Amazon Alexa and Google Home are great control centers to navigate your new smart home, but they aren't absolute necessities. Here are other ways to make your home smarter. John Carlsen has more than ...

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. Virtual assistants will soon be as commonplace as smartphones -- in many parts of the world, they already are. Most smartphones have a built-in ...

Chris Wedel is a fan of all things tech and gadgets. Living in rural Kansas with his wife and two young boys makes finding ways to stay online tricky — not to mention making my homestead smarter.

If you’re seeking to make your home smarter, odds are you’re in between two smart home ecosystems, Amazon Alexa versus Google Home. Both Amazon Alexa- and Google Assistant-enabled devices can help ...