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Back to School Gift Guide 2020

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This Fall, school might mean distance learning or a mix of classrooms and virtual, but one thing’s for certain: there will still be homework. Get ahead of whatever changes might happen by setting up a sweet, quiet spot for learning. Make sure students will have the tools they need to adapt and thrive – regardless of obstacles.

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Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…
Our confinement spurred the smart home’s increased growth in 2020
Google Assistant Smart Display New Features

Smart homes saw more use and more growth than ever before in 2020. When the mandated lockdowns began, people spent more time in their homes than they ever had, which led to a surge in devices and technology to make the home more comfortable and user-friendly. Home became more than a place to relax: it became the place you slept, the place you worked, and the place you spent your leisure time.
Lockdowns drove smart home growth
At the start of 2020, experts and analysts predicted a lot of changes in the smart home market; no one predicted COVID-19 and its effect on the planet at large. That said, many of the predictions about the market came true. Smart homes became smarter thanks to machine learning. The market became more widespread and saturated. More people than ever have robots in the home -- in the form of a robot vacuum or mop, anyway. We’re not at the point of robotic butlers just yet.

Interest in the smart home grew, too. A look at this Google Trends search shows that traffic for smart home spiked in the last weeks of April -- coincidentally about the time people had been stuck in their homes for a month. While the interest dropped off a bit over time, it has remained consistently higher this year than it was before the lockdown.

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The biggest trends we saw in the smart home in 2020
peloton

The smart home grew in such a dynamic way in 2020, fueled by the rush of adapting to a new normal of more people working from home, students learning remotely, and the challenges of figuring out how to have fun while quarantining. Companies from all corners of the smart home market adapted fairly quickly, so it's really tough to pinpoint the single biggest trends we saw in the smart home in 2020. Instead, we saw a collection of things that were spurred by the changing times.
A cleaner home everywhere
Everyone knows a clean home helps to mitigate the spread of germs, but this year we saw that focus profoundly present in the smart home. Air purifiers were a highly sought out necessity that helped to keep the air in the home clean. Many touted their air filtration systems, which featured UVC light that claimed to kill germs and bacteria in the air and in the water with humidifiers.

The cleanliness didn't stop there, as UVC light was ever-present in abundance throughout the smart home. Consider smart lighting company Lifx, which announced its Lifx Clean smart light bulb: Tests showed that it could kill 70% of bacteria within about two hours of use. While most of these smart home gadgets were practical, we did also see a fair share of over-the-top devices -- all good to ease concerns regarding cleanliness at home.

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Staff Picks: DT’s favorite smart home tech of 2020
Smart Home Top Tech 2020: Amazon Echo

At this point, smart speakers aren’t particularly new. In fact, we’ve seen countless speakers since they rose in popularity a few years ago. Amazon’s own line of Echo smart speakers helped usher in the age of the smart home, but this year’s model isn't just an incremental update. It's such a big leap that we think it's not only the best smart speaker you can currently buy, but also the best smart home product of 2020 as a whole.

Why? Well, first and foremost, the fourth-generation model Echo introduces a brand-new design that’s a refreshing change that features a spherical shape. Some folks were skeptical about the switch (including us), but the orb-shaped look of the Echo (4th Gen) was a necessary one over the cylindrical designs of its predecessors. Other speakers look blah with their predictable designs, which is why the Echo (4th Gen) particularly stands out for its odd design choice. Add to that its dazzling LED light ring, you’ll be entranced each and every time Alexa is activated.

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