If there's one thing that's absolutely necessary in every home, yet is always annoying, it's a smoke detector. Sure, they can be life saving, and usually you don't even know they're there. But whenever they need their battery replaced, they start making that annoying chirp sound. And if they go off and no one's home, who's going to call the fire department? The smoke detector is in dire need of a smart upgrade.
There's actually already a solution to this, and it's the
Nest Protect, a smoke detector made by the same people that make the Nest thermostat we talked about last week. Unfortunately, it's really, really expensive. I mean, I'm all for peace of mind when it comes to fire safety, but $100 for a smoke detector? No, thank you.
But there's a new device up for pre-order right now that offers most of the benefits of the Nest smoke detector, but only costs a fraction of the cash, and uses your existing smoke detectors. It's a smart battery called
The Roost. Essentially, it's a standard 9 volt battery that connects to your home's Wi-Fi network. From there, it connects to an app on your smartphone that will alert you when the battery gets too low, or when the alarm goes off. The batteries cost between $30-$40 depending on what package you get, and the convenience could be well worth it.
The most fascinating part of this article to me is that Wi-Fi is incorporated in an expendable object. I'm trying to think of when this has happened before but nothing comes to mind. I think that's the game changer here.
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