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Imagine this: You pull up to your driveway and your garage door opens like magic. You head for your doorstep and walk right through the front door, no keys needed. Already, your favorite playlist is queued up on your smart speakers, and the room is set to the perfect temperature—all without saying a word to a smart assistant or pulling out your phone.  Those feats are possible thanks to a smart home feature called geofencing: that is, setting up a geolocated virtual perimeter or “fence” around your home, your office, or anywhere else you choose. When you cross the boundary—either coming or going—you can set your smart home to do something, usually by triggering an automation or routine.  There’s nothing new about geofencing—all the major smart platforms, from Alexa and Apple Home to Google Home and Samsung SmartThings—have offered geofencing functionality for years, as do many other major smart home ecosystems, including Philips Hue (for smart lighting), Chamberlain (for garage door controllers), and Ring (for smart home security).  Yet geofencing remains a feature that many of us overlook. Heck, I’m supposedly a smart home expert, and I admit to not giving geofencing much of a chance.   Luckily, getting started with a geofence is easy; what’s a little harder is wrapping your head around the possibilities.   Read on for some clever geofencing smart routines to try; this handful of examples may spark ideas for yet more location-based routines.  After that, I’ll give you a quick primer on how to get started with geofencing—it’s actually not that difficult.  Open your garage door like magic Chamberlain myQ Smart Garage Hub (model MYQ-G0401) Read our review Best Prices Today: $29.98 at Amazon I mentioned this geofencing trick at the jump, and it’s a neat one; having your smart home open your garage door automatically as you approach your driveway.  The way it works is simple: Using either your smart garage door opener’s app (such as the Chamberlain app for its MyQ garage door controller line) or, say, an Alexa routine, you define a circular perimeter–a geofence–around your home, perhaps the size of a city block.   When you cross the border of the geofence, your arrival will trigger the routine, opening your garage door just as you’re driving up.  Related: The best smart garage door openers Adjust your thermostat with ease Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) There’s nothing like coming home to a cool environment during the hot summer months, or to a warm, cozy living room in the dead of winter. But even if you already have thermostat automations that tweak the temperature according to the time of day, you should consider location-based automations that adjust the mercury dynamically as you come and go. For this example, you might want to set the geofencing radius a little wider—say, to an area that’s about a half-hour’s drive to your home, giving your A/C or heating enough time to bring the temperature in your house to the perfect level as you walk inside.  Same goes for when you leave your home. If you cross the geofencing border going the other way, your thermostat might switch to a power-saving routine while you’re gone.   Bonus tip: Most geofencing routines allow for triggering conditions such as “Only do (such-and-such) if no one is home”; that way, your smart home won’t turn change the target temperature if you head out but someone else is staying behind. The best smart thermostats have motion sensors–on the device itself and with some models, sensors you can deploy in multiple rooms–that can determine occupancy, so it doesn’t matter if not everyone has a cellphone. Arm and disarm your security system  Ring Alarm Pro (8-piece kit) Read our review Best Prices Today: $149.99 at Amazon What’s the point of having a smart security system if you forget to arm it when you leave? Good question.  Here’s where geofencing comes into play. Similar to what we just did with the thermostat, you can set up a geofence that automatically arms your security system when you leave home, or disarms it when you return (so no more fumbling with a keypad).   Geofencing is a prominent feature in the Ring app, and most other smart security manufactures offer similar functionality for their alarm systems.  Related: The best smart home alarms and systems Lock and unlock your front door  Level Lock Pro Read our review Just as you can use a geofence to arm and disarm your front door, so can you use it to lock and unlock your home’s smart lock, saving you from the trouble of fishing out your keys, pulling out your phone, or remembering a PIN.  In this scenario, you might want a fairly tight geofence radius to help ensure your smart lock stays locked unless you’re in close proximity; ditto for when you’re heading out the door.  Related: The best smart locks Turn your lights on and off  Philips Hue Festavia string lights Like coming home to a warm, cozy lighting scene? You can easily set your smart lights to turn on just the way you like as you’re arriving home—or have them turn off whenever you leave.  The Philips Hue app, for example, has a location-based automation trigger that will kick off your favorite lighting routine as you leave or enter a geofenced zone. You can also set the automation to run at any time of day, or only at night.  Related: The best smart lights Drop the needle on a music playlist  Amazon Echo Spot (2024) Read our review Best Prices Today: $54.99 at Amazon Aside from being greeted by the perfect lighting scheme when you come home, you might also want to hear your favorite tunes, too.  You can easily set a smart home app like Alexa or Google Home to detect when you’ve come home and then play the music of your choice on one or more selected smart speakers.   Related: The best smart speakers How to create a geofencing routine Intimidated by the idea of setting up a location-based automation? Don’t be; they’re easy.  Here’s an example using the Alexa app; this should help guide the way for the geofencing functionality in other smart home setups.  The translucent blue circle around the location is the geofenced area; tap and drag the little blue dot on the edge to expand or contract the perimeter.Ben Patterson/Foundry Open the Alexa app, tap the “+” button, then scroll down and tap Routines to create a new Alexa automation.  Now, we’ll create a location-based trigger. Under the When section, tap Add an event, then tap Location.   Next, enter an address or tap Current location; when you do, a map will appear showing the location you picked—such as, say, your home. The translucent blue circle around the location is the geofenced area; tap and drag the little blue dot on the edge to expand or contract the zone.   At the top of the screen are two tabs; Arrives and Leaves. This setting determines whether the routine gets triggered when you either arrive at the location or leave it. For this example, we’ll choose Arrives. When you’re ready, tap Next, then give your geofenced location a name.  Now, you’ll land back at the main Routine screen, where you can choose what happens when the automation gets triggered by your geofencing conditions. Under the Alexa Will section, tap Add an action. For this example, we’ll pick Music & Podcasts. You can then pick a song, an artist, a podcast, or a music station from the music-streaming source of your choice. I’ll go ahead and choose Taylor Swift on Apple Music.  Back at the main Routines screen, tap Choose Device under the Hear Alexa from section, then pick the Alexa speaker where you want to hear the music play; I’ll chose the Echo Dot in my kitchen. Tap Save.  All set! Now, whenever I walk through the front door, my favorite Taylor tunes will begin playing on my kitchen Echo—the perfect way to come home.  This article is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart home systems. Read...

I know I’m not alone in the frustration that comes from dreaded Windows updates hitting at the worst times. The small, incremental updates aren’t too bad, but the larger updates that turn up every so often can be a real source of stress—that is, until you choose to be proactive and take control of them like I eventually learned to do. To be clear, Windows updates are important. Without them, your PC is left open to malware, instability, and performance issues. (That’s why the end of Windows 10 support is such a big deal and why you should only stick with Windows 10 if you have extended support.) We recommend keeping your Windows PC updated whenever you can. Fortunately, while Microsoft is in charge of releasing the various Windows updates, you’re (somewhat) in control of installing them. Here are some simple tips you can use to stay on top of Windows updates and take the stress and dread out of them. Windows updates have gotten better, but they’re still a pain Dave Parrack / Foundry I’ve been using Windows for many years and I remember back when updates were forced on me, downloaded and installed without my knowledge or permission… and then Windows would reboot my PC without any warning. It sucked. No wonder it’s one of those things that annoys every single Windows user. Over the past few years, though, Microsoft has actually let up on some of the bigger pain points associated with Windows updates. We now have some control over when and how updates are applied, and it’s even better if you’re willing to use third-party tools. Here are the three main ways I’ve wrested back control of Windows updates from Microsoft. The first two are simple while the third requires a little more time and effort. However, when all three are combined, they provide a level of control and confidence that should help prevent the usual dread associated with Windows updates. Set Active Hours to prevent Windows from updating at inconvenient times Dave Parrack / Foundry The first way to take back control of Windows updates is to set Active Hours. It’s quick and easy to set up, and it helps guard against unexpected downloads and installations of updates. To set your Active Hours, open Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options. You should see an option for changing or adjusting Active Hours, which you can click on and switch to manual hours. Set the time period to the hours you’re most active on your PC. Windows will respect that period and won’t download or install updates during it, nor will it automatically restart your PC during those hours. Note that the Active Hours period is limited to a maximum of 18 hours. (If you’re actually active on your PC for longer than that, you may have bigger issues than Windows updating at inconvenient moments!) You also have the option to leave the Active Hours set automatically, in which case Windows will adjust the hour range according to your past activity, behavior, and PC usage. Pause Windows Updates when you can’t take the risk of updating Dave Parrack / Foundry Another simple measure, though one that’s slightly more extreme than Active Hours, is to pause Windows updates for a period of time. When paused, the whole Windows update process will be halted until the period passes and the resume date arrives. On Windows 10, you can pause for the next 7 days or switch to an advanced option that allows you to go up to 35 days. On Windows 11, you can choose to pause for between 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 weeks. When paused, the Windows Update section of Settings will show the pause symbol along with a button for Resume updates. Dave Parrack / Foundry To actually pause Windows updates, navigate to Settings > Windows Update and scroll down to the More options section, where you can see the “Pause updates” option. Learn how to fix or roll back troublesome Windows Updates The last (but not least) tip is to learn how to restore your Windows PC if a Windows update ever causes an issue. Methods can range from simply restarting your PC to running the Windows Update troubleshooter to rolling back an update that’s causing the issue. These are Windows survival skills that every user should know. Dave Parrack / Foundry If you decide to roll back a Windows update, the first step is to view your update history, which you can do by navigating to Settings > Windows Update > Update history. From here, you can see what updates you’ve installed and, if needed, choose to uninstall them. Learn more about prepping to roll back a Windows update and doing it safely. Another option is to run the Windows Update troubleshooter. On Windows 10, this can be found under Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot > Additional Troubleshooters > Windows Update. On Windows 11, it can be found under Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters > Windows Update. When Microsoft pushes, push back Taking control of Windows updates with these simple tips turned me from a submissive victim who dreaded unexpected PC updates to an active administrator in charge of it all. Ultimately, I still need to allow Windows to update when needed for security reasons, but at least I’m now involved in the process rather than being a passive participant who’s caught off guard. And if something goes wrong with a Windows update, I now have the knowledge needed to identify the problem and fix it. Further reading: Must-know Windows 11 security and privacy settings Read...

It feels like overnight AI has ended up just about everywhere. From deepfakes and ChatGPT homework, to em-dashes and political misinformation, keeping on top of the latest AI trends is almost impossible. Unfortunately, that also means it’s hard to stay protected from the latest AI scams and phishing attacks. They’re constantly evolving and that can make them more dangerous than ever. If you’re keen to find a way to protect yourself from fake calls from ‘relatives’, or the latest AI-enhanced phishing text messages, Norton 360 might be the tool for you. Alongside classic defensive measures like real-time antivirus and a smart firewall, it now comes equipped with Scam Protection. This anti-scam tool uses AI to fight AI, and can detect scams before you’ve even had a chance to read through one. Protect your family from sophisticated AI scamsVisit Norton How can you tell if a text message is a scam? Got a suspicious SMS message? Norton’s AI engine can detect a scam and warn you before you even open it. Encountered an image you think might be a deepfake, or an offer in an email that seems to good to be true? The AI Assistant is just a click away with useful advice and the ability to scan for scams, so you’re never caught out by nefarious actors ever again. Now standard in all Norton packages from its base AntiVirus Plus, right up to the Deluxe and Select Plus options, Scam Protection is there to help protect against the ever evolving threat landscape, including the latest in AI scams. That helps prevent you becoming the victim of some of the more personal attacks that malware makers are using these days, leveraging the power of AI to quickly change and personalize their scams to make them more effective than ever. Norton 360 with Scam Protection With at least 50% off on all standard Norton 360 packages at the time of writing, you can pick up the base Norton AntiVirus Plus package for the equivalent of just $2.50 per month for the first year. That gives you antivirus protection, a robust password manager for saving all your most important login data, and Scam Protection. It does only cover one device, though, so if you want to make sure you’re protected against AI scams across your phone as well as your laptop, tablet, and any other devices (not to mention those of your wider family), then there are other options available. You can add additional features with more advanced packages, too, such as secure cloud backups, a VPN for anonymous web browsing, dark web monitoring, enhanced parental controls, and real-time monitoring of your credit rating and finances. They come at a steeper cost, but even the top Select Plus package which covers 10 devices at a time is less than $10 a month equivalent for the first year. Regardless of which package works for you, though, each comes complete with anti-scam protection to make sure you and your loved ones don’t have to fear the rising issue of AI attacks. Protect your family from sophisticated AI scamsVisit Norton >> Read our Norton Security Buyer’s Guide Read...

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