Nowadays home renovation is about so much more than simply picking out a new set of curtains, or redoing your kitchen floor. The emergence of new technology has put home automation front and center of any homeowner’s future plans. Things such as home security systems have been around for some time now—cameras and alarms used to make suburban homes more secure.

Ask any firefighter to name the most important thing a person can do to prevent their house from burning to the ground, and he or she will tell you, “Install smoke alarms.”

You’ve tinkered with a NEST, installed a couple of Philips Hue light bulbs, and now you’re hooked on home automation. What’s the next step? To truly make your home “smart,” you need a home automation hub (also known as a smart home hub).

Here, we’ll detail the different options on the market and help you decide which hub will work best for your home.

If you keep a smartphone or tablet long enough, it loses resale value to the point that it may eventually end up sitting in a drawer somewhere, gathering dust (try selling an iPhone 3 on Craigslist these days…). Technology advances so quickly that within a couple years, many of these devices are pretty much useless for their original purpose.

SkyBell Technologies, Inc. today announced SkyBell Version 2.0, an upgrade to their Wi-Fi video doorbell, which enables users to answer the front door from their mobile device. SkyBell Version 2.0 isn’t just a software update its an all new device that launched with improved Wi-Fi performance, upgraded wide-angle camera and enhanced motion sensor.

The smart home may be angling for the mainstream, but right now it’s stuck swimming in a niche. Turning lights on automatically and setting thermostats from a smartphone is the stuff geeks revel in now, but for the smart home to reach flooding point, it must transform, not augment, the domestic realm — and it needs to start in the kitchen.

Not only does the Breathometer give accurate readings of your blood alcohol levels to rival devices many times more expensive and cumbersone than itself, it also gives you an approximate time estimate on when exactly you are expected to be at a safe level to drive.

“Made in the USA” is more than just a slogan; it’s a philosophy for business, one that emphasizes the importance of staying within the national economy and creating products of the highest quality. At the same time, it’s a smart manufacturing decision, as American-made quality usually stands head and shoulders above outsourced competition. There’s a reason why Apple has recently pledged $100 million in American manufacturing plants for future products.

Pixicle, a photo sharing device that makes it easy for users to view photos with their friends and family on the big screen instead of the frustrating smartphone screen passed around the room has raised $10K of its $38K Indiegogo goal to make photo viewing less strenuous.

Water has long been the Achilles’ Heel of technology. A few commonly recognized scenarios: Phone slips out of your hand and accidentally drops in the toilet, “friends” may decide to throw you in the pool at a party or just plain getting caught in a downpour. These are all scenarios that can happen to any of us.