Smart Home Automation

Amazon Announces New Product Categories, Improvements, And Updates At Devices Event

By / Connected Home, Fitness Wearables, Research, Smart Home Automation / October 29, 2021

This week Amazon held its Amazon Devices & Services Event, where it announced many exciting devices to build on its home ecosystem. Last week I wrote about Microsoft’s Surface event, which you can read about here. What was great about the Surface event is that Microsoft released Surface devices that were to show OEMs its vision …

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Amazon’s Gives Its Take Of An ‘Ambient’ Alexa Experience

By / Ambient Computing, Research, Smart Home Automation / August 5, 2021

Yesterday, Amazon hosted its 3rd annual Alexa Live event for its 900,000+ developers and countless Alexa device users. Last year’s Alexa Live event had many big changes that plotted the future for the Alexa ecosystem. Alexa Live is joined by developers, device makers, startups, entrepreneurs, press, and analysts to see what Alexa has next for its community.  One …

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Calix Raises The Stakes In Home Network Security

By / Connected Home, Smart Home Automation / June 29, 2021

It wasn’t too long ago things were looking stark for the globe. Though we’re still dealing with the fallout of the COVID pandemic, vaccines are rolling out at a fever pitch in the United States and several other regions of the world. There is a reason to be optimistic for the remainder of 2021 and …

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Summertime Solutions For Your Smart Home

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / June 23, 2021

With the Memorial Day holiday now officially behind us, I’d like to provide commentary on several smart home products that I’ve spent time with over the spring. Today we’ll look at a surprising new laptop, a new robotic vacuum from one of my favorite companies in the space, and lastly, for consumers with an aversion …

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Apple WWDC 21: Rinse And Repeat

By / Collaboration, Connected Home, Healthcare Technology, Research, Smart Home Automation / June 23, 2021

If any mainstream consumers took the time to watch Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference earlier this week, they likely found themselves regularly yawning. This is not to say that the newly-announced operating system features aren’t necessary or don’t have the potential for added productivity and security. There just wasn’t any real headline-leading drama. Rumors of new Apple Silicon? …

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Schneider Electric’s Obsessive Focus On Sustainability Is A Good Thing

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / May 10, 2021

Vibrant, balanced ecosystems are an essential requirement for the survival of humans, animals and other organisms. In the twenty-first century, some companies have abandoned traditional, environmentally detrimental practices in search of a more sustainable approach to doing business. Some of the companies who pay lip-service to sustainability take a broad and abstract approach, intended to …

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4 New Tech Products For The Smart Home And Office

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / April 29, 2021

As we get through the spring and make way for the beginning of summer, many consumers and work-at-home users refresh their technology at a feverish pitch. Here’s my take “quick take” on four products that caught my eye this season that I believe deserve attention. Sonos Roam: everything a mobile smart speaker should be For …

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Samsung’s Smart Home Strategy Hinges On These Core Elements

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / April 19, 2021

New markets typically flourish when consumers have choices. Choice allows consumers to choose the specific brands and products that serve them best. This dynamic is a proven, venerable rule that has played a substantial role in the smart home category’s growth over the past several years. Most consumers’ smart homes employ smart devices (e.g., lights, …

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Spring Forward With These Smart Home Gift Ideas

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / March 4, 2021

With Valentine’s Day now in the rear-view mirror, I want to highlight several smart home tech products that have a special place in my heart (no pun intended) as it address real-world problems to varying degrees. While flowers or candy may be the traditional gift to give around this time of year, you’ll get a …

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Great Post-Holiday Smart Tech Gifts For Your Home

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / January 15, 2021

The Christmas holiday may be over, but the cavalcade of smart home products continues unabated. Here’s my round-up of yet another group of innovative products, ranging from a cool “smart” kitchen appliance, new earbuds that won’t bust your budget, a standalone science fiction-inspired speech translation device and a new widescreen monitor that might be just …

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Crestron’s Conferencing Solutions Flourish In The Smart Home

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / January 11, 2021

Recently,  I detailed some of the activities that Crestron, one of the original leaders in office automation, has taken to adapt in the age of Covid-19. Despite the forthcoming vaccines that will hopefully return the world to some sense of normalcy, it’s clear that the remote working trend, at some level, will be with us long …

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5 “Smart” Stocking Stuffers Worth Your Attention This Holiday Season

By / Research, Smart Home Automation / December 15, 2020

It’s that time of year again. The pandemic hasn’t prevented Santa’s helpers from sending your intrepid technology analyst a wide assortment of intriguing “smart” home products and accessories for all your holiday shopping needs. Many of these devices are particularly useful in the new world of working remotely where we all find ourselves. This column will …

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Crestron Offers Its View Of The Smart Office In A Post Covid-19 World

By / Research, Smart Home Automation / December 14, 2020

If 2020 has taught us anything about the world, it’s that innovation and technology are an absolute necessity if businesses hope to stay competitive, keep their workforces productive, and pursue their goals when disaster strikes. Video conferencing control, conference room standardization, and remote work usage models are essential ingredients in this “new normal.” With the …

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Skyroam Solis X Review: The World’s First Global Smart Spot

By / Personal Computing, Research, Smart Home Automation, Wi-Fi / November 8, 2020

A couple of weeks ago, I was sent the newest flagship device by Skyroam, the Solis X. Many of our analysts at Moor Insights & Strategy travel in and outside of the United States and are always on the go. Between impediments like bad Wi-Fi connections in hotel rooms and aboard airplanes, reliably accessing the …

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IFA 2020 Delivers Several Significant Smart Home Announcements

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / September 28, 2020

IFA events are a remarkable experience, as anyone who has attended one will likely tell you. Meticulously planned and held in exciting European locales, IFA gives journalists and tech analysts alike a chance to see what the superstars of the tech space have been working on. Of course, all of that was before COVID-19 came …

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Recommendations For A Great Work From Home Setup

By / Connected Home, Personal Computing, Research, Smart Home Automation / August 20, 2020

Long before the outbreak of COVID-19, I was already working from home as a technology analyst. In this line of work, I tend to spend a lot of time perfecting my home office setup, continually trying new PCs, keyboards, monitors, wireless routers and other critical accessories. When many of my family members, friends and professional colleagues …

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Alexa Live Was Its Biggest Developer Launch, Ever

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / August 20, 2020

Two weeks ago, Amazon held its virtual Alexa Live 2020 event for Alexa voice developers, device makers, and business leaders alike—anyone in the business of leveraging Amazon’s highly popular smart assistant. Alexa boast a develop community of approximately 700,000, many whom look to this event for a roadmap to help guide their efforts in the …

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Apple’s Smart Home Efforts Get A Much-Needed Boost At WWDC

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / July 15, 2020

Amidst the hoopla and grand expectations for this year’s WWDC, there was big news in the smart home space, which deserves some focus. Held digitally, the one hour and fifty-minute event was a smoothly produced affair, with almost a documentary-style feel to it. The absence of a live audience certainly did not reduce the impact …

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HP Launches Enhanced Education Effort And New “Family-Friendly” Printers

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / June 26, 2020

Let’s be honest: the print business has been a tough one for the past several years. It was significantly impacted by the introduction of smartphones and mobile devices (like tablets), which rendered many of the old printing use cases—such as printing airline boarding passes, movie tickets, driving directions, etc.—obsolete. Big print companies began to virtually …

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Three Tales Of The Smart Home’s Dark Side

By / Connected Home, Research, Smart Home Automation / June 5, 2020

The smart home, in a broad sense, is one of the bigger technological developments of the past five years, providing much convenience for consumers and enhancing productivity. The smart home has experienced explosive growth, spurred in large part by the launch of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant digital assistants and smart speakers in 2014 and …

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