5 Smart Home Gadgets

Life is anything but normal right now—and staying at home day after day with no end in sight can be a struggle. However, there are some products that make living in lockdown easier, including a few of our favourite smart home gadgets.

From turning on the lights from your phone to asking Alexa to make you a pot of coffee, here are the 10 smart home devices you need during the lockdown.

1. A set of Tile trackers so you don’t lose your stuff

Spending more time at home doesn’t make you less prone to misplacing your stuff, which is why you need an easy way to keep track of it all. Tile trackers come in all shapes and sizes, connect via Bluetooth, and can be stuck to remotes, hung on a set of keys, tucked inside of your wallet, and more.

2. An Amazon Echo speaker to help you at home

From setting reminders to turning on the lights, there’s not much an Amazon Echo Dot speaker can’t do. It’s ideal for living in quarantine since you can use it to control your home, make calls to friends and family, entertain your kids, catch up on podcasts, and more.

3. A smart plug to control your home

When an item goes missing, open the Tile app on your smartphone or tablet to play a loud tone on the Tile that’s attached to your missing time. Follow the sound and voilà—in a matter of seconds you’ve located your remote that’s been lodged in the couch for days. Tile also syncs with Amazon Alexa, so you can say “Alexa, ask Tile to find my keys.” You can also use Tile to find your lost phone. For example, if you misplace your phone inside of your home (hey, it happens to the best of us), you can click any of your Tile trackers to play a tone on your phone.

We recommend the Tile Essentials Kit to keep track of a variety of knick-knacks in your home. The Essentials Kit comes with one slim wallet insert, two Tile Stickers that adhere well to remotes, and one Tile Mate that can be attached to a set of keys. Now that you’re likely spending more time at home, you can make your days run easier with the help of a smart plug. A smart plug turns your everyday electronics (think TVs, lamps, and speakers) into devices that can be controlled from your phone, or with the help of Alexa and Google Assistant.

4. A Facebook Portal so you can make interactive video calls 5. Our favourite affordable smart robot vacuum to help you clean less

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, you’ve probably spent a lot of time video chatting with friends and family. However, a dedicated video-chatting device like the 10-inch Facebook Portal makes quarantine makes video calls so much better with augmented reality effects, good sound, and even better video quality. The person you’re calling will need to have WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger installed on their smartphone or tablet, or use Facebook Portal to answer your call. As you spend more time indoors, you’ve probably noticed that you’re cleaning more than you were pre-pandemic (especially if you’ve got kids around). If the constant cleaning is bringing you down, let a smart robot vacuum do the work for you.

The Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 30C is an a ffordable, easy-to-use smart robot vacuum that includes two magnetic boundary strips that can be used to keep it from wandering off into sensitive areas.

From the app, you can dictate cleaning schedules, initial cleanings, and check on the battery status. If you don’t have your phone on you, the 30C can also be controlled via Amazon Alexa or Google Home Assistant by saying, “OK Google, ask RoboVac (robot name) to start cleaning” or “Alexa, ask RoboVac (robot name) to stop cleaning.”