Automatic litter boxes vary depending on the brand and litter box type. Generally, they have sensors, either by motion or weight, to tell when a cat has entered or exited the litter box. Usually customizable and controlled via app on your phone, or on a more rudimentary timer system, the cleaning cycle will begin a short time after the cat has used the box. With the dome-shaped litter boxes, the cleaning will happen via a cycle where the litter spins and rotates around the spherical interior; the bigger soiled clumps will be deposited into the waste basket while the clean litter passes through the grates and gets recycled back into the litter box.
The Neakasa M1, for example, rotates backward and then forward (rather than a spin cycle) to sift the clumps from the clean litter, depositing the larger clumps into the waste basket. The Pet Zone Smart Scoop is the most rudimentary on our list, simply using a rake attachment to scoop the bigger clumps into a waste receptacle in the back.
I admire Shark’s ambition. With its latest vacuum (most recently presented at IFA), Shark attempts to solve two major problems. The first is that in many cases, simply lifting the mop pads over the floor often isn’t enough to keep the yucky wet mop pad from dragging on your nice clean carpet. That’s why the newest Shark robot vacuum has a mop plate that automatically detaches when you’re vacuuming.
The second, and more interesting problem, is that robot vacuums tend to get stuck on little ledges or rugs in your house. That’s why the Shark now has what I have been referring to as a “booty hitch,” to hump itself over obstacles in its path. On its face, both of these improvements are very, very cool—and they work. “Is that robot vacuum humping the floor?” my husband asked, as it propelled itself into the living room from the kitchen. However, as if in recompense, the Shark is failing at some basic robot vacuum tasks. If you’re interested in this vacuum, I would suggest waiting for the price to come down and for the company to iron out some basic bugs.
Smell You Later
Setup is very simple. It’s a good-looking robot vacuum, with a docking station that includes a clean water tank, a dirty water tank, a dustbin with a remarkable 0.33-liter capacity, and a refillable odor-neutralizer capsule that prevents the whole thing from stinking to high heaven. It’s compact at less than 18 inches high and less than 15 inches wide, and very easy to set up. I downloaded the app and added the vacuum to it; Shark even provides a list of cute, punny names. (I picked “Steve McClean.”)
Photograph: Adrienne So
The preclean mapping was fast and easy, and the vacuum did not get tripped up at all. The map is kind of bonkers and in no way accurate, but it gets the general orientation of the rooms correct, and the map’s inaccuracy is not reflected in how the robot cleans.
When you start cleaning, you can pick either vacuum or mop (not both), and if you vacuum, you can select either to clean or deep clean. I found this confusing, as you tap the Clean Button before you can select the mode—just a little residual PTSD from starting too many robot vacuums in the wrong cleaning mode and not being able to stop them, nothing to worry about. You can also opt to clean by room or to spot clean (more on that later).
It takes about 90 minutes for the vacuum to do a full vacuum run for 750 square feet, and about 60 percent of the battery, which means I could mop after I vacuumed, if I wanted to. Having a detachable mop pad meant that I didn’t need to plan out my cleaning beforehand—with ones that don’t detach, I have to make sure I vacuum before I mop. You also can’t trace the vacuum’s live progress in the map. It’s an easy way to ensure you got full coverage, or would be with an accurate map.
Three Times, You’re Out
Photograph: Adrienne So
Ostensibly, the Shark vacuum has DirtDetect, which is a feature that first showed up in iRobot’s Roomba line. Sensors on the bottom of the vacuum can locate areas of unusual dirtiness and focus on them. It’s remarkably effective with an iRobot, but not so much with the Shark.
Do you wish your front door could see you coming? I certainly do, since I’m usually either wrangling a toddler (often in a swimsuit these days, and dragging along a myriad of towels and floatation devices) or coming back from an outdoor power walk that I’d rather not bring my keys on. I’ve enjoyed geofencing features that let my door unlock when it senses my phone is nearby, or reached for the pin pad to quickly unlock my door with my fingerprint—anything in the name of not needing to hunt for my keys.
Now, I don’t even need my phone or a free hand. The Lockly Visage, announced at CES 2024 as part of Lockly’s new Zeno line, uses infrared sensors to see me coming and recognize my face, so that it can unlock my door as I walk up. It also has other common entry options—fingerprint reading, access codes, and brand-new physical keys—if not every member of your house wants their face scanned.
It’s the first time face recognition has been added to a smart lock that any homeowner (or daring renter) can buy. Similar features have been available in smart security cameras and video doorbells, but the locks themselves haven’t been able to recognize you—until now. While I found the setup a little frustrating (more on that below), I was happy to find that the lock itself worked perfectly, always recognizing me as I walked up to my house, whether I was wearing sunglasses or was backlit by an intense afternoon sun.
Ready, Get Set, Set Up
electronic door lock
Successful setup with the Lockly requires speed once the battery is in. The physical setup isn’t too hard, just lengthy, and it does require both a Phillips-head and flathead screwdriver. It took me about an hour of reading instructions, removing every piece of my current lock, and then installing the Lockly Visage. Make sure to charge the battery in advance, or at least while you’re doing all of that physical unboxing and install. Since you have to fully dismember your lock, I don’t recommend the Lockly for renters, unless you trust yourself to put it back so well that your landlord won’t know.
Once physical setup is done, don’t put the battery in right away. This was my mistake. Once the battery is in, the Bluetooth connection opens up and only stays up for a few minutes. I kept getting timed out when I was trying to set up Visage ID (the name for Visage’s face recognition), but Lockly says they’re pushing an app update soon to fix the short-lived Bluetooth situation. Speaking of the app, there’s two of them—an older Lockly app that works with this lock and previous Lockly devices, and a brand-new Lockly Home app (iOS, Android) that currently only works with the new Zeno line. You can choose to use either, but the Lockly Home app is much nicer to look at. Previous Lockly products will be added to that app soon, too.
Either way, before you put in the battery and start the Bluetooth timer, download the app and locate the Activation Card inside of the box, which should be adhered to the interior lid of the box. Don’t lose this card, even after you finish the lock setup—you’ll need it if you ever reset it. Once you have both these things ready, only then insert the battery and start the setup process within the app. You’ll follow steps for creating an account, connecting Wi-Fi, and setting up an unlock code for the door.
Nest’s smart thermostats have been an icon of the smart home since they hit the market in late 2011. Nothing said smart like a device that could learn your habits and make your home operate more efficiently without having to fiddle with settings and automations. In the 13 years since, Nest Learning Thermostats have been easy to identify, with the same thick silver bezel and compact circular screen. This design was radical at a time when most smart thermostats looked like boring, rectangular, beige boxes.
Google’s fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat has an entirely new look, transforming what now looks like a basic tech gadget into something of an art piece for your wall. It’s got new smarts too, and includes a temperature sensor to place elsewhere in the home. It’s a refreshing upgrade to a longtime staple, and feels smart without being intrusive or overly complex—an important middle line not all smart devices find.
Slim Setup
Photograph: Nena Farrell
If you’re hoping to pop the fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat onto the backing of a previous Nest thermostat, you’re out of luck. The thermostat base for the new model is a different size, so you’ll have to switch out the old base for the new one.
While the third-generation thermostat itself is smaller, its base is a little larger with larger connectors; the new thermostat base is smaller with positively tiny connector buttons. You’d think with the larger 3.9-inch screen that the base would be larger, but it has a smaller footprint on your wall, which is nice. It comes with an optional plate as with previous generations, but the new version is an oval rather than a rectangle. A 3.9-inch screen might not sound that big, but it looks surprisingly large on the wall if you’re used to the smaller Nest thermostats, or even something like my previous thermostat, the square Honeywell T6.
Photograph: Nena Farrell
Installing the Nest is easy; make sure your system is compatible and that you’ve flipped off the relevant breaker to cut power. The Nest app is no longer at play with this model. Google has been gradually transitioning many of its features and capabilities to the Google Home app, and that’s what you’ll use for this new model. Google Home walks you through the steps of removing your old thermostat, labeling the wires, and installing the new thermostat over it.
A phone with magnetic mods, a new handheld gaming console, and a robot vacuum that can climb stairs. Here’s the best new gear announced at IFA in Berlin.
On light roast coffees in particular, our early xBloom efforts came out a bit acidic and thin when we used the default recipes that came with the app—a sign the coffee was not being extracted well enough.
Was our initial underextracted coffee the result of Philadelphia’s semihard tap water? Perhaps.
Either way, we slowed down the pour by swapping out xBloom’s house filters to thick-papered Kalita filters, and also deviated sharply from the app’s suggested recipes. We increased the pause times on each pour, and ground our beans much finer. Once we finally got it figured out, the results were admirable.
But let’s say you don’t want to try for days or weeks to figure out your ideal formula. The xBloom offers a shortcut in the form of roast-to-order xPods ($13 to $24 for eight) available by mail order, often from some of the hypiest third-wave roasters in coffee. Your compostable pods will arrive with an RFID recipe card, preprogrammed and theoretically optimized to each bean. Just swipe the card, then push the button.
Results will differ by roaster, as in life. A recipe for a single-origin bean from Indian-American coffee roaster Kaveri was dialed in beautifully, leading to a cup brimming with chocolate and citrus. Not so with NBA player Jimmy Butler III’s Bigface coffee brand. That recipe, seemingly left at the machine’s default coarse grind, led to tart and woefully underextracted coffee.
Still Brewing
The pods are also costly, about $1.60 to $3 apiece. This makes this option most attractive to people with less time than money, or companies who’d like an impressive pour-over device in their break room.
The people we expect to be most excited about the xBloom are those who love technology itself. The xBloom Studio is, quite simply, cool. It’s new and interesting, and fun to play with. And once you figure it out, the machine rewards you with delicious coffee.
Photograph: xBloom
For gamers or obsessive optimizers, the xBloom Studio offers endless variables to toggle in the quest for the precisely dialed and repeatable pour-over. It is a robot that will do almost all of the work for you at the push of a button, and never get distracted while crusty-eyed and bleary from the struggle of facing yet another day.
As with any new technology, expect some kinks: The same inputs don’t always lead to the same results. Sometimes the grinder piles up most of the beans on one side of the dripper, and the machine blithely pours water as if this didn’t happen. Other confounding variables include altitude, water hardness, and the freshness of the coffee.
The machine also saw some early glitches after its release in June 2024, including a “waiting” error caused by the device’s overflow protection algorithm; this has mostly been resolved by successive firmware updates. A dripper arm also cracked during brewing and was quickly replaced with an updated version.
Which is all to say, the dream of the always-perfect cup is not yet here. But it’s close enough to be tantalizing.
Reading before bed is a great way to relax. But getting the right balance of light can be tricky. We want to illuminate the text without disturbing sleeping partners, kids, or roommates. Warm light that is not too bright is also better to help you feel drowsy. Special reading lights may be the answer. They come in a surprisingly wide variety of shapes and sizes, but all will light up your page, not your whole room.
We have tested a library of reading lights over the last few months, tucking into tomes as blissfully unaware partners slept, and these are the very best reading lights for bookworms. There are several kinds of clip-ons, wearable lights, and a bedside lamp among our picks, as well as a tempting alternative to book lights.
Avid readers will also want to check out our Best Gifts for Book Lovers, Great Tech Books, and Best Science Fiction Books guides.
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When I was growing up in the 1980s and ’90s, there were maybe three types of fans available to the average household consumer, which one had to buy in person at, say, Sears or Kmart: A metal table fan, a wobbly pedestal fan, or a box fan. If it was an especially new or fancy model, there were buttons for different speeds, perhaps encircled by a snazzy faux-wood veneer. Nowadays there are thousands of types of fans from many hundreds of brands in multiple categories, sizes, and shapes. How do you know which fan is the correct one for your particular situation? Thankfully, most fans fall into one of six general categories:
Pedestal fans offer adjustable height, oscillation (though many tower fans have this also), and larger blades for more power, and they are easier to clean because the blades are usually visible. They’re the best option for large spaces or even outdoors on a deck or patio. One drawback is that they can be top-heavy and easily knocked over, and since the blades are visible, they can be dangerous to small fingers that may find their way inside the cage.
A table or desk fan is perfect for small rooms that are short on floor space, can provide more direct airflow, and often come in vintage designs or fun colors. They’re also portable, so they are easy to travel with or move from room to room. Many are chargeable for cordless operation or, in the case of our favorite travel fan, can even function as chargers themselves.
A tower fan is basically a streamlined alternative to a pedestal fan, offering a slimmer profile and less top-heavy structure, which can be useful in households with children or large dogs lumbering about. The blades are also enclosed, making them a great choice for a child’s room. One drawback is that this also makes them difficult to clean, unless you go with a bladeless Dyson.
Air circulators are designed to move air around the whole room rather than straight at a person or object, which makes them usable for all seasons—in winter, they can move hot air down to the floor from where it has risen. They can also do this from behind furniture, so looks aren’t as important.
Box fans and transom fans are more utilitarian options that can be used in windows to either bring colder air in or exhaust hotter air out, but neither is particularly stylish or something you’d want in your home year-round.
Misting fans are usually air circulators or pedestal fans that come with an attachment for misted water to be expelled with the air. Some allow you to connect your hose, while others come with a reservoir that allows them to be used away from a water source.
Once that’s recognized, you can start playing around with colors! Like most smart lights, there are plenty of options for various shades of white and bright colors, and tons of colorful themes that take advantage of the massive row of lights. Lifx’s app comes with tons of precreated themes, ranging from ones inspired by music and artists (I love the Bijutsukai and Matisse with my living room colors) to holidays and even sports teams. There isn’t a camera or similar tool to make it match what’s on your TV screen, so I usually choose a theme or color scheme to make it match the vibe of the show.
Photograph: Nena Farrell
You can use the in-app Paint tool to make custom light arrangements if none of the included designs pique your fancy. You can either paint the whole thing at once—it’ll let you choose three colors and arrange it for you—or manually control it by zone. My six bars and one corner piece have 61 zones, so 10 zones per bar plus one extra for that little corner. You can highlight and change multiple zones at the same time to get your perfect design, but it does take time.
Buying Time
The Lifx Beam isn’t anything particularly new, but I love how much easier it is to stick on a wall without worrying whether a section will pop off, and to add more segments or rearrange the shape whenever I want. It feels more like art on my wall than a regular light strip.
My only complaint is that I wish it were a little cheaper; it’s $60 for four pieces, or $150 for six. And Lifx doesn’t sell corner pieces individually, limiting the fun you can have with designs. After all these years of it on the market, it might be too late to hope for more extensions. I’m still in love with mine, though, single corner and all.
I realize this is practically heretical given that I live just outside of Portland, Oregon, ground zero for environmental consciousness, but I’d just rather not have a container of slimy, rotting kitchen scraps sitting on my countertop. It attracts fruit flies and leaves my house smelling like federal-prison pruno—especially in the heat of summer.
Instead, my family of three has been relying on in-sink garbage disposal, which isn’t great. Our septic repairperson is adamantly against this, and garbage disposals are also a bad idea for those not on septic systems, because the refuse ends up in the waterways. Throwing food in the kitchen trash eventually leads to the local landfill, where uneaten food makes up 24 percent of municipal solid waste. Its breakdown results in the release of dangerous methane gas.
To combat this, many cities feature their own composting programs. My rural exurb does not, so I’m forced to choose between a normal-smelling kitchen and actively contributing to global warming. This is why I was especially interested in the Mill, an odorless, fully automatic food recycling bin dreamed up by Matt Rogers, former Apple engineer and cofounder of smart-thermostat pioneer Nest.
My prolifically home-cooking family tried the Mill for six weeks, connecting it to a power meter to test its output and cost of use, as well as feeding it as diverse a batch of food scraps as we could (including sauces, hundreds of eggshells, and a particularly vexing batch of melon rinds), to see whether this particularly pricey bin could be worth the cost to add to your household.
From the Grounds Up
There’s no denying that, at 50 pounds, about 27 inches tall, and 16 inches wide, the Mill requires a significant outlay of space. Even in my fairly spacious kitchen, finding someplace for the Mill to sit where it was both accessible and not in the way—and within a couple feet of a power outlet—was a challenge. For those short on counter space, the Mill being on the floor may give it an edge over countertop competitors like the Lomi.
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