Gadgetory

welcome to the CNET smart apartment we've partnered with the city of Louisville to see how we can smarten up an urban space unlike our full-size smart home we're going to focus on smarts that don't require much installation we want connected convenience that's not going to get you into a fight with your landlord here's what we have so far Alexa turn on the living room lights we haven't smartened up any of these bulbs because that won't involve replacing the trim or installing smart switches instead then we focus on the lamps we have philips hue bulbs installed in sum which allows us to use Siri through homekit she can change the colors of the bulbs and even set scenes otherwise we're using Belkin Wemo switches which also help us monitor energy and both Belkin and Philips work with Alexa for security we have a Piper can that just plugs in sits on the table and watches over the living room no installation necessary in the kitchen our appliances are smart the dishwasher in the washing machine sync with Amazon - to automatically replenish their detergent we can monitor the oven and see the contents of the fridge from afar but you might not be able to replace your appliances in an apartment so we also have a simple connected thermometer that works via bluetooth and this instant pot that you can control with your pump for entertainment we have TVs and so no speakers connected to the Internet we're looking forward to seeing what Google home can do to tie this all together with voice commands the CNET's smart apartment is going to be a great opportunity for us to experiment with simple solutions we'll use the space to look for all the ways you can enjoy connected convenience while living in the heart of a city