illustration by Laszlito Kovacs

Are smart-home systems always smart? or still preferable by home owners? “It can be a lot of bells and whistles that people don’t like,” says Mr. Schrager, who recently returned from a hotel in Italy where the minibar lights automatically went on when he walked past it to the bathroom in the middle of the night, waking up his wife.

By the end of this year, some 20 million households in the U.S. will have some form of smart-home device, double the number in 2012, according to a Strategy Analytics Inc., a global technology market-research firm based in Newton, Mass. Apple, and Samsung are rolling out rapidly evolving platforms for a range of home-automation products. Home builders are increasingly including preprogrammed systems and apps so that owners can remotely control lighting, blinds, music, door locks, security cameras and appliances. Even some rental apartments are coming outfitted with smart-home systems now.......Continue Reading

> via wsj.com