Wyze's new smart garage controller monitors your door using a QR code - 3 minutes read Smart garage door openers that rely on contact sensors can be unreliable for a variety of reasons. Wyze addresses this dilemma with its new garage door controller that uses "AI vision-sensing" technology to check whether the garage door is open or shut. The smart garage door controller ships as part of a $40 bundle that includes a Wyze Cam v3, one of the company's best indoor security cameras that regularly costs $30. Unlike other connected garage door controllers, Wyze's latest offering detects whether your door is open or closed by scanning for a QR code. The package includes a QR code sticker that you'll have to stick to the inside of the garage door.

The MyQ Smart Garage Hub is a simple, standalone WiFi hub that sits in your garage and communicates with your existing garage door opener (and an open/close sensor you stick on the door itself). If you have a wireless garage door opener in your car, the MyQ Hub works the same way--you use the Learn button on the main unit to "teach" the MyQ Hub how to communicate with the opener, allowing you to open the door without a hardwired connection. Only instead of a little button in your car, the MyQ hub gets its signal from your phone, using your home's WiFi connection. It supports Amazon Key for in-garage deliveries, as well as Google Assistant, IFTTT, and a few other smart home platforms. Here are the MyQ Smart Garage Hub's specs: Best of all, Amazon currently offers a $30 credit after your first in-garage delivery with Amazon Key--which means the Smart Garage Hub pays for itself after one in-garage delivery, provided you live in a supported area.

Garage door openers are certainly convenient, but compared to the connected devices around our homes, they're nor very smart. But it doesn't have to be that way. Today, you can choose from two smart garage door remotes at all-time low Amazon prices to beef up your existing system: the Chamberlain MyQ for $50Remove non-product link, down from a list price of $80, or the Nexx Garage for $70Remove non-product link, down from a list price of $100. The MyQ smart garage door hub connects to any compatible garage door opener and Wi-Fi to bring smarts to your existing garage setup. Once connected, you'll be able to use the app to open and close your door, get alerts when the door opens, closes, or is left open too long, and schedule automatic close times.

It's been a week since Amazon's seemingly annual Alexa-oriented hardware event, but the tech and retail industries will likely be processing the rapid-fire announcements for many months to come. In just under two hours, Amazon announced more than a dozen new products aimed at everything from home audio and entertainment to kitchen appliances and in-car infotainment. The products were rolled out so abruptly and with so little fanfare that it was impossible for most onlookers to keep up, let alone contextualize and understand why Amazon had made an Alexa-powered microwave oven or a 100W subwoofer. Amazon's peculiar and blitzkrieg-style marketing strategy aside, it's clear now that the company has every intention to make Alexa, its Echo line, and every single device open to integrating its digital assistant into the dominating force in the smart home. In essence, Amazon wants Alexa to be the OS for everyone's physical lives, just as Apple, Google, and Microsoft now control our digital ones. Not only is Amazon willing to do so through developing its own products that may completely flop, but it's also willing to enter into well-established markets it will likely never succeed in, just so it can extend Alexa's reach even just an inch further than competing software.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. Our picks and opinions are independent from any business incentives. I'm not ashamed to admit it--I love smart home tech. It has the potential to drastically improve our homes, and how we live in them. Just imagine what your home could do for you if your thermostat could talk to your phone, or your security camera could talk to your lights.