Automated Home

French start-up Netatmo have just launched a new personal weather station for your iPhone or iPad.  The system comprises of a mains/usb powered indoor station and an outdoor battery powered module all communicating wirelessly via Wi-Fi to the free iOS app.  Netatmo provide a subscription-free cloud service to hold your historical data and they aim [...]

The new Belkin WeMo home automation range has been making waves in the USA since its launch earlier this year and even IFTTT has got in on the act make a WeMo channel for some nice smart home ‘recipes’. We reached out to Belkin Europe to ask about their plans for a British version and [...]

RFXCOM have announced their new USB 433.92MHz home automation transceiver – the RFXtrx433.  This device has replaced the USB receiver and USB transmitter and has flash memory so that new protocols can be added in the future. It already supports a few protocols that were not available with the previous RFXCOM, such as Mertik Maxitrol [...]

Here’s some car technology headed to the smart home. This $200 system from Phantom brings keyless entry to your house using any Bluetooth equipped mobile phone.  As you approach your home the system authenticates you and unlocks your property.  Check out the installation video after the jump… “The Phantom Smart Home Hands-free Keyless Home Entry [...]

Yesterdays announcement that Google have arrived in the Home Automation world continues to make waves.  This morning Engadget have got their hands on some of the wireless LED bulbs show in the demos and have revealed some interesting details about them. Among the specs it’s emerged that the system uses 900MHz – which is currently [...]

In this months ‘My Automated Home’ feature, Nigel Giddings shows us his ingenious set-up that grabs a 3G signal from one corner of his rural idyll, beams it 300 meters back to his home and redistributes it to the family.  If you’re in the countryside and conventional ADSL or cable broadband is not available, then [...]

  With Philips announcing the death of their entire range of Pronto remotes a few weeks ago, and UEI following suit at CES cancelling their NeVo range too, the universal remote market seems to have taken a huge hit from the iPod Touch and the iPad.  Never the less, Sony have decided to enter the [...]

  The new Smart Wi-Fi system from AMX uses Ruckus BeamFlex technology which promises up to a four-fold improvement in signal range.  This is especially important in transmission of delay-sensitive applications such as streaming IP-based video or voice and results in longer range and more stable Wi-Fi connections that can support flicker-free multimedia viewing.  The [...]

This little beauty from GSM Auto contains a mobile phone and two 30 amp relays. Using the supplied T-Mobile SIM – (or a different SIM of your choice), the unit will work world wide with its quad-band radio. Applications include remotely controlling heating in your holiday home, lighting, access control of gates and garage doors [...]

Submission By: Ant  -  This morning I was primed to settle down to a normal day’s work when Chaos on the UK Home Automation IRC Channel mentioned something about “B&Qs HomeEasy automation stuff“, and that pretty much put paid to the rest of the morning. We turfed up the website (www.homeeasy.eu) but there was precious [...]