TechHive
7,065 FOLLOWERS
TechHive helps you find your tech sweet spot. We cover consumer tech trends, with an emphasis on smart homes, home security, home entertainment products, systems, and services.
TechHive
22h ago
At a glanceExpert's Rating
Pros
Discrete industrial design
Battery backup included
Doesn’t need to be hardwired to your router
Cons
Subscription required to unlock all its capabilities
Starter kit includes the bare minimum in accessories
Security only, there are no home control features
Our Verdict
Abode drops home automation features to offer this lower-cost version of its excellent home security hub. Most users probably won’t miss them.
Price When Reviewed
$139.99
Best Prices Today: Abode Security Kit
Retailer
Price
Abode
$139.99
View Deal
$159.99
View Deal
Price comparis ..read more
TechHive
22h ago
At a glanceExpert's Rating
Pros
Solid security features
No cloud subscription required
Local storage (onboard or via an NVR)
Cons
Very basic feature set
Cloud storage has benefits, even if you have to pay for it
Our Verdict
Lorex’s indoor pan-and-tilt camera provides broad coverage and great event detection without requiring a cloud subscription. It’s a good choice if you have a tight budget and don’t need a lot of bells and whistles.
Price When Reviewed
$69.99
Best Prices Today: Lorex 2K Indoor Pan-Tilt Wi-Fi Camera
Retailer
Price
$54.99
View Deal
Lorex
$69.99
View Deal
Pr ..read more
TechHive
22h ago
Wait, didn’t you empty your Roomba’s bin just a day ago? You sure did, yet here’s your Roomba, insisting once again that its dust bin needs to be emptied.
In some cases, it could be that the recently emptied Roomba bin truly does need to be emptied again. If your Roomba is vacuuming a rug that hasn’t been cleaned recently and is covered in pet hair, for example, a single cleaning could be enough to stuff the bin with debris.
Sometimes, however, the Roomba app will insist that the bin is full even though there’s only a few fluffy whisps of dust and hair inside—and even when you cle ..read more
TechHive
2d ago
We’re used to Philips Hue products with lofty price tags, but $130 for an app that syncs your Hue lights with a Samsung TV? That’s a big ask, even for Hue aficionados.
Perhaps that’s why Signify-owned Philips Hue and Samsung SmartThings, the two brands behind the Philips Hue Sync TV app, are teeing up a new way to pay for the service: a monthly fee.
Starting this spring, you’ll be able to pay $2.99 a month to access the Philips Hue Sync TV app, which will work its light-syncing magic on up to three Samsung TVs in your home.
For those who’d rather avoid yet another subscripti ..read more
TechHive
3d ago
It’s no surprise that people are spending more time watching YouTube on their TVs.
Paid streaming services are becoming more of a hassle, with escalating costs for ad-free viewing, upsells for higher-quality video, and new restrictions on account sharing. Viewers, especially younger ones, are increasingly skipping these services in favor of free alternatives, with YouTube being the biggest. According to Nielsen, YouTube has been the most-watched streaming service on TVs in the United States for more than a year, beating out the likes of Netflix, Hulu, and Max.
If you’re among the crowd that w ..read more
TechHive
6d ago
At a glanceExpert's Rating
Pros
Great vacuuming and mopping performance
Excellent obstacle avoidance
Automatically cleans its mop heads
Disposable dust bags hold up to 7 weeks of debris
Cons
No self-emptying dustbin
Very large base station
Expensive
Our Verdict
It’s expensive, and its jumbo-sized base station lacks self-emptying functionality. But if you hate vacuuming and mopping and want some automated help, the Narwal Freo X Ultra is one of the most sophisticated floor cleaners we’ve tested.
Price When Reviewed
$1,399.99
Best Prices Today: Narwal Freo Ultra X
Retailer
Price ..read more
TechHive
1w ago
Got an email from Ring offering a free replacement for your aging Ring Alarm Keypad? Yes, it’s legit, and no, there’s no catch.
Owners of the first-generation Ring Alarm Keypad (pictured above, on the left) have, over the years, been surprised by—and even suspicious of—offers from Ring for a free upgrade to the second-gen keypad (on the right), which came out in 2020.
Just last week, a curious owner of the original Ring Alarm Keypad posted the offer he received on the Ring subreddit, and others posts just like it have cropped up as far back as three years ago.
This tip ..read more
TechHive
1w ago
At a glanceExpert's Rating
Pros
Plays both loud and well
IP67 rated
Multiple compatible devices can be linked (Partyboost/Auracast)
Replaceable battery
Cons
Relatively unwieldy as a travel speaker
Price
Not backward compatible with older JBL models (with Connect or Connect+)
Our Verdict
The JBL Xtreme 4 is an extremely competent portable Bluetooth speaker with impressive battery life, great sound, and enough muscle to play really loud without distortion. Virtually impervious to the elements, this speaker lives up to its name whether the party is at the beach, the pool, or even just i ..read more
TechHive
1w ago
One of the more interesting robot vacuum models we saw at CES is ready to ship, with Ecovacs bunding a more powerful version of its top-of-the-line robot vacuum with a handheld vac that sits on the bot’s charging station.
The Deebot X2 Combo Series will ship April 2, while another of Ecovacs’s new robots, the window-cleaning Winbot W2 Omni, will go on sale April 16.
Ecovacs is also revealing the price tag for the X2 Combo Series, which starts at a breathtaking $1,599.99. Meanwhile, the Winbot W2 Omni will cost $599.99.
This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth cov ..read more
TechHive
1w ago
A swimming pool is a major investment that needs continual maintenance not only to retain its value but to be safe to swim in. But if you’re still swinging a long-handled net to skim leaves and scrubbing its walls and floor to remove algae, you owe it to yourself consider investing in a modern pool-cleaning robot that can do that grunt work for you.
Robot pool cleaners come in various shapes and sizes, diverse capabilities. And as you might imagine, they come with a wide array of price tags, with the most sophisticated models going for $2,000 or more. Here are our top picks, followed by a buy ..read more