WIREDInsider

July 1st, 2012

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AUTOMATE YOUR HOME

Image via sudarkoff

As Makers, we like to do it ourselves. If something doesn’t exist yet, that’s OK–we’ll make it! And if we don’t feel like making it, we’ll wait until we can buy it. Here are two options (the DIY kind and the store-bought kind) for automating your home.

VIA TWITTER

Leave it to the ultra geeks out there to figure this out: How to have your washing machine send you a tweet when the cycle is finished. Or how about the Tweet-a-Pot? Send a tweet to this coffee maker and a cup of joe will begin brewing. Yes, these are both real hacks. Read how they work over at Mashable.

VIA PHONE

What’s cool about this product is that you can get as creative as you want with it. The Belkin WeMo is fairly simple: there’s a wi-fi enabled WeMo Switch that fits into your plug, and there’s an app on your phone. Anything that’s plugged into the WeMo switch (coffee maker, lamp, TV, heater) can be turned on and off or set to a schedule directly from the app. At $49, it’s home automation for a steal! There’s even a motion-sensing option for $99. Read more at Lifehacker.