Smart home
Best Smart Home and IoT Products of 2021 in India
![Best Smart Home and IoT Products of 2021 in India Best Smart Home and IoT Products of 2021 in India](https://i.gadgets360cdn.com/large/2021_best_IoT_1639396488101.jpg)
The smart home and IoT categories have expanded considerably in 2021, and now include entertainment, health, home cleaning, and personal device security and tracking. Read on for our list of the top smart home and IoT gadgets of 2021.
Best premium smart display and speaker: Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen)
With an interesting 10-inch screen that can follow your gaze, and a loud speaker system, the Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) is the most impressive smart display and speaker we’ve seen this year. Powered by the ever-improving Alexa, the Echo Show 10 can do a lot using voice commands, including play video and music from supported streaming services, control your IoT devices, and even work as a digital photo frame and display general information when idle.
The Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) is expensive, and sound quality didn’t quite match up to expectations at this price. However, the excellent camera and microphone capabilities, the many Alexa-based features that come with it, and the unique motion-tracking feature which can track your face as you move around the room, make this a smart home device like no other.
Best affordable smart speaker: Lenovo Smart Clock Essential
While the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential is sort of a smart display, the screen is only used to show the time and some other basic information such as the weather. However, what makes it unique is that it’s a full-fledged smart speaker, with access to Google Assistant and the ability to play music through voice commands. Interestingly, it also has a small but very useful night light, making this the ideal device for your bedside table.
Sound and microphone quality aren’t very good, and this is a device best used from up close, but you can use it to play soft music or other audio content by your bedside, or even control your IoT devices through voice commands. It’s reasonably priced and looks good too, making this our top pick among affordable smart speakers in 2021.
Best robot vacuum cleaner: 360 S7
Although not launched in 2021, we did review this excellent robot vacuum cleaner this year. Among all of the devices we’ve reviewed, the 360 S7 stands out as the best for a number of reasons. With good cleaning capabilities, a stable and very useful app, quick and accurate navigation, and decent battery life, this device outperforms its rivals in the segment priced at under Rs. 30,000.
Although it was priced higher when we reviewed the 360 S7, it’s now a bit more affordable and much better value for money. Like all robot vacuum cleaners, it requires frequent maintenance, and the mop reservoir is small and doesn’t hold too much water. However, on the whole, it’s a reliable robot vacuum cleaner that truly puts its app and connectivity features to good use.
Buy: 360 S7
Best smart air purifier: Dyson Purifier Cool
Increasing pollution levels in urban areas across India has made air purifiers a popular home gadget, and many of the mainstream options today are connected devices that can be controlled using an app. Our top pick in this category for 2021 is the Dyson Purifier Cool, which looks great, and offers impressive air purification and fan-based cooling. Thanks to the Dyson Link app, you can control the air purifier and view air quality statistics from anywhere, once your purifier is connected to your home Wi-Fi.
Although expensive, the Dyson Purifier Cool is among the most impressive premium air purifiers you can buy in India right now, and its connected functionality works well on its own or with supported voice assistants such as Google Assistant and Alexa. At low fan speeds, it runs quietly, making this air purifier ideal for your home.
Buy: Dyson Purifier Cool
Best crossover smart home device: Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen)
The Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen) is primarily a streaming device, but the thing that makes it special enough to include in this list is that it’s also a smart speaker of sorts. With hands-free Alexa capabilities and a small speaker system that lets Alexa give you spoken responses, you can use the Fire TV Cube as a hands-free smart home controller. Of course, you can also use Alexa to fetch specific content on the streaming device through voice commands.
This isn’t a smart speaker in the complete sense, since the in-built speaker can’t be used to stream audio content. However, it will play music on the connected television or home-theatre system. That said, the ability to have two key functions in a single, compact form factor makes the Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen) our favourite crossover smart home device of 2021.
Buy: Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen)
Best personal tracking device: Apple AirTag
The Apple AirTag is small, needs an iOS device to setup and work with and is really meant to do absolutely nothing once you’ve set it up and have attached it to a personal item. However, this is what makes it so interesting, since it helps you keep track of and find personal items such as a wallet, keys, or backpack. It runs on the widely available CR2032 battery which is user replaceable, and works with the Find My app on iOS.
It’s expensive and functionality is limited to the Apple ecosystem, but the AirTag is a useful tool to have if you tend to misplace your personal belongings often. Unlike most IoT products that work with Wi-Fi, the AirTag uses Bluetooth to communicate with other devices, but can interestingly use any connected iOS device to help broadcast its location with reasonable accuracy, earning its place on our list.
Buy: Apple AirTag
Smart home
Amazon Turns to Anthropic’s Claude for Alexa AI Revamp
![Amazon Turns to Anthropic’s Claude for Alexa AI Revamp Amazon Turns to Anthropic’s Claude for Alexa AI Revamp](https://i.gadgets360cdn.com/large/alexa_unsplash_brandon_romanchuk_1718363353176.jpg)
Amazon plans to charge $5 to $10 a month for its new “Remarkable” version of Alexa as it will use powerful generative AI to answer complex queries, while still offering the “Classic” voice assistant for free, Reuters reported in June.
But initial versions of the new Alexa using in-house software simply struggled for words, sometimes taking six or seven seconds to acknowledge a prompt and reply, one of the people said.
That’s why Amazon turned to Claude, an AI chatbot developed by startup Anthropic, as it performed better than the online retail giant’s own AI models, the people said.
Reuters based this story upon interviews with five people with direct knowledge of the Alexa strategy. All declined to be named as they are not authorized to discuss non-public matters.
Alexa, accessed mainly through Amazon televisions and Echo devices, can set timers, play music, act as a central hub for smart home controls and answer one-off questions.
But Amazon’s attempts to convince users to shop through Alexa to generate more revenue have been mostly unsuccessful and the division remains unprofitable.
As a result, senior management has stressed that 2024 is a critical year for Alexa to finally demonstrate it can generate meaningful sales – and the revamped paid version is seen as a way both to do that and keep pace with rivals.
“Amazon uses many different technologies to power Alexa,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement in response to detailed Reuters questions for this story.
“When it comes to machine learning models, we start with those built by Amazon, but we have used, and will continue to use, a variety of different models – including (Amazon AI model) Titan and future Amazon models, as well as those from partners – to build the best experience for customers,” the spokeswoman said.
Anthropic, in which Amazon owns a minority stake, declined to comment for this story.
AI Partnerships
Amazon has typically eschewed relying on technology it hasn’t developed in-house so it can ensure it has full control of the user experience, data collection and direct relationships with customers.
But it would not be alone in turning to a partner to improve AI products. Microsoft and Apple, for example, have both struck partnerships with OpenAI to use its ChatGPT to power some of their products.
The release of the Remarkable Alexa, as it is known internally, is expected in October, with a preview of the new service coming during Amazon’s annual devices and services event typically held in September, the people said.
Amazon has not yet said, however, when it plans to hold its showcase event, which will be the first major public appearance of its new devices chief, Panos Panay, who was hired last year to replace long-time executive David Limp.
The wide release in late 2022 of ChatGPT, which gives full-sentence answers almost instantaneously to complicated queries, set off a frenzy of investing and corporate maneuvering to develop better AI software for a variety of functions, including image, video and voice services.
By comparison, Amazon’s decade-old Alexa appeared outmoded, Amazon workers have told Reuters.
While Amazon has a mantra of “working backwards from the customer” to come up with new services, some of the people said that within the Alexa group, the emphasis since last year has instead been on keeping up with competitors in the AI race.
Amazon workers also have expressed skepticism that customers would be willing to pay $60 to $120 per year for a service that’s free today – on top of the $139 many already pay for their Prime memberships.
Alexa Upgrades
As envisioned, the paid version of Alexa would carry on conversations with a user that build on prior questions and answers, the people with knowledge of the Alexa strategy said.
The upgraded Alexa is designed to allow users to seek shopping advice such as which clothes to buy for a vacation and to aggregate news stories, the people said. And it is meant to carry out more complicated requests, such as ordering food or drafting emails all from a single prompt.
Amazon hopes the new Alexa will also be a supercharged home automation hub, remembering customer preferences so that, say, morning alarms are set, or the television knows to record favorite shows even when a user forgets to, they said.
The company’s plans for Alexa, however, could be delayed or altered if the technology fails to meet certain internal benchmarks, the people said, without giving further details.
Bank of America analyst Justin Post estimated in June that there are roughly 100 million active Alexa users and that about 10% of those might opt for the paid version of Alexa. Assuming the low end of the monthly price range, that would bring in at least $600 million in annual sales.
Amazon says it has sold 500 million Alexa-enabled devices but does not disclose how many active users there are.
Announcing a deal to invest $4 billion in Anthropic in September last year, Amazon said its customers would gain early access to its technology. Reuters could not determine if Amazon would have to pay Anthropic additionally for the use of Claude in Alexa.
Amazon declined to discuss the details of its agreements with the startup. Alphabet’s Google has also invested at least $2 billion in Anthropic.
The retailer, along with Google, is facing a formal probe from the UK’s antitrust regulator over the Anthropic deal and its impact on competition. It announced an initial investigation in August and said it has 40 working days to decide whether to move it to a more heightened stage of scrutiny.
The Washington Post earlier reported the October time frame for release of the new Alexa.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Smart home
Apple’s Rumoured Tabletop Robotic Device With AI May Have These Uses
![Apple’s Rumoured Tabletop Robotic Device With AI May Have These Uses Apple’s Rumoured Tabletop Robotic Device With AI May Have These Uses](https://i.gadgets360cdn.com/large/apple_homepod_1724672986126.jpg)
Apple AI-Powered Tabletop Robotic Device Uses
In his weekly Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple’s purported tabletop device will likely launch in 2026 or 2027. It will reportedly be equipped with a robotic actuator that would control the in-built iPad-like screen at the top, allowing its 360-degree rotation and tilt movement. The device is said to have been codenamed J595.
As per Gurman, the purported robotic device would fulfill three purposes:
- Function as a portable computer in non-ideal locations
- Help in capturing images or taking videoconference calls by functioning as a tripod with an iPad
- Serve as a remote home security surveillance tool when the user is not at home
While the device isn’t even official, the report speculates that the device’s display could swivel when the user wants to take video conferencing calls in non-ideal locations, such as the kitchen. It could also gain spatial awareness courtesy of special hardware and software, in addition to integrated AI capabilities.
The idea for the tabletop robotic device is reported to have been approved by the company in 2022 but its development has only gained pace in recent months, following the cancellation of the Apple Car project. Its development is said to be solely being spearheaded by Kevin Lynch, who led the company’s former project.
Previous reports have suggested that the purported device could also become Apple’s first home gadget to get features powered by Apple Intelligence – its AI suite. Gurman also suggested that it may also respond to commands such as “look at me”, by repositioning the screen to face the speaker, leveraging the company’s voice assistant Siri.
However, it could be an expensive affair. According to Gurman, the iPhone maker is said to be working to bring its price down to $1000 (roughly Rs. 84,000).
Smart home
Dreame’s New Robot Vacuum Cleaner Range Debuts in India: See Price
![Dreame’s New Robot Vacuum Cleaner Range Debuts in India: See Price Dreame’s New Robot Vacuum Cleaner Range Debuts in India: See Price](https://i.gadgets360cdn.com/large/dreame_l10_prime_1724404980769.jpg)
Dreame New Vacuum Cleaners Price in India
The Dreame L10 Prime is priced at Rs. 45.999 in India, while the Dreame D10 Plus Gen 2 comes with a price tag of Rs. 39,999. The Dreame D9 Max Gen 2’s price is set at Rs. 29,999. The Dreame H12 Dual is priced at Rs 36,999. The Dreame Mova J10, Mova J20 and Mova J30 are priced at Rs. 7,999; Rs. 10,999 and Rs. 13,999, respectively.
Dreame L10 Prime, D10 Plus Gen 2, D9 Max Gen 2 specifications
The Dreame L10 Prime vacuum and mop combo features dual rotary mop pads that rotate at 180RPM (revolutions per minute). After mopping is completed, the mop is raised by 7mm when returning to the base station. The self-cleaning machine comes with 4,000Pa suction power and features a bristleless rubber brush. The robot cleaner identifies carpets and rugs and uses LiDAR navigation and a SLAM algorithm for mapping. For multi-floor buildings, it makes three separate 3D floor maps to clean and navigate. It is compatible with the Dreamehome app that lets users make virtual boundaries, set no-mop zones, customise cleaning time, and more.
The Dreame D10 Plus Gen 2 boasts a self-cleaning mop and auto-emptying system. The robot provides 6,000Pa of suction power. The 2-in-1 dual action cleaner that comes with cleaning and mopping capabilities features a rubber brush and allows users to choose moisture level. It includes 4 litre dust bag capacity and Dreame claims one bag can last up to 90 days of cleaning. Beyond the Dreamehome app, it is comparable with Alexa, Siri and Google Home.
Meanwhile, the entry-level Dreame D9 Max Gen 2 can sweep and mop at the same time. It offers 6,000Pa suction power and includes a rubber brush. Both Dreame D10 Plus Gen 2 and D9 Max Gen 2 use the company’s Smart Pathfinder technology to navigate across different spaces and return to the dock.
Dreame H12 Dual specifications
The Dreame H12 Dual is a cordless wet and dry vacuum cleaner that is claimed to wipe the floor 520 times per minute. It carries a 900ml clean water tank and allows users to switch between different operation modes like auto, suction, standard, and turbo. It comes with a self-cleaning feature and hot air drying is done for the brush after self-cleaning with a roller brush, brush scraper, and serrated bristles. It carries a 6×4,000mAh battery pack.
Dreame Move J10, Move J20 and Move J30 specifications
The Dreame Move J30, Move J20 and Move J10 are cordless stick vacuum cleaners. The Move J30 model features a 450W brushless motor and is advertised to deliver up to 60 minutes of cleaning time. The Mova J20 boasts a 250W brushless motor and is claimed to provide up to 50 minutes of cleaning time. The Mova J10 features a 150W brushless motor and is said to deliver up to 35 minutes of cleaning time.
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