Take 5: Gadgets for easier home entertaining
The festive season is upon us – Hanukkah, Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner, plus this year in particular we’re planning party after party to celebrate the end of lockdowns. When it’s your turn to host you need to be smart about it, so here are five high-tech ways to make your life a lot easier.
Set the mood with smart lighting
Plain old lights are so yesterday … these days you can control the mood by changing the colour of your lighting from your smartphone or via a smart speaker using voice commands. The CONNECT SmartHome range covers a wide range of indoor and outdoor lights, from festoon lights (pictured above) and fairy lights to strip lights, lightbulbs, filament bulbs and very funky neon strips that you can use to create shapes.
CONNECT Smart LED Light Bulbs (E14, B22 and E27 fittings)
RRP $10 (white) or $15 (RGB)
CONNECT Smart (E27) G80 Filament Bulb
RRP $24.95 (amber), $29.95 (smoke)
CONNECT Smart RGB LED Festoon Lights
RRP $88
CONNECT Smart RGB LED Strip Lights
RRP $29.95 (2m) or $69 (5m)
CONNECT Smart Fairy Lights
RRP $59.95 (7m), 99.95 (15m)
CONNECT Smart Outdoor Neon Light (5m)
RRP $199.95
From Harvey Norman
Get a robot to clean up
Having people over for a party also means more dirt and grime traipsed through your house. You can free up a lot of your time by getting an ECOVACS ROBOTICS DEEBOT T9+ robotic vacuum cleaner to brush, mop and deodorise for you. You don’t even have to think about emptying it – when it’s full it just returns to an included Auto-Empty Station (that holds a month of dust and dirt) and gets back on the job.
DEEBOT T9+ robotic vacuum cleaner
RRP $1,299
From Bing Lee, Godfreys, JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks and The Good Guys
Control the barbecue from a distance
Yep, even the humble barbecue has gone high-tech. Traeger Grills work by using an auger to move natural hardwood pellets from the hopper to the fire pot, where they’re ignited and feed the flames. A fan circulates heat and smoke for even grilling, smoking, baking and roasting, and a meat probe lets you monitor food temperature without lifting the lid. Things get really fancy with the built-in WiFIRE technology, which lets you monitor and control the barbie from anywhere using the Traeger App or a smart home device. The app also has 1600 recipes to help you impress the in-laws.
Traeger Grills is offering up to 15 per cent off some barbecues at participating retailers from Friday, November 26 to Monday, November 29.
Pro 22 $999 ($100 off)
Pro 575 $1450 ($150 off)
Pro 780 $1799 ($200 off)
Ironwood $2499 ($400 off)
Timberline 850 $3199 ($500 off)
Timberline 1300 $3999 ($500 off)
Create a personalised table setting
If you need new table linen for your party or want to make your mark as a designer, just jazz up a plain or tired old set by creating your own iron-on patterns with the Cricut Maker 3 smart cutting machine. You can create your own look from scratch or use the Cricut Design Space app to choose a ready-to-make design. The Maker 3 can cut, draw, engrave and deboss over 300 materials, including vinyl, balsa wood, stickers and card stock, so you can also make your own decorations, greeting cards, T-shirts … you name it.
Cricut Maker 3
RRP $699
From Spotlight & Harvey Norman
Set the vibe with music
The BlueAnt X4 is a serious Bluetooth party speaker – it’s lightweight, portable and splashproof, promises clear audio from chill-out to dancefloor volumes, has lights that can groove in time to the music (or be turned off) and can be used as a karaoke machine. If one 50W speaker isn’t enough, up to 100 X4s can be daisy-chained wirelessly, with a distance of up to 100m between each speaker.
BlueAnt X4 Bluetooth speaker
RRP $299
From blueant.com.au and some Telstra Stores
