Hello Friends,

It’s Emily, taking over for Don this week while he is checking out new gadgets at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. While Don is perusing the latest and greatest in electronics, the majority of the team is back in Vermont just trying to just stay warm and it seems like most of the country is as well! I have lived in Vermont my entire life, but that doesn’t make it any easier to get up in the morning and see 20 below zero and know you still have to feed horses before going to work. Complaining aside, I love my horses dearly and have learned that when it’s this cold, it just means I need to move a little quicker through barn chores. This past morning was particularly chilly. In fact it was so cold I thought it best to lug my frozen water buckets inside to thaw by the fire rather than trying to bang the ice out of the buckets and have them crack. Don and I often give each other a hard time about temperatures…well mostly it’s Don bragging about it being sunny and 75 in Key West. I would be lying if I said I didn’t get a little pleasure hearing it was in the 40s in Las Vegas earlier this week. It’s good for him to not become too soft when it comes to colder temperatures!

As many people have predicted and anticipated, home automation is one of the big attractions at CES this year. Countless companies and developers are rolling out new products and expansions to Apple’s HomeKit are no exception. Schlage has updated their smart lock system, allowing iPhone users to unlock their home with just their voice. iDevices is another company that’s been working on accessories to Apple’s HomeKit and released a switch that allows users to control appliances, lights and more. With this switch you can even use Siri to to tell your switch to make a light brighter! Other cool products coming out of CES this year are new Bluetooth headphones from Sennheiser: the Urbanite XL. These headphones have a built-in touchpad that allow users to skip songs, take phone calls, and adjust the volume. You can also pair these headphones to two devices at once, so you can listen to music on your computer and not miss a call on your phone! Of course one of the drawbacks to seeing and hearing about all of these new gadgets is that they all aren’t available for purchase just yet, but we expect in the coming weeks and months to see more of these products readily available. In the meantime, it leaves us all plenty of time to map out and plan where all of these gadgets will go in our homes and offices!

In honor of home automation, this week we have some great deals on products from WeMo. Wirelessly monitor your home from afar, turn on the lights before you get home and control the brightness of your room, all from your iPhone!