Gadgetory

the goal of smart home tech is to add convenience and safety to your life the August smartlock takes care of both of these that's why this year this is our top pick for a gift in the smart home and appliances category any tech enthusiast that wants to make their home more connected will be thrilled with this gift it works with your existing dead booth so you can still enter with your key if you'd like and turn it to lock from the inside as usual with no power required and no one on the outside will be able to even tell you have it installed we've seen lots of smart home products disrupt the basic functionality of their newly connected item August avoids that trap it adds Bluetooth and app enabled functionality without taking any of the old fashioned options away via bluetooth you can lock and unlock the door remotely with the app for iOS or Android if you generally forget to lock your door you can automate that process and have August lock up behind you after a set amount of time and in terms of convenience if you get home and you have an arm full of groceries you can use the geofencing feature for the iOS version of the app to unlock the door for you once you get within a hundred yards you can also hand out and take away digital keys to guests at will with no extra cost and hey if you're giving this as a gift you want it to look August was designed by award winner yves behar it seems a little bulky at first but it grows on you you also don't want to give somebody a tech gift that will be obsolete in a few months good news August is limited to bluetooth but it's already compatible with the smart things and harmony hubs for wider connectivity and August is on the list of products ready for apples up coming home kit so this lock connect is an important piece of a larger connected home for a long time to come making it the perfect smart home gift for any tech enthusiast for cnet appliances I'm Andrew gebhardt