Smart gadgets
After getting off to a slow start in Bermuda, likely due to internet speed and geographic restrictions, demand for intelligent home devices is on the rise.
Whether it’s music, television, information, lighting or security, so much is available if you simply ask your favourite voice activated assistant for it out loud.
Todd Martin, general manager of P-Tech and P-Tech Photo Solutions, talked us through some of his most popular smart gadgets.
Amazon Echo
The latest versions of the Amazon Echo voice-controlled smart devices help you complete a variety of simple tasks by simply telling “Alexa” what to do. This could be turning on the lights, the television or your favourite music. It can tell you the time and what the weather forecast is for the weekend. It can even recite a recipe while you cook it.
P-Tech stocks the ‘Show’, ‘Spot’, ‘Dot’ and, most recently, the ‘Pop’ Echo devices. There is also the Echo Dot Kids, complete with cartoon themed graphics. The best one to buy depends on what you would use it for.
“They all have different features, they’re different sizes,” Mr Martin said.
The Show, for example has a screen allowing the owner to make video calls as well as stream what you enjoy watching or listening to: shows, music, podcasts. It can also display photographs, and the built-in camera can be used to keep an eye on your home while you are out.
P-Tech’s most in demand Echo device however, is the Echo Dot and online reviewers praise it for “great sound quality for its size”.
Smart lighting
Wi-Fi-enabled LED lights are very popular and come in all shapes, sizes, colours and functionalities. There is literally a light pattern or sequence for any occasion or ambience.
The Govee brand of lights available at P-Tech include string downlights, which look great along a ceiling join, and their neon rope lights can be configured to create patterns, objects or animals. There are hexagon lights, wall lights, curtain lights, permanent outdoor lights and even ambient TV backlights with a camera that allows them to match the colour playing on the television.
If you put the lights up for Christmas and don’t have the time or energy to take them down again, you can simply reprogramme them for a different occasion. Orange and purple for Halloween, red and blue or light blue and dark blue for Cup Match!
You can operate them using an app on your phone or by voice activation: “Alexa: set my lights to party mode.” They can also flash to the beat of your music.
Portable Speakers
P-Tech’s range of JBL portable speakers aren’t just colourful. They can also be voice or smartphone activated with, said Mr Martin, “amazing audio quality for the size”. They come in a number of portable sizes and include the small Clip 5, the Flip 6 or the Charge 5. They are also waterproof so not only can you move them from room to room in your home, but they are ideal for the summer when you’re on a boat, by a pool or enjoying the beach.
Security Cameras
For instant security without the installation costs, Mr Martin recommended doorbells and cameras by Ring.
“They’re just so easy to use. There’s no installation, it just has a little base that you screw into wherever you want it.”
There’s a variety of options with different features, such as lights, and they can all be operated using an app, which sends alerts to your phone when someone is at your house, whether they are supposed to be there or not!
You can even talk to them, which is useful if you are expecting a delivery.
“I can actually talk to someone who’s there, live. They can talk back,” he explained, adding with a laugh: “I can talk to my wife when she’s leaving the house and scare her to death!”
They come with rechargeable batteries and can be solar powered.
Touch lighting
Who needs candles when you can have petite, elegant and portable lamps instead? Zafferano table lamps are the latest lighting gadgets available at Island Trading. Operating simply by touch, they can be set to three different “colour temperatures”, are rechargeable and dimmable, and can be used indoors or outside. Available in a multitude of different styles and colours, they not only add brightness or ambience to your room or table setting, but are very useful during post-hurricane power outages too.
Said one happy Island Trading customer: “I have been cursing [my husband’s] decision of no overhead lighting in almost every room and these portable Zafferanos are a game changer!”
Labour free pool cleaning
Also available at Island Trading is a time and sweat-saving pool cleaning gadget: The Dolphin Active 15 from Maytronics. Basically a robot vacuum cleaner for the pool, it scrubs all the surfaces, has an interchangeable filtration cartridge and is easy to lift in and out of the water.
“Picks up everything from leaves to the smallest grains of sand,” said one happy online reviewer.
Charging banks
Back to the subject of hurricanes, or for when you need to charge your device but don’t want to rummage in the drawer for the right cable, Mr Martin recommended the 3-in-1 wireless charging pads from Chargeworx.
Or, for when you’re out and about and need something that fits into a pocket or handbag, he also stocks an assortment of portable power banks of different brands, sizes and battery capacities, the most powerful of which is a Hypergear power bank, which has 20,000 mAh (milliampere-hour) battery capacity and will be able to charge your devices for a couple of days before needing a recharge itself. “During hurricane season, these just fly,” he said.
Hypergear even do a wireless, solar-powered power bank, which will keep going even longer, as long as the sun is shining, making it not just ideal for power outages, but camping trips too.
