smart home - CybAI news

10 Nov

The 9 best gadgets for your pets

stp2y0 CommentsNewsAMZ-Holiday21, best tech, Commerce, evergreen, feature, gear, gift guide, holiday gifts, holiday21, holidaygifts21, home, pets, shopping, smart home, streamshopping, thebuyersguide

My husband and I love our cat very much, but boy, does her poop stink up the joint. After seeing an ad for Pretty Litter online, we decided to try it out to see if it would help us. Fortunately, it does, and more. Not only does it have super absorbent silicon crystals that trap odor, but it actually changes color to tell you if your cat has any urinary tract issues. Of course, this doesn’t replace going to the vet, but it’s nice to know what’s going on with your cat’s health. Since the litter is so efficient at…

07 Nov

Siri might ignore commands spoken in Apple commercials soon

stp2y0 CommentsNewsapple, gear, Homepod, news, siri, smart home, tvos

Voice assistants have a reputation for finicky activation, such as responding to their prompts that are spoken in an ad. Apple may have a fix for that in the works. 9to5Mac spotted this element in the tvOS 18.2 beta. A part of code called AdBlocker appears to use the Shazam API to match audio captured by a device's microphones against audio fingerprints downloaded from Apple. When there's a match, the usual Siri trigger command is disabled. In theory, this means Apple could have devices not react to the "Hey Siri" prompt when it's spoken as part of the company's keynote…

27 Oct

Apple may tap into a beloved retro design for its smart home display

stp2y0 CommentsNewsapple, gear, imac, news, smart home

Apple’s rumored smart home display may look a lot like an old friend — the iMac G4 of the early 2000s. In the newsletter this weekend, Mark Gurman reports that the countertop tablet will feature a square screen that’s “positioned at an angle on a small base, making it reminiscent of the circular bottom of the iMac G4.” That may be where the speakers are housed too. The device is expected to arrive sometime next year, followed later on by a higher-end version with a robotic limb that can change the position of the display.The more affordable model, which will…

22 Oct

Ecobee smart home users can now unlock Yale and August smart locks from its app

stp2y0 CommentsNewsdoorbell, gear, news, smart home, smart lock

Ecobee is integrating smart locks into its app. The company doesn’t make smart locks of its own, but you can now control Wi-Fi-enabled ones from Yale and August using the Ecobee app. The feature could prevent you from switching apps to let someone who rings your smart doorbell in. However, it’s locked behind a subscription, so user convenience isn’t the only motive here.The integration adds an “unlock” button from the Ecobee app’s live view. So, you can let visitors in from the same screen where you confirm it’s someone you want coming inside. (Handy!) The Ecobee app also allows you…

20 Oct

A $105,000 robot arm nobody needs cooked me a delicious lunch

stp2y0 CommentsNewsfeature, gear, Moley, robots, smart home, tomorrow

London’s W1 is somewhere to go if you’ve got too much money to spend on something. Within minutes of each other, you can visit the city’s priciest private doctor, buy a Steinway and a pair of designer glasses that cost more than my mortgage. Wigmore Street is also where the ultra rich go to buy a kitchen that Thorstein Veblen would weep at the sight of. It’s also the new home of Moley Robotics, a company selling luxury kitchens and the robot arm that’ll kinda/sorta do all of the cooking for you, too.Moley is the brainchild of Dr. Mark Oleynik…

10 Oct

How Should We Feel About Ring?

stp2y0 CommentsGenAIamazon, artificial intelligence, gadget lab podcast, podcasts, privacy, security, smart home

Ring cameras have come a long way. Since the security camera brand launched 11 years ago, its video doorbells and cams have become vigilant, constant surveyors of patios, porches, and vestibules everywhere. Amazon now owns the company, and has ushered it through controversies over privacy concerns, security breaches, incidents of vigilantism, and the company’s cozy relationship with law enforcement. The drama has not slowed growth; over 10 million Rings have been installed, and the cameras currently blanket our urban and suburban landscape, filming the movements of you, your family, and any strangers who wander near your door.That makes for a…

03 Oct

The best robot vacuums on a budget for 2024

stp2y0 CommentsNewsbest tech, Commerce, evergreen, feature, gear, home, robot vacuums, shopping, smart home, spring cleaning, springcleaning21, springcleaning22, streamshopping, thebuyersguide

If vacuuming is your least favorite chore, employing a robot vacuum can save you time and stress while also making sure your home stays clean. While once most robo-vacs landed on the higher end of the price spectrum, that’s not the case anymore. Sure, you could pick up a $1,000 cleaning behemoth, but it would be incorrect to assume that you need to spend that much money to get a good machine. Now, you can get an autonomous dirt-sucker with serious cleaning chops for $500 — sometimes even $300 or less. But you get what you pay for in this…

30 Sep

Apple’s rumored smart display may arrive in 2025 running new homeOS

stp2y0 CommentsNewsapple, Apple Intelligence, gear, Homepod, news, smart home

Apple is planning to debut a new operating system called homeOS with its long-rumored smart displays, the first of which is expected to arrive as soon as 2025, according to ’s Mark Gurman. Reports of have been swirling for over a year, and said just this summer that Apple is working on a tabletop smart display that can tilt and rotate the screen for better viewing. In his latest report, Gurman says there are two versions in the works: a low-end display that will offer the basics, like FaceTime and smart home controls, and the high-end robotic variant that’ll cost…

26 Sep

The 6 best cordless vacuums for 2024

stp2y0 CommentsNewsbest tech, Commerce, feature, gear, home, shopping, smart home, spring cleaning, streamshopping, thebuyersguide

Old-school, upright vacuums left a lot to be desired, and cordless models are here to right many of those wrongs. These types of vacuums tend to be thinner, lighter and easy to maneuver around a home, and you don’t really have to sacrifice suction power anymore to get those benefits. Dyson isn’t your only option anymore either — like the robot vacuum space, there are dozens of cordless vacuums to choose from today. Variety is great, but it can also lead to decision fatigue and confusion. We at Engadget can help make that decision a bit easier. After testing a…

26 Sep

The best Wi-Fi extenders in 2024

stp2y0 CommentsNewsbest tech, Commerce, computers, Computing, evergreen, feature, gear, shopping, smart home, streamshopping, tech accessories, thebuyersguide

Struggling with dead spots in your home network can be frustrating — especially when you're trying to stream your favorite show or finish up some work in a quiet corner of the house. That’s where the best Wi-Fi extenders come in. These handy gadgets help boost your Wi-Fi signal by extending the coverage of your wireless network, so regardless of whether you have a new wireless router or not, you can get online in every corner of your home and maybe even the backyard.Whether you're dealing with thick walls or a modem that can’t cover a larger home, a Wi-Fi…