Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Gadget lovers can be so hard to buy for. There are so many devices on the market these days, it can be really difficult to figure out which gadgets are actually worth the money. If you have a gadget lover in your life, here are some perfect gifts for them.

Philips Lux

The Philips Hue light bulbs came onto the market a few years ago and immediately became a favorite of smart home enthusiasts. But at $60 per bulb, the price is a little steep for the average gadget lover. So Philips recently introduced the companys new Hue Lux bulb, which packs in the same smart home capabilities at half the price. While these new bulbs dont have the ability to put out every color in the light spectrum, they do put out a golden glow of warm white light. For gadget lovers that dont need their bulbs to flash green, red and purple, but just want a well-built smart bulb, the Hue Lux is a perfect gift.

Philips Tap

Another entry from Philips, the Hue Tap, tackles one of the biggest problems with smart bulbs: the lack of physical light switches. Sure, all those smart home capabilities are cool, but its not very convenient to find your phone, unlock it, search for the app and mess around with a bunch of settings when all you want to do it turn on a light. The four-button Tap allows you to control your smart bulbs and choose from your favorite light recipes with a physical switch thats always there when you need it. The Tap also uses the kinetic energy of each press to power the device, which means there are no batteries to change or wiring jobs to do. It just works right out of the box.

Dyson DC59 Motorhead

Its not often that you get excited by a vacuum cleaner, but Dysons battery-powered DC59 Motorhead is a serious little machine. This svelte vacuum weighs less than 5 pounds but has nearly as much sucking power as a much heavier full-sized Dyson. The DC59 boasts 24 minutes of vacuuming action, which is more than enough time to tackle an apartment or small home, and its small form-factor also makes it well suited for cleaning the car, drapes, stairs or any other place where a full-sized vacuum would be too cumbersome.

Anova Sous Vide

Sous vide cooking has been gaining in popularity in culinary circles for years, but the price of these machines has left them out of reach for the home chef. Anova looks to change all that with its line of sous vide cookers geared toward the casual cook. Sous vide is the art of cooking food in a temperature controlled water bath, which means you can cook soft-boiled eggs with a perfect custardy texture or get the ideal medium rare steak without ever worrying about overcooking your food. Anova offers two sous vide devices: The Precision Cooker is the perfect machine for the first-time sous vide chef, while the Anova One is geared toward more advanced chefs that want even more control over their food.

Kwikset Kevo

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High-tech home gift guide

TAMPA Dave Mantiones only regret is that he didnt hire a home inspector to keep an eye out from the time the foundation to his new home was poured.

I wish I could go back and spend the money to have the house inspected every step of the way, said Mantione, who recently had a house constructed in Citrus Park.

He did hire a certified inspector once he closed on the house and what home inspector Mark Cramer found was a sagging truss, followed by a haphazard repair job. Cramer also found that subcontractors had fastened the rain gutters to the drip edge of the roof, which, down the road, could lead to a costly leak repair.

These days, a vast number of homebuyers hire inspectors so they know exactly what they are getting. But not every inspector is created equal. In Florida, there is a licensing requirement for home inspectors, but virtually every contractor in the state was grandfathered in when the rules were set up in 2010. Special interests got involved and they basically opened it up to everybody, said Frank Lesh, executive director of the American Society of Home Inspectors.

Members of his organization must conduct at least 250 home inspections to become a member. They also must take and pass an inspection examination and an ethics examination to become a certified inspector. Our organization is the only one in North America that has a third party certified inspection test, Lesh said. Consumers can find certified inspectors by visiting http://www.ashi.org. There are about 60 in the greater Tampa Bay area.

Most inspections are conducted on existing homes. About 15 percent are done on new construction.

Its really incumbent on consumers to know what they are buying when they get a home inspection, Lesh said. The word certified is like the word Kleenex. Everybody uses it, but Kleenex is a brand name and you get a quality product with it. Same with certified inspectors, he said.

While plumbers, electricians and contractors may be legally entitled to call themselves home inspectors, it is rare they actually have the expertise to legitimately inspect a house for a buyer, he said.

The most important thing you can do when looking to hire someone is to look at a sample report from that inspector, Cramer said. They are available on the ASHI website. They will mostly look the same, but if you look deeper at what they are writing, you can see if that is the type of inspector you are seeking.

A good home inspector is searching for expensive future repairs, such as a roof that is near the end of its normal life span, water intrusion in wood frame walls and safety concerns, like too-steep or rickety staircases, Cramer said. The buyer is given an inspection report so the repair issues can be addressed.

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Finding right home inspector key in spotting future headaches

By Kelly O'Brien

Boston.com Staff | 12.10.14 | 5:10 PM

Every year, along with the snow and the Christmas lights, comes a flood of warnings to protect your home from burglars looking to take advantage of all the houses left empty during holiday vacations. Call it the Home Alone effect.

But google something along the lines of holiday home break-ins and youll see a lot of tips written by insurance agencies or companies selling home security systems. Not surprisingly, some of those tips include Buy our security equipment, or Get our insurance.

So are holiday crime sprees just a myth cooked up by self-interested corporations and classic 90s films? Or do the numbers justify the fears?

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Boston.com dove into the stats from the last few years, punching our calculators and tabulating the averages to bring you the answer, which is it kind of depends.

First, lets look at the data from Boston proper, which bears out the common wisdom to some extent.

The Boston Police Department breaks its crime data down by week, so we actually get to see how the trend changes within the month of December in 2012 and 2013.

The first half of December is pretty normal (i.e. the blue and green bars are about the same height as the purple bar, which represents the average of all 52 weeks of the year), but in both years those last two weeks where Christmas and New Years fall saw significantly more burglaries than the normal week.

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Winter Holidays Not Actually Burglary Season; "Home Alone' Still Awesome

Christina Chin

The Star

Publication Date : 14-12-2014

Cementing four decades of diplomatic relations with a commitment to address regional security issues, the home ministry has made great strides forward in fostering strong collaborations with China.

To enhance the nations security, Malaysia will be working very closely with the Peoples Republic of China particularly on enforcement measures, home minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi stressed to Sunday Star.

The ministrys move is in line with what prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had earlier described as the two countries joint vision to sustain the security that has allowed dynamic economic growth for both sides.

Speaking to Chinas newspaper, the Peoples Daily, during the 2014 Apec Economic Leaders Week in Beijing last month, the premier had referred to China as an important friend and partner - something Dr Ahmad Zahid, who led a delegation of senior officials on a six-day working visit to China recently, echoed. Dr Ahmad Zahid was in Beijing to meet with officials and the countrys State Councillor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun.

He also visited security sites such as the Police Training Academy and the Ministry of Public Securitys research institution where research and development of technological security products are conducted.

Dr Ahmad Zahid also witnessed the signing of the minutes of the Second Malaysia-China Joint Working Group Meeting on Cooperation in Transnational Crime.

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A new era in China-M'sia relations

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Being Human is closing its doors.

After four seasons and more than 50 episodes, Syfy's adaptation of the British drama finishes its run with a series finale that promises to finish the story of the four supernatural roommates. In "There Goes the Neighborhood Part III," Sally (Meaghan Rath) makes a sacrifice to keep her vision of Aidan (Sam Witwer) killing Josh (Sam Huntington) from coming to fruition, while Josh and Nora (Kristen Hager) consider their future as parents.

PHOTOS: 2014's New Broadcast and Cable TV Shows

As Witwer hints to The Hollywood Reporter, "not everyone makes it out of this" in Monday's swan song. In a candid chat, the actor previews the series' final episode, reveals his favorite episodes and tells what he'll miss most.

When did you know this was the final season of Being Human?

We knew about a year ago. We were in a position where some weird things were happening with the finance and what it all amounted to was our budget going down and basically the decision was, sure, we could make a season five but it might not be any good. We all talked and decided that the best thing to do was to end it with season four and so we went to Syfy to make that request. First they said "sure" to an ending and they weren't committing to it, but thankfully they honored the ending we created because the whole season was designed to be a swan song for all these characters.

It's somewhat of a rarity for television shows to end on that note.

It's extraordinarily rare, and to be honest, I'm super surprised that it all worked out because you never get that opportunity to end things on your own terms, to have something you feel happy with as a story from beginning to end. I really respect Syfy for honoring that.

STORY: Syfy Cancels 'Being Human'

Did you notice, from a storytelling perspective, that the stakes were getting higher in the final 13 episodes?

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'Being Human': Sam Witwer on 'Swinging for the Fences' and Bittersweet Series Finale

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