Living Smarter

Essential bots and gadgets for your smart home

- Erik Paolo Escueta

Not everyone is familiar with the Internet of Things (IoT), the idea of connecting all your digital devices on a single network to improve your quality of life.

IoT basically sparked the foundation of the smart home— where every appliance, device, and service in your abode is automated, connected, and remotely accessible for your convenience. And today, that very concept of the smart home is not just possible, but also relatively affordable.

Here are some of the latest smart home gadgets you can get today:

SMART ASSISTANTS AND SMART SPEAKERS

Smart assistants are the new darlings of the smart home, giving you total voice control over your connected devices via their respective smart speaker housings. All of them connect to a variety of online services and hardware, but it’s their specific integrations that make them shine.

Top of the assistant list is Amazon’s Alexa in the Amazon Echo ($80) and Echo Dot ($30), which so far supports the most number of devices and services available, with a direct link to Amazon.com itself for instant shopping (although that’s technically not supported locally, since there’s no Amazon Philippines just yet).

Next is Google Assistant with Google Home ($129) and Home Mini ($49), which touts a better experience and optimized connectivity with other Google services like Gmail and Google Calendar, as well as Google devices such as the Chromecast and Pixel 2.

Greatly anticipated, however, is Apple’s Siri together with the Apple HomePod (TBD) this 2018, which has been seeing a huge surge in smart device development since its WWDC announcement.

SMART LOCKS