From the moment you see one, a smart thermostat looks cool. The cover plate is smooth, and there's a clear digital read-out. Unlike that grimy little hockey puck, with its analog dial and worn-out numbers, the smart thermostat feels futuristic, like something out of a science fiction movie. Yet smart thermostats are real – and it's changing lives. And it also offers a level of convenience that most of us have never imagined before.

From the moment you see one, a smart thermostat looks cool. The cover plate is smooth, and there's a clear digital read out. Unlike that grimy little hockey puck, with its analog dial and worn-out numbers, the smart thermostat feels futuristic, like something out of a science fiction movie. Yet smart thermostats are real – and they're changing lives. And they also offer a level of convenience that most of us have never imagined before.

Every trip around the sun, we prod, poke, and test hundreds of products here at WIRED. Most of them are just fine. Not boring--few things are truly boring these days--though also not really exciting. But every so often, we get a product in our hands and it sets off that spark of joy, that rush of excitement that makes us want to tell you about it, explain why we love it, argue about why it's important. The products below are all the things that lit a fire in our imaginations during 2017.

If you missed the Ecobee4 sale the first time around, Amazon has you covered. Today the retailer is selling the Ecobee4 for $200. That's the same price we saw at Lowe's and others (including Amazon) on Black Friday. Usually this latest model of the Ecobee sells for the MSRP of $249. The big change with the Ecobee4 compared to its predecessor is built-in Alexa Voice Service.