If you’re like most of us, you’ve increasingly spent time in your home office over the last few years and could benefit from adding more smart home tech to your space. Smart tech makes life a little easier and allows you to remove some steps and inconveniences from your routine. Not only that, but being able to issue voice commands or have lights and fans set up to activate when needed can improve your comfort and mood and even put a little change back in your wallet.
Just because the downtown office has harsh fluorescents and bright white lighting doesn’t mean your awesome home office needs to be the same. It’s time to make your lighting funkier and less eye-strain-inducing.
Consider Buy at Amazon . These fantastic 3D light panels stick to your wall and change color, morph into different patterns, and mimic a really cool art installation. The panels come in packs of seven or 10, and each individual light can display up to six colors at once. You can set patterns and colors from the app and even set your lights to change with your music. Not only do the lights give off great ambient light, but you could also set them up in the background of your Zoom call to create a talking point. Another option is smart wall lighting Buy at Nanoleaf .
If your business depends on live streaming, or if you spend a lot of time on Zoom or Teams calls, you may want to invest in a ring light. Kensington’s Buy at Amazon will bring much clarity and detail to your calls. You can attach it to the Kensington Boom Arm to make the whole thing easy to pull in and move out of the way when you’re done.
Once you have your smart home components in place, why not make it easy to activate all of them with a voice assistant? Buy at Amazon is a quality voice assistant, and as a bonus, it also has a video screen for streaming how-to videos and even some video calls, with a camera that will follow you as you move around your desk space. If you pick up a Ring Video Doorbell, you can see who’s at the door on the Echo Show 10 screen and even have a conversation with the delivery driver without having to leave your desk.
Maybe you’re not ready to invest in a whole bunch of smart home gear for your office yet. We get it — that can get expensive fast. An easy way to add smart control in the office is to invest in a few inexpensive smart plugs or switches. Buy at Amazon is one of the least expensive options around, and you can plug virtually anything into it, meaning you get voice control over even “dumb” gadgets, like fans, lamps, or charging docks.
Nobody gets work done without coffee! While you could walk back and forth to the kitchen for a warm-up, why not hunker down and stay productive by pouring that java into a warming mug? Ember makes the Buy at Amazon , with a smart automatic warming feature that can keep your brew from getting too cool. Ember’s tech allows you to set the precise temperature of your hot drink from tea to coffee to hot chocolate.
Since you’re sitting at your desk all day, there’s no better time to ensure your smartphone, tablet, and other gadgets are fully charged. One of the best ways to do this is with a wireless Qi charging pad. These pads make it easy to simply lay your smartphone face up on the pad so you can see the screen while delivering a full charge through the back of the device. We’re loving Buy at Amazon both for its style and speed, but you can also check out some of the best wireless charging pads in this article.
If you want to take smart charging a step further, why not get yourself a wireless mouse that also charges itself while in use on its own mouse pad? Though it’s billed as a wireless gaming mouse, Logitech’s G Powerplay Wireless Charging System works just as conveniently for a home office. The mousepad delivers juice to the wireless mouse so it’s always ready to roll.
One of the perks of working at home is having your own bathroom all to yourself. Why not go full executive suite and trick out your bathroom to match your fantastic workspace? Sure a candle, room spray, and soft bath mat are all nice, but some tech could really make it a relaxing place to take a break.
You can start by adding a motion detector and smart light bulbs to the mix. We are big fans of the Philips Hue lighting ecosystem here, and you can get a Buy at Amazon for a pretty reasonable price and install one or two in the bathroom. Add one of the motion sensors somewhere in the bathroom, and the lights will come on when you walk in the door and turn off after you’ve left. Bonus: It’s a great energy saver too!
A toilet seat bidet like the one from Buy at Amazon can be swapped in for any standard toilet seat and then connected to your water line relatively easily, allowing you to, ahem, stay fresh all day without using tons of paper products.
The bathroom may be the final frontier for smart home tech, but we think it’s ready for its time in the spotlight.
Few things ruin a quiet evening faster than a robot vacuum roaring through the living room. Most of us end up pausing the cleaning run, which defeats the whole purpose of owning one. Matic thinks it has the answer with its new Serene robot vacuum, and the big selling point is how little noise it makes.
The Matic Serene runs at 52 decibels even when cleaning at full power. To put that in perspective, Matic compares it to the hum of your refrigerator. It is available now for $1,695, which is $200 more than the original Matic’s current price.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
Technology evolves every day, transforming how we live and work. Our devices are becoming more than tools we use. They are increasingly capable companions that help streamline day-to-day routines and spark creative ideas. If you have been waiting for the right moment to upgrade your tech setup, the Discover Samsung Shopping Event offers an opportunity to explore what connected, AI-powered living can look like.