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Smarter than your average home

What did we do before smartphones? We were tied to our landlines and reliant on payphones when we were out and about, that’s what. Fast forward to today and we’re heavily attached to our battery-draining smartphones and mobile devices to communicate, access the web, pay for shopping on the go and even control our home appliances. Great isn’t it?

 

Maximum connectivity

Technology is constantly evolving to aid our lifestyles and ease our busy lives. Well, that’s the idea anyway. And that includes The Internet of Things, which allows us to utilise the power of the internet via smart home hubs and smartphones to give us even more control and connectivity with multiple appliances in our home.

samsung-smartthings-hub

Samsung SmartThings Home Hub

 

A fridge too far?

Smart fridges have been around for a while with varying functions to help us keep track of our supplies and aid intelligent food shopping. These high-tech fridges can connect to your smartphone and alert you when food supplies are running low, as well as text you when items are about to expire. Pretty useful when you’re in the supermarket, eh?

 

Keeping the tooth fairy at bay

Cleaning our teeth is a skill we master at an early age, but dentists are constantly promoting the benefits of electronic toothbrushes over manual brushing to ensure we do it properly and thoroughly.

 

So, it can’t have escaped your notice if you’re partial to a bit of TV that Oral-B have launched a SmartSeries electric toothbrush that connects to your smartphone. The toothbrush, used in conjunction with the Oral-B app, aims to aid your oral health with a variety of features. You can monitor your brushing technique, set routines, focus on areas that require more attention and use the handy timer to ensure you brush for long enough.

 

Power to the people

Again, the concept of controlling your home heating via smartphone is not particularly new, but can be incredibly useful. As are smart plugs that plug into any outlet and allow you to connect any appliance to monitor its electricity consumption. These plugs send energy consumption info to your smartphone, allowing you to monitor and adjust your electricity usage accordingly. They can also power off appliances when they’re not in use, which is good news given the ever-increasing cost of energy.

 

You snooze you lose…

…Or in the case of smart coffee makers, you most definitely win. If you fancy sneaking a few extra minutes of shuteye in the morning, the Smarter Coffee machine’s Wake Up mode allows you to put your coffee order in via your smartphone or mobile device from the comfort of your own bed. This ingenious bit of technology can grind beans and brew fresh coffee to order, whether it’s just enough for one cup or multiple. But that’s not all, you can even set the strength of the coffee to suit your tastes and needs, from industrial strength to just a hint of coffee deliciousness.

 

No doubt smart appliances will feature more and more in our homes as part of the smartphone society we’ve become, so get ready to embrace them with open arms.