Nest Thermostat App
Game of Thrones may be over but winter is coming. At this time of year, many of us in the UK will be considering the best ways to heat our houses.
Thermostats work by sensing the internal temperature of your house and then managing the radiators to maintain the desired temperature.
The latest generation of thermostats is ‘smart’ and leverages the internet and smartphones to manage your heating more efficiently and save you money on bills.
Of all entry-level smart thermostats, the Nest is the best-reviewed. At its most basic level, it works like a generic ‘dumb’ thermostat. It can be controlled manually until it reaches the temperature you desire.
However, if you connect it to the Nest app on your smartphone you’ll soon find that you’ll never need to touch the Thermostat again! Using GPS on your phone, your house will automatically warm up when you enter a set radius to your house and will automatically turn your heating off when you leave!
What we loved about Nest: The design of the actual thermostat itself stands out due to its vibrant LCD. It looks great and is a gadget you’re happy to have on your wall.
How would we improve Nest: The Nest smartphone system is only really designed for small houses? The app only controls the boiler rather than individual radiators in different rooms. As a result, either your whole house is heated or you’re sitting in the cold!
Crafty Vaporizer App
Vaporizers are currently more popular than ever as people continue to switch from smoking due to health concerns.
To meet this growing demand for vaping hardware, big brands are investing millions of pounds to create devices full of the latest technology and deliver the best vaping experiences.
One brand that is leading the pack in terms of technological innovations is Storz & Bickel. They have earned a worldwide reputation for building the very best devices and their latest, The Crafty is one of the bestselling vapes in Europe.
The Crafty features innovations such as hybrid-heating and vapour cooling technology. However, what sets the device apart from other herbal vaporizers is ability to connect to your smartphone via an app available for both iOS and Android.
The app adds several new features to you vaporizer including the ability to set a precise temperature, added boost mode and the ability to change the LED settings.
However, the most impressive feature is the ability to set notifications when your herbs are ready to be vaped. This is more useful than it sounds and over time will save you lots of herbs. You just turn The Crafty on and continue what you’re doing. Once your herbs are ready your phone will vibrate to remind you to take a hit.
What we love about the Crafty app: The app adds Boost mode to your vaporizer. This feature is great to switch on towards the end of a session to get the most from your herbs, makes for very efficient vaping.
How would we improve the Crafty app: The device is heavily reliant on the app. Without smartphone connectivity, the vaporizer’s features are severely limited. It would be nice to have some of the more advanced features available when I have no access to Bluetooth.
Playstation App
The Playstation 4 is Sony’s most powerful game console and has won this generation’s console wars with its paralleled game line-up.
However, the PS4 doesn’t just do gaming well it is also great at social, especially if you download the official Playstation app to your phone. Once you’ve added your friends, it’ll pull all their recent gaming activity into a facebook style ‘what’s new’ feed. You’ll be able to follow what games they’re playing, what trophies they’ve won. Also, if you have a fast enough internet connection you can even watch them as they play!
Even you are using good computer speakers for fine music at your home with lower budget will also give a good sound using this Playstation app. You can even attach high bass speakers which has been becoming trend, while playing games at home.
What we love about the PS4 app: The ability to download games to your console from your phone is a great idea. These days games can be upwards of 50Gb and take several hours to download. With the PS4 app, you can download games to your console remotely so it’s ready to play as soon as you’re home.
How would we improve the PS4 app: The user interface is a bit difficult to use. It also lags and can be quite cumbersome to navigate.
Image credit: Gadgets via Drawlab19/Shutterstock