Sonos Streaming Audio System
Sonos is a whole house system which will wirelessly beam music to as many units as you like. It can pull not only from your own library, but also from a myriad of streaming services. It can also simultaneously stream different sources to different zones in the house. And you can even use your iPad or iPhone to control the action from the palm of your hand. Best of all, the only wires needed are for power and audio. At $US300, the Sonos Play3 is the cheapest way to get your hands on a Sonos product. $US300.
LG Super Multi NAS Drive
Connecting your computer to your HDD for backups is a pain in the arse, right? And what about all those MP3s and videos that won’t fit on your laptop drive? If you had a NAS drive, you could set your computer to automatically back itself up every night and stream music to your computer or internet-connected audio device. $US250.
GE Z-Wave Wireless Lighting Control
Imagine having control over not just one light fixture, but all the lights in your home from a single remote. GE and Zwave have teamed up to offer a range of products which will make all your existing lighting remote controllable via radio waves. By either installing a special lightswitch or plug module, you’ll be conducting a multi-room light show from your couch. ~$US200.
Eye-Fi X2 Wi-Fi SD Card
Uploading your photos from your camera to your computer is always the biggest hassle of the process. You either can’t find the camera cable, or your photo software won’t recognise your card reader, or some other problem. But with the Eye-Fi, your camera can send those files over to your computer without needing a single cable. Just turn on the Eye-Fi, fire up the software on your computer and let the two-machines get to work. $40
Lockitron Wireless Door Lock
OK, so maybe your door locks didn’t require any wires to begin with, but hell, how are you not entranced by the prospect of opening your door with your phone. If you’re not home and someone needs to get in the house, you can text your door to let them in. THAT, my friends, is the future. $US300.
Netgear Push2TV Wireless HDMI Streamer
More and more computers and phones are coming with the ability to transmit a wireless HDMI video signal, however, many of our TVs don’t natively support the technology. You need a receiver so that you can watch whatever you feel like on your TV without worrying about codecs, or file types or, most importantly, cables. Netgear’s Push2TV box will get you up and running on the cheap. $US95.
Image: Shutterstock/Kinetic Imagery
Jacko
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 1:23 PMDamn, thought I’d have to blow next month’s pay on a slew of new tech, but with a Logitech Revue, Squeezebox, Synology NAS and the Eye-Fi card looks like I’m already good to go!
jj
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 2:07 PMDont be so negative about wires… Firstly they are a more secure option also providing better bandwith. Secondly there is increasingly more cases of emr sensitivity. I know friends and family that refuse to use bluetooth headsets because of headaches. Considering an average household has wifi, cordless phone, bluetooth game controller, microwave, and less so Tv radio signals, these may have an accumulated affect on us especially in tightly packed row housing or apartment blocks where a wifi scan picks up dozens of access points…. Surely not too good for the old grey matter
Ozoneocean
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 6:54 PMThere’s EM radiation all over the place though and it’s never been proven to do anything harmful as far as I know. Even the sun bombards you with massive does of it daily and lighting gives it off for miles around. There are already standard AM and FM radio signals and TV signals that have been bombarding us for almost 100 years (radio, not TV). There’s broadcasts from satellites, you could even get in the way of a microwave transmission to a TV station… Even power-lines radiate the stuff…
The only difference with home wireless is that those waves actually transmit information (well, TV and radio do as well), and they’re low powered enough just to be in your home and not transmit too far outside it. They’re probably MORE benign than the rest of the sources.
Joe Magic
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 2:44 PMI was all set to get a Synology NAS. WAF was high after budget discussions and then hard drive prices go and double over night. Sigh. No Nas for Joe : (
Glenn Mortimer
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 4:21 PMEthernet over power works awesome also, it still involves cables but not very many.
Peter
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 11:12 PMSo No. 1, 2 and 6 require wires you wouldn’t have previously had, No. 3 and 5 replace things that don’t have wires anyway. So perhaps the title should read “One way to reduce one cable from your household”, although if you have a built in card reader in your computer, as many people do, you don’t need that one anyway…