Wireless homes are a lot like cell phones, with controllers that talk to devices like your television, cable box and more. The magic in wireless homes is the transfer of information between two or more devices that aren't connected physically. What we'll explore in this article are the types of devices that can connect wirelessly.
So how many different types of wireless technology do we have at home?
- Personal wireless devices like smart phones, tablets, iPods and more.
- Computer technology is now using wireless technology to connect to the Internet and other devices in our homes.
- Home entertainment is growing your collection of wireless devices at home.
- Home automation with technology to automate and control home functions that we're used to doing manually, like turning off lights or setting the thermostat.
Wireless Technology – Charging Your Devices
How often do you leave your home in the morning, scrambling to find your cell phone and realize you didn't charge it overnight? The best way to solve this problem is with one or more home charging stations and that's where the challenge lies. Even though you can now buy wall outlets that include USB ports (below right, on the end), it means leaving your cell phone, iPad and other devices on the floor.
That's why so many people are charging their phones in the kitchen or bathroom. That's the only place where there are outlets with a flat surface but yikes, there's also water and that's not a good combination. That's why you should look for charging stations that sit on a desk or other surface, and have a cord to plug into the wall (shown except for mini travel charger lower right).
Wireless Technology Makes Home Computer Networks Easier to Manage
Computers are powerful and challenging to get them working correctly. In wireless homes, the challenge to connect all the devices is much, much easier as you no longer need physical connections between all the boxes. To illustrate, here is my wireless home network:
- We're using FIOS (fiber optic communications from our local phone company) to connect to the Internet and because we were down for 4 days last year, we've also got a cable connection we can turn on with one phone call.
- From the network interface box, there is CAT-5 wiring to the router which provides support for both wired and wireless connection in your home.
- We have multiple computers scattered around the house and they're able to find and connect to each other.
- All of the computers, both desktops and laptops, can also find all our printers.
- Given the size of my photo and video collection, we also have a network attached storage device to keep this data accessible without using all my computer's storage.
- In addition to archiving data locally, we use Carbonite to make remote backups of all computers.
Home Entertainment Grows with Wireless Technology
If you have children, you've collected a vast array of digital games (PC Magazine's review of the latest game systems). Home entertainment previously centered around the television, the cable box and other devices like audio, to enhance the experience.
What's exciting with wireless homes is that audio and video may now be stored in one location, and shared throughout the house. Wireless technology is enabling this new digital world, and you should expect to see more products coming to market that will begin to help you consolidate all of your digital assets and for ideas on how to organize everything, there are lots of entertainment center ideas on Pinterest.
Young_Cougar
This article here says; Future in the now. :) Loved the article, gave me some ideas I might want to implement in my home. Plus, I think with connected devices it is much easier to use parent protection on all the devices kids have today.
Tina Gleisner
I’m glad you enjoyed the article & thanks for mentioning the importance of monitoring how your children use technology. My boys are grown & on their own, so I forget how important that is.
Young_Cougar
No problem!