Making a home smart

With every new advance in technology, our lives are made simpler and more efficient.  Smart home gadgets do everything from turning on your lights and heating with your smartphone, asking Alexa for her best cookie recipe, lock your doors remotely, vacuum your home and so much more. Smart home gadgets offer more than just a bit of fun – they can help you to run a more safe and economical household where you are notified of any breach in security. While still in its relative infancy, the number of smart home products on the market is overwhelming.

Here are our picks of the best products available:-

Robot vacuums

A vacuum with a mind of its own, press start and this little genius will work its way round the house. Though many of us in Dubai employ cleaners to clean our homes, these robot vacuums are perfect for picking up dirt and dust in between visits. Not to mention they are easy to store as do not require a lot of storage space.

The Nest

The device offers excellent video quality with a built in microphone and speaker.  The doorbell features facial recognition and even announces them when they come to your door.  While it needs a hardwired connection, it continuously records video so you’ll never miss anything. You can also set up specific ‘zones’ so you’ll only be notified when a person or object appears in that area of the frame.

Smart Smoke Alarm / Carbon Monoxide detector

A smart smoke alarm with built in carbon monoxide detector. Not only can the smoke alarm detect smoke and carbon monoxide, but its sensors are designed to pick up both slow- and fast-burning fires. Plus, the Protect will tell you in which room the fire is located, and can be linked to other smart home devices, so that it can automatically warn you in the event of an emergency.

Alexa

Alexa is a virtual assistant to control all of your smart home devices. We are truly in the digital age and voice controlled devices are no longer just something afforded to the mega rich or on movies only! From setting a timer for the rice you’re cooking to switching on your lights or TV – Alexa can do it all. Alexa is compatible with most smart devices and is the extra person you never knew you needed in your home!

Smart Cooking Devices

If you work all day but still want a freshly made, home cooked meal that doesn’t involve hours of preparation then a smart cooking device is for you. Smart Cooking Devices can now perform many culinary tasks, convection oven, air fryer, dehydrator, slow cooker, broiler, toaster, warming drawer and more in one device and features a built-in HD camera that allows users to watch their roast cook from across the apartment, or across the world. Some smart cooking devices recognize over 50 common food items and automatically suggest an ideal cooking program for said dish. And in addition to this instant food-recognition ability, they come equipped with 100-plus cooking programs, developed by top chefs, to make a variety of foods to your exact liking.

Smart Garage

A device that remotely control access to your garage from your Android or iPhone. The wireless garage door opener is far older than the Internet, but today’s connected technologies have added new capabilities for monitoring and sharing access to your garage from anywhere in the world. Before you buy a smart garage door opener, you should make sure it will work with your existing garage door. Usually, you can find out which doors an opener is compatible with on the manufacturer’s site. Also, some smart garage door openers have Wi-Fi, while others use Bluetooth to connect to your phone.

Smart Fridges

Smart fridges don’t just offer you an internet connection they can do a lot of incredible things. For one they now have more refined temperature controls which means they can keep food at their optimum temperatures for longer. Some smart fridges have taken this a step further by developing separate areas of the fridge designed to hold specific foods. Some fridge-freezers also allow you to quickly change from fresh to frozen at the touch of a button. This makes refrigerating your food at optimal conditions much easier. Another stylish new feature worth mentioning is the see-through glass doors used to keep cold air in the fridge. These don’t just look stylish they provide a great new innovative feature that will allow you to easily look around your fridge without needing to open it and risk losing any cold air. It might seem like a small thing but it makes a big difference.