As with so many TiVo initiatives, new management and product ADD priorities have led to a course correction. And TiVo is backing away from the smart home once again when DVR IFTTT integration comes to a hardstop on Christmas day — after less than three years in production. On December 25, 2020, the TiVo service … Read more
Amazon’s Black Friday deals have begun. Again. In earnest, this time. And the video doorbell I recommend, due to its functionality and versatility along with reasonable pricing, sees deep a discount. The $200 Ring Video Doorbell 3 drops to $140 via standard ordering. While that’s a solid deal, you can get the very same Ring … Read more
I own a whole lotta Ring products. And the oh-so-simple yet highly practical Ring Pathlight tops my favorites list. There’s really nothing else that compares in the smarthome space — exterior lighting that’s economical, functional, and battery-powered. The Ring Pathlight comes in two flavors: a D-cell variant and a solar model… that can be periodically … Read more
For reasons that aren’t yet entirely clear (to me, anyway), the Ring app now provides tiles to launch the Moen Flo and Chamberlain MyQ apps alongside existing and fully integrated 3rd party smart locks. Interestingly, Moen recently defected from the IFTTT platform and MyQ is an outlier when it comes to Alexa support – their … Read more
When I was first tipped off to the Wyze Sprinkler months ago (app shot below), I had envisioned something akin to the Eve – which brings HomeKit smarts to a spigot. However, as everyone’s favorite ADD importer has moved forward, it’s become clear the company intends undercut the highly regarded Rachio with a multizone sprinkler … Read more
As first disclosed by us in 2018 and announced at CES 2019, Arlo Security may be dead… as an updated Arlo hub that nixes the existing, but dormant, Zigbee and Z-Wave radios has passed through the FCC. Now this wouldn’t be the first unreleased product the company has killed (sigh Arlo Pet), but it would … Read more
Amazon’s currently running several very good-to-amazing Ring deals. While I cannot recommend the Wyze Outdoor Cam, I have no compunction steering folks towards the 3rd generation Ring Stickup Cam… which is on sale for $85, bundled with a free Echo Dot 3 — another device I wholeheartedly recommend. Here’s that promo, along with some others … Read more
I come bearing bad news: The Wyze Cam Outdoor is… exceedingly bad. However, hope remains as Wyze generally leverages its Early Access purchasing program as an extended beta test. So, with pre-order shipments scheduled for October, they have plenty of time to work these issues — perhaps most can be corrected or, at least improved, … Read more