Gadgetory

hey I'm seen that's right Crist here to help you make sense of home automation there's a whole bunch of stuff you can automate lights locks switches cameras there's even a connected piggy bank and you can automate these days but in general home automation products are going to do one of three things they're either going to sense information around your home to provide context for the decisions that your smart home setup is going to make they're going to do things you know lock is going to turn the coffeemaker is going to turn on or they're going to serve as a brain and kind of organize all that info that's what these hubs over here do the wink of the smartthings hub Insteon staples connect all these can wrangle multiple devices and give you a single experience in a single app that will control everything that's pretty handy now if you're looking to make your first smart home automation purchase you'll find a lot of starter kits out there that are pretty tempting they'll offer packages with motion sensors and plugs that can turn things on and off maybe a leak sensor those kids can make for a good starting point but if you want to go even simpler you can start with just one or two devices and do a couple of things that you're specifically interested in a good and perhaps fairly obvious starting point for home automation is a smart switch because so much of home automation really comes down to things just turning on and off automatically I've got a couple of examples sitting right here one that I like is the Belkin Wemo switch because it has great compatibility with third-party devices you can build off of this thing and also it's got a low price point below fifty dollars important thing to remember is that there's no need to go all-in with home automation you don't need to feel pressured to be George Jetson right out of the gate you don't have to have an entire home full of devices and work together and do amazing things and create a futuristic smart home experience you can just start simple have one or two devices build from there if you want and have a really cool sort of extra level of functionality around the home that makes your life easier saves you time and maybe even save you some money for more information on how to get started check out the rest of my buying guide and check out the other buying guides are gonna be doing in the coming weeks to focus on specific categories like lighting and cameras and security all sorts of good stuff for CNET appliances I'm right Chris you