Wish your home was smarter? Comcast is here to help.
The internet service provider has introduced a new set of cloud-connected features at CES 2017 designed to sync your devices and help you control them with greater ease using its Gateway hub.
Armed with the web, mobile app and voice commands, you can configure more devices in your dwelling over the internet as well as set controls to keep everything running just the way you like it.
But what exactly do these fresh features let you do? For starters, the new tool set allows for easy set up, personalization and categorization to organize the devices in your home.
You can then monitor signal strength between devices and personalize machines as you wish, while also keeping tabs on in-home Wi-Fi usage.
You can also set schedulers and implement a bedtime mode, keeping little Billy from hopping online after 8pm, for example. If you want everyone in your house to be internet-free during dinner, you can also pause access on all devices for just a short time.
The Xfinity X1 remote provides the vessel through which you can utter your voice commands, and even requests to see who's using your network will turn up results for which devices are currently connected.
Finally, the smart internet platform acts as "a first line of defense" against malicious actors, Comcast says, helping to keep your data and the data of your family members secure.
This suite of new connected home features will automatically arrive for customers with a Comcast Wi-Fi Gateway device in the first half of the year at no additional cost. That's about 10 million people who will have a smarter home without needing to lift a finger, so to speak, with the number expected to grow by the end of 2017.
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