Welcome to our Smart Home and Automation category page—the hub for all things smart and convenient that can revolutionise your daily living. Here, you’ll find comprehensive guides, reviews, and the latest news on devices and ecosystems that promise to make your home safer, more efficient, and undeniably more enjoyable.
Smart Home and Automation refers to the network of intelligent devices and systems that connect to the internet and to each other, offering remote control, monitoring, and data collection. From voice-activated lighting to intelligent cooking appliances, this category spans a wide array of products designed to bring ease and automation into your home life.
Whether you’re a tech-savvy early adopter or a homeowner seeking practical solutions for everyday tasks, smart home tech offers a wide range of applications that can genuinely improve your living standards.
Whether you’re just starting your smart home journey or looking to expand your existing setup, our Smart Home and Automation category is rich with expert advice, detailed reviews, and the latest updates to help you make informed decisions. Dive in and discover how smart your home can truly be!
The Anker Eufycam 2C is my current favourite wire-free security camera, it is affordable, has a built-in spotlight, offers colour night vision and best of all has human detection to reduce all the annoying false alerts. On top of all this, Eufy cameras also have an RTSP option which allows you to integrate it with…
The C4W is the latest camera in the ever-growing range of Ezviz security cameras which is now available from Argos for £99.99. Features Sensor: 1/2.7″ Progressive Scan CMOS Lens: 2.8mm, view angle: 103° horizontal, 118° diagonal 4mm, view angle: 87° horizontal, 104° diagonal Day & Night: IR-cut filter with auto-switching DNR: 3D DNR WDR: Digital…
The TP-Link Tapo C100 is the latest affordable smart home device from the new Tapo product range. Currently, it is just £19.99 on Amazon but has an RRP of £29.99, this makes it the cheapest branded indoor camera I am aware of. Kasa vs Tapo what’s the difference? Tapo is the latest product range from…
Over the past few months, I have upgraded my home surveillance, moving from cameras that recording motion only to microSD cards, to cheap Ezviz NVR and finally a BlueIris NVR with Sentry AI human detection. I have done everything as cheap as possible, and that includes re-using old desktop hard-drives. I had one of them…
Arlo, formerly owned by Netgear has long been the dominant company for wire-free security cameras, I would argue that they are the company responsible for the popularisation of the battery-powered wire-free outdoor surveillance camera. Since the launch of Arlo, many companies have come along replicating their features, many of them are inferior, plenty of them…
BlueIris is an extremely popular piece of camera recording software allowing you to turn a Windows PC into powerful NVR that offer vastly superior features to most affordable network video recorders. I recently replaced my Ezviz NVR with a self-built system based on the Ryzen AMD Ryzen 3 2200G, it is not the most powerful…
Den Automation had a tumultuous 2019, the new contender in the smart home market had an innovative approach to smart light switches and plug sockets with physical switches in traditional white colours. When I reviewed the system, I found the hardware to be much more appealing than the digital switches you find on LightwaveRF or the…
When it comes to automation apps on Android there are various variants on the Google Play Store today, but how to choose the best ones. If you browse the wide array of apps that specialize in this area, you’ll find this to be quite hard. Firstly, let’s explain why you need to automate your smartphone…
The D-Link Smart Full HD Wi-Fi Camera is the latest smart home camera from D-Link that can be integrated with the mydlink app. mydlink is compatible with a growing number of devices, I have already reviewed the mini smart plug at the end of last year and also the wire-free outdoor camera kit almost a…
I reviewed the eufyCam E almost a year ago, and I was extremely impressed with it, to the point that I still use it to this day. The claims of 365-day battery life are probably not far off, I have only charged one of the cameras since my review, and that was because I had…
On my quest to improve my home security, but not spend a fortune, I came across the H.View Colour Night Vision POE camera. At £99.99 it is not the cheapest option out there, but I managed to get it for just £76.79 back in October. The appeal of this, and the reason to spend more,…
I am a big fan of outdoor IP home surveillance cameras; I personally think they are one of the best deterrents for thieves and criminal behaviour on your property, and in the event of something happening, you have some video footage to show the police or insurance companies. Many of the wire-free surveillance cameras I…