GADGET GURU’S MAGIC BOX

Continued cat chronicles: so it turns out that magneto-chip-flaps are only effective if one of your cats doesn’t exit the house by frantically pulling the flap open then ever so gingerly letting it flop down onto her tail, thus leaving the flap open for neighbouring felines to come spray your house with wee. And so Guru has set up a Swann wire-free Smart Security Camera ($215) to hopefully catch the culprit in the act. Admittedly it has its issues – the magnetic mount isn’t quite strong enough to stop the whole affair flopping downwards if placed on the underside of the ball joint, for instance – but its motion detection seems hot enough, and it doubles as a way to spy on the postie.

This issue’s standing desk question had Guru thinking hard about his terrible spine, to the point that he went out and picked up an ergonomic noblechairs HERO (from $449) for his home office. Ostensibly for gaming, but really just a supremely heavyweight chair with a steel frame and some pretty lovely lines, it has certainly done a good job of confirming GaGu’s posture issues as well as cushioning his behind. Extended use report coming soon.

Here’s a tip: reconditioned second-gen Echo Dots can be had for around $60, and Guru has just about covered every corner of his home in them. Multi-room audio is easy, in-home broadcasts are a great way to assemble the brood for their tea, and drop-ins are the teensiest bit creepy. What really gets GaGu’s goat, though, is that none of these functions are available on basically any Alexa-supporting device bar first-party Echoes at this point. Why not, Amazon?