Wazombi's clever device smartens your shades (pictures)

Wazombi Smart Shades is a retrofit device that makes your shades app-enabled and schedulable.

The mechanism is simple: feed the loop from your shades into the wheel, and it will control your shades. Right now, this only works with beaded-chain shades, but interchangeable wheels will make it more flexible in the future.

The app is a little spare, but the interface is intuitive. Just drag the shade up or down to control it.

The light circle on the front of the device is touch sensitive, so features like "power mode" are easily toggled. Firmware updates should make the button more flexible and responsive.

The app reacts to the weather outside, changing colors and listing the temperature based on your phone's location.

For an extra $20 (about £14 or AU$26), you can get a solar panel that will keep the device charged. It also will act as a light sensor for further automation as Wazombi updates the device's software.

The primary way I used Smart Shades was scheduling. You can set up multiple schedules to run during the day.

Right now, Wazombi is available on Indiegogo for $90 (about £64 or AU$118). For more info, check out our full review.