a brightly colored wall mural that evokes the culture of the city.
Domio aims to dethrone Airbnb with new group travel accommodations
A New York-based startup called Domio is bypassing the fierce competition in the traditional hotel industry as well as the hospitality market dominance of Airbnb by targeting group travelers with new "asset-light" accomodations with 2 to 4 bedrooms, dubbed "apart-hotels."
Chefling is an Alexa-like sous-chef set to spice up smart kitchen appliances
Chefling, the digital assistant geared towards home cooking, is partnering with Home Connect to bring kitchen solutions to premier smart home appliance brands like Thermador and Bosch, all through one easy-to-use app. Chefling will be a primary interface for smart home appliance brands including Thermador and Bosch.
Google’s new Mini model is cool, jazzy, and kind of blue
Call it sapphire, cerulean, indigo or baby blue, but there's no denying that Google's new model of its popular Google Home Mini is a shade of blue. The new model of one of the company's bestselling products is expected to go on sale October 29th for a cool $50, unless Google has more news next week.
China’s Ezviz summons a swath of new smart home products
Ezviz, a division of Chinese-controlled Hikvision, announced a diverse new line of smart home security products that includes both wired and wireless infrared security cameras, a powerful floodlight camera for the backyard, a robust pan-tilt camera, and a pair of smart doorbells.
Whole Foods’ Prime Now is now in 48 cities across the country
Amazon Prime members in certain locales can now get their Whole Foods groceries delivered straight to their front door in two hours or less. Ann Arbor, Detroit, Jacksonville, Madison, Milwaukee, Omaha, Orlando, St. Louis, Tampa and Tulsa are among the latest additions to this service.
Amazon’s partnership with SideChef makes Alexa your sous chef
As if Amazon's week hasn't been busy enough, the company announced this week that it's furthering its partnership with interactive cooking platform SideChef to integrate its cooking guidance into Echo devices, including voice guidance, photography, video demos, and voice commands.
Amazon ups its smart home game with a new Echo Show, microwave, and clock
Amazon dropped a whole bunch of new devices on the smart home market this morning at its annual hardware event in Seattle including a completely redesigned Echo Show, an AmazonBasics smart microwave, a new security platform, an Alexa-enabled analog clock, and a Ring-friendly security camera.