Page 142 - South Mississippi Living - May, 2018

TOP PRODUCERS tech-savvy
Making the Leap to a Smart Home
story by Kelsey Sunderman-Foster
he idea of a smart home is nothing new, but the high costs of the first generations of smart devices kept
all but the most tech-savvy at bay.
With an influx of new products on the market every day, the prices of smart devices are going down while their
usefulness is growing. Could this be the year to make the ‘smart’ leap?
There are smart devices available for just about every function in the home, each made to make a home
that cares for you rather than you caring for it. What makes this integration possible is simply the internet, which connects the home owner to the home’s smart devices and systems.
So which smart devices are right for you? “It can be helpful to go room by room to consider what would
be most convenient,” said Hayley Tsukayama in her Washington Post article ‘No Place Like a (Smart) Home.’ “In the entryway, security cameras from Nest or a smart doorbell from Ring could give you 24-hour visibility into your own entryway, even when you’re not home. Locks, such as those from August or Yale, let you decide who can
enter your home with the swipe of a smartphone.” After deciding which types of devices you would find
most helpful, it’s time to get smart. Many smart devices pair to a smartphone, allowing the homeowner access to that individual device. One example of this would be a Wifi smart plug such as the WeMo Switch by Belkin that connects to your WiFi and allows you to turn any electronic that is plugged into it on or off through a corresponding app.
For those planning to have multiple smart devices, a hub might be the way to go. “Hubs such as Google’s Home, Amazon’s Echo or the Apple HomePod are essentially
the field generals for every other gadget in your home,” Tsukayama said. “For maximum convenience, you’ll want to be able to issue voice commands to your tech, rather than having to hunt around for apps on your phone.”
It’s important to keep your smart home goals in
mind when choosing a hub as each one has its own compatibility limitations. “They’ll also set the standard, quite literally, for every other smart thing you may
want to buy,” Tsukayama says. “Not every smart lightbulb, plug, television or other gizmo may work with every hub, after all.”
142 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • May 2018 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net