Think of the Chime 2 as the part of an Arlo setup that lives indoors. It plugs into any outlet, connects straight to Wi-Fi with no base station, and turns doorbell rings and camera motion into audible alerts you'll actually hear from across the house. Pick from a range of melodies, set the volume, or drop it into silent mode. The 80-plus-decibel siren can fire automatically on motion or audio, or be triggered from the app as a deterrent. This is an accessory, not a standalone camera—it only earns its keep if you already run a compatible Arlo doorbell or camera, so check the compatibility list first.

The insurance policy that pays you back the first time a pipe lets go—it watches the main line, runs daily health tests that catch a drip as small as one drop a minute, and automatically shuts off the water on a detected leak or freeze, reporting flow, pressure, and temperature to the app. The cost is real: it needs professional plumbing on the 3/4-inch main and carries a premium price.

A coffee maker that grinds fresh for every pot and brews to SCA-certified standards, with a 10-cup thermal carafe and a podless single-serve option for the one early riser. The SmartHQ app stores MyBrew profiles—bloom time, grind, strength—and it takes Alexa and Google voice. It's a barista setup on the counter. Trade-offs: a premium $349 price for a drip machine, and the built-in grinder adds cleaning steps.

One smart strip that turns a tangle of always-on electronics into six individually controllable outlets, each with its own energy monitoring, plus three USB charging ports. It's the cleanest way to kill phantom draw on a TV stand or desk and see exactly what's costing you. Surge protection is built in at 1080 joules. Downsides: it's a bulky footprint, 2.4GHz-only, and the six outlets sit close enough that fat wall-warts can crowd each other.

This is the keyed Yale deadbolt in a clean white Snow finish, and the headline is Matter built in over Thread—so it plays with mix-and-match smart home brands rather than locking you to one app, and the energy-efficient mesh means fewer battery changes. You manage codes, share access, and check the log from the Google Home app, with Google Assistant voice control and a physical key as backup. The fine print: it leans on Google's ecosystem, needs a Matter-enabled hub for remote access, runs only on 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, and is U.S./Canada only. If you're already in Google's world and want a keyed fallback, it fits cleanly.

LIFX's SuperColor PAR38 is a flood bulb that takes color seriously—1,600 lumens, deeply saturated output, and 90+ CRI so whites and surfaces read true rather than washed out. It's IP65 rated and built to run from 14°F to 104°F, which makes it a real outdoor option for porches, entryways, and recessed cans, not an indoor bulb you're hoping survives. White runs the full 1500K–9000K range, from candle-warm to crisp daylight. Setup is clean: Matter onboard for instant HomeKit pairing via QR code, plus Alexa and Google Home, over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi with no hub. Curated themes and dusk-to-midnight schedules handle holiday and game-day lighting on their own.

The smart speaker that makes sense if your life is already Apple: Siri, HomeKit, and AirPlay handoff that just works, plus genuinely impressive room-filling sound from something this small. It's a Thread border router too, quietly anchoring your Matter accessories. Best for iPhone owners who want a tidy, great-sounding HomeKit hub. The catch: Siri is the weakest of the three assistants, and you're smoothest staying inside Apple Music and AirPlay.

The lock for renters and anyone who would rather not touch the outside of their door — it mounts entirely on the inside over your existing deadbolt, so your key still works and the curb appeal stays untouched. Built-in Wi-Fi means no separate bridge to buy: lock, unlock, and check the door from the August app, or hand out time-boxed guest keys from anywhere. Auto-Lock shuts it behind you and DoorSense tells you whether the door is actually closed, not just thrown. Works with Alexa, Google, and Siri via HomeKit. The honest caveats: it is 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi only, the four AA batteries get worked harder by always-on Wi-Fi than a Thread lock would, and since this model has no keypad, a dead phone means falling back to your physical key.

The step up from a basic eero, adding the fast, uncrowded 6GHz band for homes with a lot of devices fighting for bandwidth. Each unit covers about 2,000 square feet, supports gigabit-plus plans, and includes a Zigbee hub so it can run Alexa smart-home devices directly. The trade-off is the eero pattern: the simple app hides the granular controls power users want, and a few features sit behind the paid eero Plus tier.

The Cube's clever trick is its shape: the body extends for full capacity or nests down for storage, so it isn't a bulky eyesore the rest of the year. It pulls up to 20 pints a day across 1,500 sq ft and adjusts humidity from 35% to 85%, making it a sensible basement, bathroom, or crawlspace unit. The larger tank means far fewer trips to empty it, and for set-and-forget you run the included hose to a drain or sink. The SmartHome app plus Alexa or Google voice control let you adjust it remotely, while auto-restart resumes your settings after an outage and a washable filter saves on replacements.

Where a smart speaker stops being a gadget and starts being actual hi-fi: stereo sound, real bass, and Trueplay tuning that adapts to your room, with Alexa built in and Bluetooth alongside WiFi. It's for someone who wants the smart-home voice layer but refuses to compromise on how music sounds. The honest catch: it's pricier than an Echo or Nest, and Sonos's app changes have frustrated longtime owners — you're buying the sound, not the assistant.

The do-everything cooker, now app-connected—ten functions including pressure cook, slow cook, sous vide, and yogurt in one 6-quart pot, with the Instant Connect app guiding you step by step and a WhisperQuiet release that drops the alarming hiss. It's the single appliance that replaces a shelf of them. The honest take: the Wi-Fi is more novelty than necessity, and setup adds friction if you just want a pressure cooker.

The Gen-2 L40 Ultra leans hard into raw cleaning power: 25,000Pa across five suction levels, with an extending brush and mop arm that reach into corners and under furniture where most robots leave a border of dust. The all-in-one self-cleaning dock cuts the manual upkeep, and four carpet modes—avoidance, suction boost, intensive cleaning, and mop lifting—let you tune how it treats rugs, which pet owners care about. Smart Pathfinder and 3DAdapt mapping keep it off your shoes, and a 5,200mAh battery is rated for up to 231 minutes and roughly 1,679 sq ft per charge, with off-peak charging. App and Alexa/Siri/Google control, on 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, U.S. only.

A sensible step up for a main room without a big jump in price: 50 inches of 4K with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos, so movies get real contrast and dimensionality rather than a flat picture. Toshiba's REGZA Engine ZR drives the processing, and the AI upscaler does a credible job lifting Full HD streams toward near-4K clarity — useful since plenty of content still isn't native 4K. Gamers get a proper Game Mode with ALLM, VRR, and eARC, while Ultimate Motion and Sports Mode keep fast action clean. Fire TV is built in, so your apps sit on one home screen with no extra device to plug in.

The D30 Ultra brings flagship dock automation down a tier. Suction is the headline at 25,000Pa, paired with a floating rubber brush and a TriCut brush that cuts through long hair to prevent tangles. The mopping is where it earns its keep: dual rotary pads scrub under pressure for stuck-on spills, the pads extend up to 4cm to reach edges and corners most robots miss, and the dock washes and drains them in real time so they stay residue-free. Ultrasonic carpet detection lets you pick per-carpet modes — raise the mop, boost suction, or avoid entirely. Fast charging and a 5,200mAh battery deliver up to 230 minutes of runtime.