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The best smart displays for 2024
Here's what you need to know before buying a smart display, plus the best ones you can get now.
I am my own spy: A personal surveillance story
One of the first webcams I purchased was a Dropcam several years ago. We'd had a couple of package thefts, and I wanted to see if I could catch the perpetrator in the act. I positioned the camera at our front window, with the lens pointed at the steps leading up to the front door. Alas, I never did catch anyone because we never had any more package thefts. Maybe they were scared off by the presence of a camera, or maybe they realized their folly when one of the packages they'd stolen was simply a bag of cat litter.
Nicole Lee01.24.2020
My quest to fix my terrible home WiFi
When I was young -- in high school or so -- my sister and I had a system worked out. Our Comcast cable internet service routinely seemed to flake out, so she and I would take turns running downstairs to the router, unplugging it, waiting for what felt like the most torturous 30 seconds possible and plugging the router back in. It was obnoxious enough back then, but now that our respective homes are filled with even more hardware clamoring for internet connections, the idea of half-assing a home network seems even tougher to endure. And yet, that's exactly what I've been doing, even now.
Chris Velazco01.24.2020
Bixby was quiet in 2019, but don't sleep on Samsung's assistant
Decades of science fiction assured us all that, yes, one day we'd be able to control the immensely complex gadgetry around us with just our voices. It was right, mostly. The rise of the virtual assistant, built atop still other developments in cloud computing and machine learning, means we can wonder out loud what the weather is like, or how far away the moon is, or hail a car and expect a response from a carefully crafted voice in moments. And now, those disembodied voices have taken up residence in our homes.
Chris Velazco01.23.2020
How I smart-homed my tiny studio apartment
Living in a tiny apartment presents its own challenges, especially if you want to turn it into a smart home. But there are ways you can do it without violating your lease -- here's how.
Cherlynn Low01.22.2020