The August Smart Lock secures our top pick for smart home and appliances
Kitchen & Household
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The goal of smart home tech is to add convenience and safety to your life.
The August Smart Lock takes care of both of these.
That's why this year this is our top pick for a gift in the smart home and appliances category.
Any tech enthusiast that wants to make their home more connectable would be thrilled with this gift.
It works with your existing deadbolt so you can still enter with your key if you'd like.
And turn it to lock it from the inside as usual with no power required.
And no one on the outside will be able even tell you have it installed.
So we've seen lots of smart home products.
Disrupt the basic functionality of their newly connected item.
August avoids that trap.
It adds Bluetooth, and app enabled functionality without taking any of the old fashioned options away.
Via Bluetooth you can lock and unlock the door remotely with the app for iOS or Android.
If you generally forget to lock your door, you can automate that process, and have August lock up behind you.
After a set amount of time.
And in terms of convenience, if you get home and you have an arm full of groceries you can use the geofencing feature for the iOS version of the app to unlock the door for you once you get within a hundred yards.
You could also hand out and take away digital keys to guests at will with no extra cost.
And hey.
If you're giving this as a gift, you want it to look good.
August was designed by award winner, Eve Behar.
It seems a little bulky at first.
But it grows on you.
You also don't wanna give somebody a tech gift that'll be obsolete in a few months.
Good news.
August is limited to Bluetooth, but it's already compatible with the smart things and Harmony hubs.
For wider connectivity.
In August, is on the list of projects ready for Apple's upcoming home kit.
So this lock connects as an important piece of a larger connected home for a long time to come, making it the perfect smart home gift for any tech enthusiast.
For CNET appliance, I'm Andrew Gephart
