Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home
  3. News

Connect all your Alexa-enabled devices to the HiveyPie smart power strip

By
HiveyPIE Campaign
Your smart home may be rife with connected devices, but how well are these devices connected to one another? HiveyPie, which claims to be the first
Recommended Videos
Alexa-controlled smart power strip, wants to make controlling your smart home easier. This Wi-Fi-connected power hub allows you to control a
Related
slew of smart devices from a single mobile app by way of a secure connection. Not only can you control the power strip itself, but the HiveyPie app (Android and iOS) will also give you insight into the plugged-in devices’ energy usage.

You can also control the power strip with Alexa, telling the smart assistant to turn various devices on or off by ordering certain sockets to be powered up or down. And as an added bonus, you can also use the HiveyPie as a smart hub to control both Philips and Belkin devices.

The benefit of such a device is its all-in-one design. The downside is it’s pretty bulky and out has four outlets. With the HiveyPie, you won’t have to toggle among various apps in order to control devices made by different manufacturers. That is to say, you can control the brightness of your Philips light or your Belkin router all in one place. Users can make use of the mobile app and control all the features of various smart home appliances all in a single app. Of course, all those smart home appliances must be plugged into HiveyPie for this to work.

The smart power strip also purports to have the ability to automatically detect power wasting based on preset thresholds. That means if one appliance is needlessly draining electricity from a particular socket, HiveyPie can let you know, or automatically shut off its supply. You can power on and off sockets individually or collectively, or just check to make sure you turned the iron off (even if it isn’t a smart iron).

Thus far, the HiveyPie has raised just over $11,500 in its Indiegogo campaign, and with a month left, is nearly 50 percent of the way to its $25,000 goal. If you’re interested in backing the project, you can pre-order a unit for $100 from Indiegogo, with an expected delivery date of November 2017. As with any crowdfunding project, be aware that backing it is not a guarantee it won’t be late or canceled and it may not work as advertised.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Lulu Chang
Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Amazon’s $35 Fire TV Blaster extends Alexa to all of your home theater gadgets
amazon fire tv blaster alexa home theater control

 

If you own an Amazon Echo speaker and one of three select Fire TV devices, Amazon has a pretty sweet proposition for you: Spend $35 on its new Fire TV Blaster and you'll be able to take command of your entire entertainment environment with just your voice.

Read more
Alexa can now set sleep timers to simulate a sunrise using your smart lights
amazon echo show on bedside table

If you have Alexa-compatible smart lights and live in the U.S., you've got some new features that will be rolling out this week. With the new Alexa lighting features, you can set up wake-up lights or sleep timers and create new Alexa Routines to dim or brighten over a certain stretch of time, giving you a huge amount of control over how your home is lighted. Here's how the new features work.

Wake-up Lighting
One new feature is called Wake-up Lighting. This feature basically makes your smart lights mimic the sun rising in your home, but on your schedule. For example, you can make it so your bedside lamp turns on and gradually gets brighter when it's time to wake up. To set up Wake-up Lighting say something like, “Alexa, set an alarm for (time) with my bedside lamp.” If you want your light to do this every day, you'll need to set up a recurring alarm by saying something like, “Alexa, set up an alarm for every morning at (time) with my bedside lamp.” If you have a lighting group set up you can say, “Alexa, wake me up at (time) with lights.”

Read more
The Amazon Echo Loop is a smart ring that puts Alexa at your fingertips
Amazon Echo Loop

Amazon will release a wearable smart ring with Alexa packed into it. Yes, you read that correctly -- the new Echo Loop is a ring that lets you keep Alexa literally at your fingertips.

Announced at Amazon's Devices event on Wednesday, the Echo Loop has two microphones you can activate with a button tap, as well as the smallest speaker ever installed in an Echo device.

Read more