- Find the perfect holiday gift for anyone you love.
- Available on Amazon for last-minute shopping.
- And a third thing?
Where the Heart Is
Your guide to a modern home, including smart lights, home automation, and modern takes on everything from vacuums to thermostats.
Dyson Animal Vacuum
We use this vacuum several times a day. It’s extremely light and cordless to boot, so it takes the smallest amount of effort to grab it and clean a room. Cleans easily, charges easily, and lasts. Our home is much cleaner thanks to this thing.
Nest Learning Thermostat
If Apple made home products, they would look like this. No surprise, since the inventor of the iPod is the founder and CEO of Nest. This Thermostat will more than pay for itself over time, thanks to all the money you’ll save, and you get a cool, smart thermostat that’s easy to use.
Nest Protect Smoke + Carbon Monoxide Alarm
This product isn’t out yet, but if it’s anything like the thermostat, I can’t wait. You can pre-order now. If you really need something by Christmas, you might want to pass, but grab one or two of these for yourself.
Apple TV
The Apple TV is one of the best Christmas gifts, period. It conveniently gives any TV the power of iTunes and all that content, but it also gives you the power to stream basically anything from your computer to the TV. Really great gift for family that you might be visiting, since your entire media library will be available to share over the holidays.
Roomba 650 Vacuum Cleaning Robot
Who doesn’t want a robot doing the vacuuming? Check out the table comparing all the Roomba models, and I think you’ll agree that this is the best bang for you buck. For hardwood floors, there’s also the Scooba.
Philips Hue Personal Wireless Lighting Starter Pack
Want lights that you can control via your phone? Know anyone who does? These aren’t cheap, but they’re awesome. They work like regular bulbs, but they also connect to your network via the Hue router (included in this starter kit), so you can control brightness and color with your phone. While I don’t make much use of any crazy colors, it’s really nice to be able to make the color warm and inviting. You can also create presets for common scenarios.
Dyson Hot
This heater is magic. Seriously. How does the air move? Speaking as a parent, this is the only space heater for our home, because although it blows hot air, there’s nothing hot to touch. Also, in the summer, you can just use it as a fan, and it’s still pretty magic. How does the air move?
Stadler Anton Ultrasonic Humidifier
I have two of these and love them. The winning feature isn’t the design; it’s the internal filter that keeps it from getting gross over time. Just make sure the filter gets changed regularly, and this thing just works.
SmartThings Know and Control Your Home Kit
Like a lot of cool stuff, this began as a Kickstarter project. This kit includes the hub and lots of various sensors. Would make a great intro to home automation.
Revolv Smart Home Automation Solution
This is a great gift for controlling a lot of the popular home automation stuff with one system. Perfect for someone who has Philips Hue lights, Kwikset locks, Sonos speakers, Belkin WeMo stuff, or anything that uses the Z-Wave or Insteon protocols.
Belkin WeMo Switch and Motion Sensor
This is a good starter kit for anyone looking to get into home automation stuff. The motion senseor makes it easy to establish triggers like turning on the lights when you enter a room, and the switch lets you control the power to anything in the same way.