The Coast News Group
Home Camera allows you to keep an eye on your loved ones and your home even if you’re not there. Courtesy photo
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Helping to make your home smarter in 2019

With smart home adoption on the rise, more and more people are looking to join the connected home lifestyle, and smart home devices such as virtual assistants were popular gifts during the holidays.

If you’re ready to make your home smarter in 2019, here are some devices and services to consider.

  • A home speaker that doubles as a virtual assistant. Current models can answer questions, turn on lights, play video, access virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa, share weather and news updates, act as a timer, and play music on demand. Some models even help you shop online.
  • Smart lights. Replace existing light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs that can be controlled remotely with a few taps on your smartphone or tablet. Cox Homelife has an automation feature to control indoor and outdoor lights, bringing you and your family (and your pet) peace of mind while you’re away from home, as well as saving energy and money. Smart bulbs can even be used as a night light in a child’s room – one Cox Homelife customer uses a smart bulb in a floor lamp in her daughter’s room and has it set to change automatically through the night.
  • Home cameras. Daylight savings means the kids may be home by themselves when it’s already dark. Home security brings piece of mind to families, and the latest home monitoring services such as Cox Homelife offer remote live video viewing, professional monitoring, video recording, and customizable notifications, allowing you to keep an eye on your loved ones and your home even if you’re not there. Learn more about smart home security and automation at cox.com/homelife.
  • Smart locks. Roughly 30% of burglars enter a home through an unlocked door, andabout 34% enter through the front door. Smart locks can help you make sure you locked the door when you left the house.A smart lock allows you to remotely control the doors to your home from your smartphone, but they can do so much more. Smart lock features through Cox Homelife include voice commands, customized chimes to recognize certain visitors or family members, activity logs, and integration with other smart devices in the home. You can even set up special codes for house sitters, dog walkers, and deliveries.
  • Smart thermostats. Forgot to turn off the heating before you left for work? Or maybe you want the house nice and toasty when you get home at night. Programmable thermostats like the ones Cox Homelife offers allow you to remotely turn the heat and air in your home up and down and on and off so that you have the perfect temperature while managing energy costs.
  • Smart Search entertainment. There are many options to watch TV and stream content online, and Cox’s Contour TV service brings smart search options, Netflix and YouTube Kids integration, a voice-controlled remote, and cool apps together into one service that is easy to navigate. Speak into the remote to find the programming you want to watch – use a famous movie quote (“Hasta la vista, baby” brings up “Terminator 2”), the title of a show, a genre, or the name of an actor. You can even say “free movies” and available titles in the On Demand library will pop up.
  • Next Generation Internet Connection. Just as important as the smart home technology you select is the internet service you choose. To get the optimal experience from your smart home devices and technology, make sure you have the right internet speeds for your household. Cox Gigablast offers next generation gigabit internet speed (1 gigabit is equivalent to 1,000 megabits per second) and can connect dozens of smart devices in the home simultaneously with the fastest residential internet speeds around.

When it comes to smart home technology, Cox offers a variety of internet speeds and services to fit the individual household need. Take a short quiz on the speed advisor at www.cox.com to determine which speed is right for your smart home.