THE WORLD JUST GOT SMARTER

From security cameras to robots to automatic toilet roll deliveries, here’s a peek at next year’s smart tech

- ALEX COX

There’s little better predictor for what the tech future holds than CES, the annual Las Vegas trade show. Major companies show off new releases, prototypes, and fresh tech; there’s a air of one-upmanship, which extends all the way from the size of firms’ booths to the brightness of their screens. This year’s show was no different, and much of the war was fought on the smart home battlefield.

Let’s take the camera sector as an example. We saw a high–profile smart camera from Arlo, which unveiled its Pro 3 Floodlight ($249) — a wireless cam with a wired option and a bright, customizable floodlight around its 2K HDR sensor. We saw another from fast-rising company Abode, which revealed its Indoor/Outdoor Smart Camera ($199), a tiny device which ties into the company’s Cue automation system and (we understand) has been submitted for HomeKit certification.

Eve, probably HomeKit’s biggest supporter, revealed the indoor-only Eve Cam (around $165). The cloud-free cam is the first camera designed exclusively for Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video protocol, and it’ll assuage the fears of those who don’t like their footage running through some anonymous server who–knows–where online. Security firm ADT also unveiled a trio of cameras which will (eventually) get HomeKit support. We’re half convinced that the HomeKit camera market might actually come to something...

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