I run my home automation from a Raspberry Pi that acts as my smart home hub (Home Assistant). One of the most annoying problems I’ve solved by now is keeping that hub and my Wi‑Fi router running during brief power outages so automations keep working and I can still access the house remotely....
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How-to
If you want a smart home camera setup that reliably records clear faces at...
How-to
I’ve been experimenting with Chromebooks as lightweight, secure editing...
How-to
I recently spent an afternoon putting a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S24 through...
How-to
I spend a lot of time testing GPS performance on running devices because...
I recently spent an afternoon putting a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S24 through a full hardware checklist before deciding whether to buy it. If you’re considering a refurbished flagship—especially one as sought-after as the S24—you want to be...
I spend a lot of time testing GPS performance on running devices because distance and pace are only useful if the location data behind them is reliable. Recently I ran a series of real-world checks using a Google Pixel phone and a Garmin running...
I carried a Pixel Fold in my backpack for a week and, as someone who lives for the moment a gadget becomes genuinely useful rather than just clever, I put it through my usual field tests: meeting notes, sketching quick diagrams, and editing a...
I’m going to walk you through how I built a fully local smart home voice assistant that controls Zigbee lights while keeping cameras and other sensitive devices offline. This isn’t about a single-brand “plug-and-play” solution — it’s...
I get this question a lot in comments and DMs: “How can I get multi-room, lossless Spotify on my Sonos system if my upload bandwidth is tiny and I don’t want to pay for additional services?” I’ve tested Sonos setups in labs and real homes,...
I often get asked whether it's realistic to build a home monitoring setup that gives clinically useful SpO2 and respiratory metrics without spending a lot of money. The short answer I give people is: yes — but with important caveats. In this...
I’ve been building and testing smart home setups for years, and one thing keeps coming up: you can have a convenient, voice-controlled home without handing every event, camera feed, or sensor ping to Big Tech. In this guide I’ll walk you through...
I’ve spent multiple multi-day trips wearing both a Garmin Epix and an Apple Watch Ultra, and I still get asked: which is the better choice for adventure tracking? There’s no single answer that fits everyone, but from the perspective of someone...
I’ve been testing the Anker Soundcore Space A40 for a few weeks now and I kept asking myself the same question every time I switched from phone to gym to gaming rig: can these truly stack up against the Apple AirPods Pro when it comes to low...
If you’re hunting for a phone under £300 that can actually produce convincing night and even basic astrophotography shots, you’ve probably noticed the market is noisy. Flagship phones have tall claims and huge budgets for computational...