[telecom] Controlling Your Smart Home With One Hub

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Controlling Your Smart Home With One Hub

JUNE 11, 2014 Molly Wood

THE smart home is full of promise: Coffee makers that turn on when you wake up, garage doors that open when you come home, relaxing music that is controlled remotely and air-conditioners and thermostats that perfectly regulate the home and save you money, too.

Promise is rarely reality, though. Smart-home automation is a tricky and chaotic corner of tech right now. Companies are rushing to join the fray, buoyed in part by the success of the Nest Learning Thermostat, and Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest.

For consumers, putting together a smart home remains mostly a do-it-yourself project. You choose your components, connect them to your home network and start living your connected life. Companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T offer monitoring systems, but they don't offer much flexibility. And installing a complete home automation and security system can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The trouble is that for anyone pursuing this as a D.I.Y. project, the more devices you bring home, the more separate apps you need to control them. Suddenly, convenience becomes cumbersome.

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