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Get smart assistance
O
ne of the fastest growing and most useful trends in technology is the smart home assistant. What started as a device you could ask questions about the weather has turned into a means of controlling our appliances, lighting and even our watering systems. All corners of the home can be modified to be smart, but many of us are still yet to get started. Here’s what you need to know.
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What is it? In essence, a smart home assistant is a tool that makes your home ‘smarter’, bringing all your high-tech gadgets together and making them easier and more intuitive to control. This might be a single app, like Grid Connect, that brings all the devices under one-touch control, or a voice assistant that obeys your every vocal command. These, like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, are accessed
through a smart home hub (such as Google Home or Amazon Echo), a little device that sits on the kitchen bench or in the living room – or one in every room – waiting to be ‘woken’ and called to work. “When humans first designed computers, the end goal was to be able to speak to them and hear an intelligent response,” says Megan Smith, PR manager for devices and Alexa at Amazon. “Mice and keyboards were a stepping stone to
Words Geoff Quattromani. Photography (above) Gap Interiors/Bureaux; (opposite, right) Amazon (bottom right) Cath Muscat, styling Tilly Roberts
Smartphone crowded with apps? A smart home assistant clears the clutter and gives you new control over your home
