With Black Friday rapidly approaching, it’s time to begin preparations. And, while BF is often associated with holiday shopping, it’s also an ideal time to stock up on just about everything your household may need, from power tools to hiking boots. Heck, I even ordered a high chair about 50% off a few years back… before my daughter was born. As such, you need to create a wishlist – to scan deals efficiently and to avoid impulse purchases. Which ties into monitoring tools. I rely on the Slick Deals app for smartphone alerts (based on products in the aforementioned laundry list) and Wirecutter’s Twitter deals feed. Lastly, you need an ebates account for decent cash back from retailers (other than Amazon).
Arlo Pet Tracker To Intelligently Monitor Furry Friends
Along with the new Arlo Gen 5 wirefree camera, the Netgear spinoff is also poised to unveil a somewhat curious pet tracker. As they already promote pet-friendly video monitoring, perhaps this collar tag isn’t an entirely unusual pivot… And, as one Twitter buddy suggests, it’ll likely integrate with the Arlo video line to include/exclude those … Read more
Arlo and Ring Introduce Video Timeline To Challenge Nest
Like Ring, Arlo's getting into the video timeline scrubbing business (which is no doubt a response to Nest). pic.twitter.com/5OzLmq22tn — Dave Zatz (@davezatz) October 28, 2018
Google Home Hub Is The Holiday Gift Of 2018
The refreshed Amazon Echo Dot will make a nice stocking-stuffer, but the newly introduced Google Home Hub could be an excellent holiday gift giving centerpiece. While it features a significantly smaller screen than the competing Amazon Echo Show and sister smart displays… that may actually work to its benefit, in terms of versatility (and contribute to … Read more
TiVo Needs Your Help
Have a TiVo Bolt, Roamio, or Mini running the Hydra experience? Want to get in early on a software update that, among other things, enables HDMI-CEC for smarter remote control, as Apple TV and Fire TV do? If so, TiVo’s IFTTT Facebook group is soliciting volunteers here. TiVo may soon be releasing a new CEC feature and … Read more
Replace Your Echo Dots. All Of Them.
The new Amazon Echo Dot is out. And Alexa’s reviews have been exceedingly positive. From The Verge: I’m going to cut right to the chase: the new Echo Dot smart speaker is so much better than its predecessor that it would not be totally out of line to replace a whole houseful of old Echo … Read more
New TiVo Experience Hits Mobile Apps
TiVo is out with a massive refresh of its Android and Apple iOS apps this week. Most notable is the extension of the TiVo Experience 4 (aka Hydra and Mira) to mobile. And. I gotta say, I actually prefer Hydra here (vs TV lean back) – it provides a snappy and sleek modern look that works well in this content. TiVo also indicates we should expect a variety of streaming performance improvements with more granular config options. Bonus: iPhone X support.
However, as with all initial TiVo releases, to get the software out the door in a timely fashion (one presumes), a number of features have been excised: Downloaded shows are no longer grouped within folders (see bottom left pic) and you can no longer swipe to delete. Also possibly in the negative column, remote control visuals have been updated… dropping the iconic peanut presentation, with mixed results. Still no iPhone cellular streaming, although I’m told it’s on the roadmap.
Fitbit Charge 3 Displays Weather Conditions
While the Fitbit Charge 3 doesn’t actually launch until Sunday, a number of brick & mortar retailers have inventory… that they may be willing to part with. As such, fellow editor Adam Miarka picked up his $150 tracker today. And discovered it’s oh-so-much more than a step counter. In fact, it’s somewhat akin to a monochromatic Fitbit Versa smartwatch given the smartphone app notifications, upcoming third party apps, and an expansion of native apps — namely weather! It’s the one thing I really thought I might miss after trading in my Apple Watch.
Looks like you can essentially hard code two favorite cities within the Fitbit app, in addition to monitoring your variable physical location. Current conditions are displayed, in addition to a two-day forecast, by swiping through the Charge 3’s new multi-touch Gorilla glass display.