Smart home

Our homes are becoming more and more futuristic. Thanks to the so-called “Internet of Things,” where our everyday and mundane household objects get new functionality with a connection to the online world, we are entering a new world of “Smart” homes. This Smart Home concept allows us to monitor, control and discover our living spaces in completely different, or fun new ways, from practically anywhere. As the first part in a series on Smart Home tech, I’m going to fill you in on the Philips Hue and Lighting Control system.

Parents relax, routines are restored: the new school year has begun. To recognize how great it is for all of our kids to be safe and sound back at school, Best Buy is giving away a Dog & Bone Keyless Bluetooth padlock (to keep your property safe), Marley Rebel BT headphones and a Marley Chant Portable Audio system (for awesome sound). Enter now for your chance to win this fun "safe & sound" prize package:

Eveyrone has regrets during renovations, but the smartest decision I made during mine was setting my house up to be a full smart home. I've got a lot of great devices installed, but I'm really excited to see what's around the corner in the smart home market.

If you can't stand the view of wires dangling down the wall or across the room to keep a surveillance camera active in the home or workplace, Netgear's Arlo HD Camera is for you. Arlo's the world's first wire-free, HD and waterproof indoor and outdoor camera and it's easy to set up through the smartphone app and a few presses of buttons.

Lighting isn’t very interesting, is it? I mean, other than different fixtures, the lights themselves are pretty unremarkable, right? Flick a switch, and on comes the light. Flick it again, and off it goes. I mean, totally yawn, huh? Well, that is unless you happen to have invested in the new Philips Hue personal lighting system, which allows for quite the personalization, versatility and convenience. Want to see how innovative lighting can be? Read on for my preview of the Philips Hue lighting system.

When you take it out of the box, the Ring Pro Video Doorbell looks as though it may be hard to install with all sorts of little pieces and wires. Once you get into it though, you'll see it's anything but. In fact, Ring is so confident that you can install it yourself that it will pay for free installation if you cannot. With cloud storage capabilities, motion detection and 1080p video output, Ring Pro is ready to be your next Home Automation pick up. Come take a look!

July has a way of zipping past us, and before we know it we’ve landed in August and we’re a month away from back to school. It’s hard to believe time can go by that fast, but that’s the downfall of a Canadian summer. They seem to be over before you know it. Thankfully there are still plenty of days left to spend outside soaking up the sunshine. While you’re enjoying the warm weather, you might want to grab your...

 Having a smart home is amazing, but the Wi-Fi connection issues that have come along with it have been challenging. As I’ve added more devices I’ve understood the need for a powerful router like the Linksys Max-Stream AC5400. Now that I’ve tested it out, I’ll never be able to use a basic router in my smart home again. Save

 The original Dropcam (later branded as the Nest Cam) was one of the crucial pillars of growing IP Camera technology in the world of Home Automation. With its wide angle filming, cloud storage capabilities and communication and alerting abilities, it was one of the class leading standards for which all competing IP Cameras would have to meet. Now Nest is back with those same philosophies in a waterproof outdoor camera, coming soon to Best Buy. Read on to find out more.

If you've got a smart home you'll love the pairing of Arlo and IFTTT. Together they create rules you can use to get even more out of your smart home cameras.