Living like the Jetsons

As we move forward into the future, technology keeps advancing everyday. One of them being voice-recognition based technology like Alexa. Having one of these is already pretty techy enough, but what about having other gadgets that Alexa can communicate with? Luckily, there have been a numerous household gadgets you can buy right now and make your life easier.

One of these is the Philips Hue White Ambiance Starter kit. These are lightbulbs that can connect to your smart home assistant as long as they get power. Rather than having to turn on your lights on/off after reading a book or leaving the room, its as simply as “Alexa, turn the lights off.”

Perhaps you’d like your light at a certain brightness, in which case the Lutron Caseta Smart Start Kit is great for dimming your lights straight from your phone. What's even better is that it works with existing wiring, so it doesn't matter if you're living in the future with a house built in the 1800’s, this kit works with every home!

If you like to watch shows while making a sandwich, then the Logitech Harmony Elite Control, Hub, and the App is perfect for you. Letting you control your TV through Alexa, yet having that old school control like feeling whenever you’d like to manually browse from time to time.

Perhaps you like to adjust the thermostat a lot and don’t want to go up to it every time you need to change it. The Ecobee SmartThermostat lets you control your thermostat through Alexa as well, and the device already comes with an Alexa-ready built in microphone so you don’t even need the smart assistant. If you have Google home, instead try the Google Nest’s thermostat which is more budget friendly.

Maybe you’re too busy to be cleaning your house and need a personal maid like the Jetsons. If that's the case, then the iRobot Roomba 675 is great for vacuuming your place while you’re making dinner or finishing up those spreadsheets. As easy as giving a simple voice command for it to start a cleaning job. And if went under a bed or sofa and can’t find it, simply say “go home” and will return to it’s charging dock.

Now let's say you can’t find the right product you like, or you already have a non-smart gadget at home that you’re comfortable with. In that case, then a smart plug could help you out. The Wemo Mini Smart Plug offers voice commands to turn on or off any plug in device that connects through an outlet.

No doubt we have come a long way from computers that took up an entire block to small computers we carry in our pockets, technology keeps advancing through new ways of making our lives a lot easier.