smart home Archives - COOLCURATION

May 23, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Best Father’s Day Tech Gifts UK 2026: The Beyond-Obvious Edit

Father's Day Tech Gifts2026 Edit

The tech gifts he doesn't know he wants yet.

Last updated: 23 May 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

Father's Day tech gifts tend to arrive in two flavours: the painfully obvious and the quietly disappointing. After all, your dad already owns an iPhone, a pair of AirPods, and a smart speaker he shouts at across the kitchen. So this year, skip every one of those. Instead, this edit of Father's Day tech gifts is for the dad who has the obvious stuff already, and who secretly wants the interesting stuff he has not discovered yet.

Father's Day 2026 falls on Sunday 21 June, which gives you roughly a month to order. Moreover, every pick below sits in that sweet spot between "I did not know this existed" and "I cannot believe I lived without it." Some we own. Some we have tested. Some we have researched obsessively and quietly added to our own wish lists. All of them passed the same test: is it well designed, does it solve a real problem, and would we be genuinely excited to unwrap it?

Some links in this guide are affiliate or referral links. This costs you nothing extra and helps support the site.

Best under £100AncestryDNA Kit£79

Best under £150Fairphone Fairbuds£129

Best splurgereMarkable Paper Pro£699

Most unexpectedBird Buddy Pro£199

For the audiophile dadTeenage Engineering OB-4around £599

For the tinkering dadBambu Lab A1 Minifrom £149

Published by Stiv in Consumer Tech, Gift Guides, Technology lover

Tags: Analogue Pocket, fathers day, fathers day gifts, gadgets, gift guides, gifts for dad, Nothing, smart home, tech gifts, Teenage Engineering

May 11, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Best Portable Speakers UK 2026: 12 We’d Actually Buy

Last updated: 11 May 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

Long before the AirPods era, before Sonos was on every shelf, before "Bluetooth speaker" stopped sounding faintly novel, there was the Jawbone Jambox. We had one of the original models knocking around for years. Tiny, weirdly heavy, sounded like a pocket-sized rock concert, and felt like the future. Then Jawbone went bust, the Jambox died, and the entire portable speaker world quietly got a lot better. So in this guide to the best portable speakers UK shoppers can buy in 2026, we're rounding up the speakers we'd happily replace that old Jambox with today.

A good portable speaker turns a garden into a festival, a kitchen into a club, and a park meet-up into something worth staying for. A bad one sounds like music playing inside a tin can from three rooms away. Here's how to pick the right one without overpaying.

This guide contains affiliate links. If you buy through our links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Published by Stiv in Buying Guides, Smart Home, Tech News, Technology lover

Tags: audio, Bang and Olufsen, best portable speakers, bluetooth speakers, Bose, JBL, Marshall, portable speakers, smart home, Sonos

April 16, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

FYTA Beam G2 Review UK: The Best Smart Plant Sensor We’ve Tried

Last updated: 16 April 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

This review contains referral links. If you purchase through our link on the FYTA Beam detail page, you get 10% off. Our opinions remain entirely independent.

Cool Factor: 4/5

We have been searching for a reliable smart plant sensor for years. After failed attempts with Xiaomi and Parrot, we finally landed on the FYTA Beam G2. This FYTA Beam review covers four months of daily use across 13 sensors in a London flat, and the short version is: it is genuinely the best plant tracking system we have found. Not perfect, mind you. But properly impressive.

Published by Stiv in Green fingers, Green Living, Reviews, Smart Home, Technology lover

Tags: FYTA, FYTA Beam, FYTA Beam G2, indoor plants, plant care, plant sensor, reviews, smart home, tech

March 29, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Dyson Spot+Scrub AI Review UK: Overpriced, Outsourced, Underwhelming

Last updated: 22 March 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

Cool Factor: 0/5

This Dyson Spot Scrub review is not one we ever expected to write. We've reviewed hundreds of products across CoolCuration and never once handed out a zero. Not once. But the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI, priced at a staggering £1,049.99, has earned the dishonour of being our first. It's a robot vacuum that somehow offers less suction than its predecessor, appears to be manufactured by a third-party Chinese ODM, and arrives stamped with a premium price tag that only the Dyson name can justify. For a vacuum cleaner, the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI really does suck. Just not in the way you'd want it to.

Published by Stiv in Reviews, Smart Home, Tech News, Technology lover

Tags: best robot vacuums, Dyson, Dyson review, Dyson Spot Scrub AI, robot vacuum, robot vacuum review, smart home

March 20, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Best Smart Speakers UK: HomePod vs Sonos vs Echo Compared

Last updated: 29 March 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

Choosing the best smart speakers UK buyers can actually get their hands on in 2026 is oddly complicated. Apple wants you all-in on Siri and AirPlay. Sonos wants you to forget about voice assistants and just listen. Amazon wants you to talk to Alexa about literally everything, including your shopping list. Three very different philosophies, three very different ecosystems, and a surprisingly wide range of prices.

This guide cuts through the noise. We compare every current speaker worth considering from Apple, Sonos and Amazon. In particular, we cover sound quality, stereo pairing rules, multi-room setups, app quality, ecosystem lock-in, future-proofing and genuine value for money. Whether you want a single kitchen speaker or a whole-home audio system, we will help you pick the right one.

Published by Stiv in Audiophiles, Buying Guides, Reviews, Tech News, Technology lover

Tags: AirPlay, alexa, Amazon Echo, Dolby Atmos, Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, HomePod, HomePod Mini, multi-room audio, Siri, smart home, smart speakers, Sonos Era 100, Sonos Era 300

November 16, 2025 — Comments are off for this post.

Eero Mesh WiFi Review UK: Is It Worth It?

Last updated: 24 March 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

Cool Factor: 4/5 – Stone cold

I used to dread working from home whenever my partner jumped on a video call. Our old router would buckle, the bedroom WiFi would vanish, and streaming anything in 4K was a fantasy. Then I installed an eero mesh WiFi system and everything changed overnight. This eero mesh WiFi review covers exactly what happened, which model suits which household, and whether it deserves the hype in 2026.

Published by Stiv in Android apps, Apple apps, Apps, Best of Amazon, New home, Reviews, Services, Technology lover

Tags: amazon tech, black friday deals, eero, eero mesh wifi, eero review, home tech, home wifi, mesh wifi, smart home, uk tech reviews, wifi review, wifi routers

November 4, 2025 — Comments are off for this post.

Winter Energy Saving Tips: Cut Your Heating Bills and Stay Warm

Last updated: 9 June 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

When the temperature drops, energy bills tend to climb. However, a few smart moves can make a real difference. These winter energy saving tips cover everything from quick wins around the house to switching your energy supplier, so you can stay warm without spending more than you need to.

Whether you rent or own, most of these changes cost little or nothing. Some could save you hundreds of pounds over the colder months.

Want credit for switching supplier?

The current Octopus switching credit and eligibility rules are kept up to date on our referral page.

See the Octopus switch offer

Published by Stiv in Saving, Services

Tags: bills, draught-proofing, energy price cap, energy saving, heating, herschel infrared, insulation, mill heater, money saving, octopus energy, smart home, UK home, uk home hacks, winter tips

August 12, 2025 — Comments are off for this post.

Blink Video Doorbell review SEO Title: Blink Video Doorbell Review UK: Smart Security on a Budget

Last updated: 22 March 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

Cool Factor: 3/5 - Cool

This Blink Video Doorbell review covers the latest (2nd generation) model from Amazon's budget security brand. With a head-to-toe HD camera, two-year battery life, Alexa integration, and cloud storage starting at just £2.50 a month, it's one of the most affordable smart doorbells you can get in the UK. We've been testing it on our own front door. Here's our honest verdict.

Published by Stiv in Best of Amazon, New home, Reviews, Technology lover

Tags: alexa, battery doorbell, blink, blink video doorbell, echo show, home security, smart doorbell UK, smart home, subscription, uk smart home, video doorbell, wireless, wireless doorbell

August 24, 2024 — Comments are off for this post.

Sonos App Update: What Changed, What’s Fixed, and What’s Next

Last updated: 22 March 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

The Sonos app update saga has been one of the most dramatic stories in consumer tech over the past two years. What started as a routine redesign in May 2024 spiralled into a full-blown crisis: broken features, a tanking share price, layoffs, and ultimately the departure of CEO Patrick Spence. Fast forward to 2026 and there's a new boss, new hardware, and yet another app overhaul on the horizon. Here's the full story of what went wrong, what's been fixed, and where things stand right now.

Published by Stiv in Android apps, Apple apps, Apps, Audiophiles, Tech News, Technology lover

Tags: audio gear, multi-room audio, smart home, smart speakers, Sonos, Sonos Ace Headphones, Sonos app, Sonos app changes, Sonos app review, Sonos app update, Sonos Era 100, Sonos Era speaker, Sonos features, Sonos music system, Sonos news, Sonos Play, tech updates, Tom Conrad