A great first example of the future of all home automation is the Nest thermostat. Nest installs on your wall like any other thermostat (though it looks way cooler) but uses sensors, algorithms, machine learning and cloud computing to figure out what you want. It looks at the time, the temperature, the day of the week and other factors. It notices what time you get up, go to work and come home, what temperature you prefer and when you prefer it.

It has smart settings for when you’re away. And you can override the automated controls with an app on your phone. — Mike Elgan