Automated Home

Home Automation Case Study: Control4 Home Cinema

Mark McCall — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 07:14:13 +0000

The guys from UK home automation specialists Cyber Homes recently undertook a project to transform a little used snug into a luxurious home cinema in the Oxfordshire countryside. This is a project which has been shortlisted in the upcoming CEDIA awards. Read on for all the details photos and the equipment used in this Control4 [...]

Kaleidescape Video Store Expands to United Kingdom

Mark McCall — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:08:15 +0000

Kaleidescape have announced that their online video store is now available in the UK. The service launches with around 400 films and over 450 television episodes from Warner Bros. Movies purchased from the store will include all the usual extras and files will feature up to 1080p/24 and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD where available. Kaleidescape will also incude [...]

Apple WWDC Keynote 2013 – Here’s Your Cheat Sheet

Mark McCall — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:51:43 +0000

Apple’s 2013 WWDC Keynote has just finished. Here’s our cheat sheet for the news that Apple released today… iTunes Radio Built into iOS Music App Built into iTunes on your Desktop Streaming ‘stations’ for Genres Free (with Ads) Free (with No Ads) for iTunes match customers Available in USA now – other countries to follow iOS 7 [...]

New Marmitek Powermid 300 XTRA Long Range Remote Extender

Mark McCall — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 07:17:06 +0000

These new Powermid 300 XTRA IR extenders allow you to control your infrared equipment in another room, even on another floor. So you can control your Sky or Cable box in the lounge downstairs from the bedroom upstairs for example. The units are battery powered so can be placed anywhere and at under £40 they [...]

Insteon Pulls V1.0 UK Hub – Customers to Receive Free Replacements

Mark McCall — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:14:51 +0000

Insteon visited the Automated Home last summer to test some of their UK prototypes. This lead to a soft launch of the European modules late last year. However since then there have been stories of users having reliability issues with the Hub, the unit that’s pretty much central to any Insteon setup. Then last month Insteon [...]

Video: SmartThings Home Automation Demo

Mark McCall — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 07:04:57 +0000

Here’s another interesting presentation from last weeks D11 All Things D Conference. SmartThings founder and CEO Alex Hawkinson demonstrated his “Internet of Things” modules in a variety of home automation scenarios. Knowing when family members are coming and going, knowing where there’s a leak, knowing when something opens or closes as well as remote control operations too. On stage he creates virtual [...]

New Wireless DIY Smart Home Alarm Features SMS Text, Apps and RFID

Mark McCall — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 07:06:21 +0000

Response Electronics have announced a new range of smart home burglar alarms that will start shipping soon. The miGuard G5 is around £180 and brings a host of intelligent features including a built-in GSM SIM to enable remote operation (including Arm / Disarm and personalised text messages when the kids come home), touch sensitive keypads, wireless remote control, [...]

Video: New “August” Smart Lock

Mark McCall — Fri, 31 May 2013 07:11:40 +0000

The August Smart Lock was announced yesterday at the All Things D conference. The Bluetooth enabled unit is slated to begin shipping in the U.S. in Q4 at the introductory price of $199. The makers promise it retro fits to nearly any existing deadbolt in around 10 minutes and allows you to send a virtual key to anyone’s smartphone. [...]

CommandFusion Confirm iViewer Lite Plus Release Android App

Mark McCall — Thu, 30 May 2013 07:08:27 +0000

The rumours were true, CommandFusion have just released iViewer Lite in the iTunes Store. The £34.99 app is aimed at the DIY Home Automation market and it has the following restrictions over the full version of the software – Each GUI can have a maximum of 200 objects (buttons, sliders, etc). Pages and subpages on [...]

New Control4 Driver for the Philips Hue Lighting System

Mark McCall — Wed, 29 May 2013 07:04:52 +0000

The guys over at C4Store have just sent us an announcement about their new Control4 driver for Philips Hue lights, plus the promise of some more interesting releases in the coming weeks… We just announced our latest Control4 Driver for the Philips Hue lights and I thought that your readers would find it interesting. We also have [...]