Thanksgiving isn’t the only day Americans will be celebrating this week. While this Thursday is a chance to see family, watch football, and (most importantly) eat, the next day is the most treasured by shoppers.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the "unofficial" start of the holiday shopping season and an exercise in unbridled capitalism.
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What does this mean? Retailers, both online and in-store, will be offering deep discounts on a variety of wares, including celebrated smart home products
We’ve rounded-up a few of our favorite home technology deals below. Note: Not all of these deals will be available online; some may require a trip to a retail location. Black Friday discounts may not be reflected online until Friday, Nov. 25.
Have a Hub, Won’t You?
Get in on the ground floor of what will be the next frontier in the personal technology terrain: The smart home hub.
Hubs are the Wi-Fi enabled, and often voice-activated, devices that can tell you the weather, read you the news, and, most importantly, control your growing collection of smart home products.
The current critics’ darling, the Amazon Echo Voice-Controlled Speaker ($180, $140) and its newer, sleeker sibling, the Amazon Echo Dot ($50, $40), will each be knocking around 20% off their prices over at Amazon on Friday.
More:Keep in the Know With Variety of Informative Smart Home Products
If brand loyalty, or simply a wider array of color options, is important you, Best Buy is offering Google’s first foray into the hub space, the Google Home ($130, $100), at a $30 discount.
Perhaps you don’t quite feel comfortable talking to your lightbulbs, albeit via an Echo, and prefer a more tactile hub solution. The Wink Relay ($100, $70), a touchscreen wall switch hub that can double as an intercom, and The Wink Relay starter kit ($100, $70), which includes a Wink hub and a pair of smart GE lightbulbs, will be available for the identical 30% discount at Amazon.
More:Stay Connected, At Home and Abroad, Through Intercom Systems
Once you have a hub, you better get some products to communicate with otherwise you’ll just be talking to yourself, which is embarrassing.
Outfit With Intelligence In Time for the Holidays
By Black Friday, winter, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, is well and truly underway. Days have gotten shorter, temperatures are plummeting and homes are preparing for a steady stream of holiday guests.
Fortunately, this year’s Black Friday deals feature a number of products for your hibernation and holiday needs.
Best Buy is offering a substantial discount on the Philips Hue LED White and Color starter kit ($180, $120), smart bulbs that can shift strength and shade on command, and be programmed to turn on/off at specific times of the day or following certain events (entry, exit, etc).
Keep cozy, conserve energy and combat temperature-meddling family members this holiday season with the Nest Learning Thermostat Third Gen ($250, $200). The Google-owned smart home product, which can locate your presence in a property and adjust the temperature accordingly, will be available for $50 off at Amazon, Target and Walmart.
It may be time to upgrade to the world's smartest refrigerator.
samsung.comFree yourself from the constant cleaning this holiday season with the Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum ($899, $799). This nearly sentient sucker, which cleans a wide-range of floor types, will perform scheduled cleanings and can be controlled with your preferred smart device. Best Buy is offering a $100 discount on the machine, which will mitigate one of the more annoying aspects of the seemingly endless parade of holiday guests.
Finally, Black Friday 2016 presents an opportunity to purchase the Holy Grail of smart home products, the Samsung Family Hub ($6,000, $4,000), at a potent price cut. As we previously noted:
Incorporating a nearly door-sized touch screen device, the Samsung Family Hub can mirror your television, play your tunes from Pandora, TuneIn Radio or digital library (via Radiant 360 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth speakers), serve a kitchen-specific sketchpad for finger drawing or display the latest photos from your phone. And those are just a few of it’s more ridiculous features.
The Family Hub comes completely stacked with internal cameras, which take a snapshot of your fridge every time the door closes and delivers it to your smart device, so you can check what groceries you need while you’re out on town.
Check Samsung’s site for appliance dealers in your area that will be offering the smartest cold storage unit devised by man at two-thirds its original asking price.
More:Discover the Marvels of a Modern Kitchen
Entertainment Upgrade
On the more "fun" end of functional home technology, two offers stand out.
Sam’s Club will be selling a top-tier intelligent TV at a 28% discount. The LG 70UH6350 4K UHD Smart HDTV ($1,399, $998) offers beautiful resolution and blur-mitigation, web browsing capabilities and simple pairing with streaming services, all in a glorious 70-inch display. And at a pretty, pretty price cut too.
More:Tips for Upgrading Your Entertainment System
You’ll need a decent sound system to pair with your sizeable new screen, and fortunately, Walmart is willing to help.
The VIZIO 38" 5.1-Channel Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer and Rear Satellite ($248,$149) provides expertly tuned audio and an immersive surround sound experience that will elevate any living room into a home theater—and it can be yours for $50 off.