Social Sunday

No rest for the Smart Home Blog with Speed on a Sunday. Family time took up the bulk of today but Sunday has always been a day to spend some time on all the major social media platforms getting the latest Smart Home news from the past week. Twitter is by far the easiest platform to use for detailed searches. I have a number of hashtags I regularly search for and get the tailored results I need. Instagram is my preferred social platform for searching based on location and I have several cities, towns and regions that I concentrate on. I also use Instagram for hashtag related searches just like Twitter. It’s very rare now that I will use Google for these topical and regional searches, so consider social media next time you want local or specialist results.

A spot of DIY at home today has provided us with lots of new plug outlets with USB points built in. I would thoroughly recommend, especially to new builders and renovators, to have a number of these USB equipped outlets listed in your electrical specification. Many of you would think it is quite standard to have them now but it is so often missed out. Ideal places for these charging points are bedside locations, close to where your sofa or armchairs will be in the Living Room, high level sockets in the Kitchen and Study/Office and also in the Kitchen Island. For the Island you should look at pop-up sockets with a number of USB outlets built in. Again, I have seen too many kitchens without ANY sockets on the island, never mind USB, where do you plug in your mixer or juicer? Budget around £15 to £30 for double power sockets with USB depending on brand and finish.

I caught up with the latest edition of T3 magazine and was delighted to see that one of the stars of Smart Home scooped the big Gadget of the Year prize. The Amazon Echo has been a revelation for the control of home technology using voice. It is now being demanded by our customers that their tech is controlled by Alexa. It’s fair to say that if you mention the word Alexa in conversation these days, the majority of people will know what you’re talking about. This for me highlights the dominance of Alexa and I know she is paving the path to a new way of living.

Nine minutes.....done. Look out for another blog tomorrow and do get in touch if there is a specific Smart Home topic you want covered.