Gifts to impress
We’re decades past the Clapper in a time where long-lasting LED home lighting may be color-adjusted, timed, dimmed and programmed by an app. You can create a number of one-tap, room-by-room settings, turn them on from the airport on your way home and from your bedroom, have the living room lights brighter when your daughter’s boyfriend suggests “Netflix and chill.”2. Nest Learning Thermostat
Everyone who sees a Nest loves it, but they’ll never buy it for themselves. This is usually a beautiful instance of when industrial design makes a house cooler just by having it. (Pun intended.) Nest doesn’t employ a confusing day-by-day programming schedule – adjust temperature settings just like you normally would, and very soon Nest will do it for you. The Wi-Fi enabled device knows how to manage different types of HVAC systems, reacts to room motion, and features a clear, fun interface.
3. Amazon Echo
This was advertised during the Super Bowl, so you won’t impress the person you are giving the gift to with early adopter status. You can add a set of Wi-Fi enabled light switches or pair it with a couple of WeMo Switches so Alexa can be told to control lights, switch on the television or start the coffee maker. More connections are being introduced every day. One unmentioned benefit? Echo provides the information we normally seek when bent over a smartphone. Now we are able to browse the Web while pretending to acknowledge others in the room.
4. Flic Smart Button
Crazy smart but physically insignificant, you might like to pair this while using the LIFX bulbs in order to avoid your clients looking bewildered upon presentation. However, CNET surmises a Flic button thus: “Flic is really a clever device with plenty of uses, and its functionality is quickly growing. Today, it’s a cool product. In a year, it could be among the best smart-home purchases on the market.” The tiny, touchable Flic may be programmed to conduct an assortment of every day home and personal tasks with a single tap, double tap or hold down. It’s a portable safety device, too, which can send SOS messages when wearers think those shadows in the alley are coming their way.
5. Goal Zero Yeto 1250 Solar Generator Kit
Generators are awfully handy for clients in the Midwest, Southeast or Southern California. But they’re also huge, are powered by gas and let’s face it, don’t look this cool. Goal Zero solar generators may be charged on your home grid for later use and also powered with solar panels when the grid juice drains. Unless the sun explodes, it’ll continually be ready to keep the IQ of a smart home intact, even its refrigerator. This could be the most gifts on this list. The purchase price goes down when you buy Yeti outside of the kit. But the same is true the coolness factor.
