LATEST ADDITIONS

You may not have heard of the networking component-making company, Edimax, but that’s to be expected because the majority of what the company has made in the past has been targeted at commercial use or has been sold under other companies’ brand names. Edimax is starting to bring more of its own branded devices to the market, one of which will be the new SP-2110W, a very small Wi-Fi smart outlet switch with power metering capabilities. Of course, Wi-Fi-based smart outlet switches aren’t a new concept. Edimax’s SP-2110W, however, is one of the smallest such switches that I’ve seen so far. Its rounded, shallow design is much preferable to the standard wall wart-style of most smart switches available from other companies today. The SP-2110W is controlled by Edimax’s app and is capable of email push notifications of on/off status, as well as real-time power-usage statistics. MSRP is expected to be under $30 with availability in early 2016.

Screen Innovations, or SI as it is more commonly known today, made its mark with ambient light rejecting screens. But it has a few more tricks up its sleeve.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to acoustically transparent screens. On the downside they reduce screen gain as some of the light passes through them rather than contributing to the brightness of the image. They also affect the sound, however slightly, in much the same way (though sometimes more significantly) as grill on a speaker. And their lack of a completely smooth texture can reduce resolution, which will be even more important with 4K than with 1080p HD.

On the upside they position the sound to best support the picture on the screen...

Control leader, URC, launched two new products in its Total Control series that together deliver total housewide automation control for under $1000.