Following on from my reviews of the superb Meross MSP843P Smart Fast Charging Power Strip and the good, albeit with a flawed design Meross Outdoor Smart Plug, I have also been checking out the MS100FHHK Smart Temperature and Humidity Sensor. This is an innovative addition to the world of smart home devices. With its unique …
Home Automation
Tado is a smart home heating company that offers intelligent thermostats and radiator valves to provide control over heating in each room of your home. I regularly recommend Tado because they seem to offer the best balance of performance, features and price. While I did use Tado in its early days, I switched to Genius …
I have previously written quite a bit about Thread, the low-power, wireless mesh networking protocol designed for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Within the Thread ecosystem, different device roles and types, such as Thread Border Routers (TBRs), Full Thread Devices (FTDs), and Minimal Thread Devices (MTDs), are defined to cater to various use cases and …
While many brands out there have smart plug sockets, there are only a handful of options for smart power strips. TP-Link Kasa is the best-known brand that has a smart power strip, with the KP303, which is a three-plug strip and two USB-A ports. Many other brands are random companies that produce strips which use …
After witnessing the Android tablet market’s prolonged stagnation, with only Samsung making viable options, it is refreshing to observe a resurgence of interest from various brands. Both Oppo and Xiaomi have introduced commendable tablets that offer good specifications for their price points. However, Google has managed to reignite my enthusiasm for tablets with the launch …
This year, TP-Link Tapo expanded its product range to include a new H100 Smart Home Hub and a newer, more powerful H200 smart hub. As part of this launch, Tapo released a range of sensors, including the Tapo T110 contact sensor, T310 temperature and humidity sensor, and the T100 motion sensor. They also launched several …
I have written quite a lot of fans over the past few years. I am quite obsessive about them, depending on your needs, you can’t just buy any old pedestal fan; they are often too noisy for sleeping or even quiet office environments. Being a gadget blog, I love the idea of smart fans, but …
Philips Hue recently extended its range of panel lights with new versions of the Aurelle and Surimu. These are some of the brightest lights Philips Hue offers, and they are perfect for living areas, hallways and bedrooms. I was sent the rectangular Surimu panel to review, which is 120cm long and 30cm wide and can …
Over the past year, I have reviewed quite a few excellent Philips Hue products, and I am currently in the middle of reviewing the new Philips Hue Surimu rectangle panel light and the wall switch module. I have always used the Philips Hue Bridge as I started using Hue before they rolled out the Bluetooth functionality …
The Sonoff NSPanel Pro is an innovative smart home control panel that integrates all your smart home devices and scenes for control. It acts as a Zigbee hub with support for Sonoff Zigbee devices giving you control of smart lights, switches, heaters, coolers, curtains, and much more, all from the panel itself. The inclusion of …
I have recently covered a few products that support Apple Homekit. The Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4 would be the highlight of my recent reviews as it is the best doorbell you can buy that supports Homekit and it supports HomeKit Secure Video. I don’t personally use any Apple devices, but my partner does. From …
SwitchBot has recently launched a new Wireless Hygrometer Thermometer. Unlike the existing SwitchBot Meter, this new device has no display but has an IP65 waterproof design with a more rugged plastic shell that also has a lanyard for convenient placement. This allows the Thermo-Hygrometer to be used outdoors or in wet environments such as the …
The Aqara Presence Sensor FP2 was launched globally a couple of weeks ago. It replaces the FP1 which launched last year, this wasn’t launched globally, but many people imported it from China due to its unique feature set. Millimeter-wave vs PIR Sensors The FP2 uses a 60GHz mmWave radar as the sensor in comparison to …
Aqara teased the launch of the new FP2 presence sensor earlier in the year, and this is quite an exciting product for smart home enthusiasts. The FP2 presence sensor uses mmWave radar instead of a traditional passive infrared (PIR) presence sensor. With PIR, they are not very good if you are in the room but …
I reviewed the Netatmo smart smoke alarm back in 2019 and Netatmo has continued to update this useful piece of smart technology as well as the carbon monoxide alarm they have. The latest update adds compatibility of its Smart Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms with the Google voice assistant. Both are now compatible with two …
I previously wrote an article comparing Zigbee vs Z-Wave and the pros and cons of each smart home technology. Thread is a new smart home communication protocol that builds upon the Zigbee specification and is available at no cost; however, this requires agreement and continued adherence to an End-User License Agreement (EULA). Albeit, you have …