This week’s SmartHome roundup features new home automation and entertainment solutions for the connected home, including the Ikanos app gateway hub, Dropcam’s plans for the future for connected devices, and Samsung’s new HomeSync solution.

Ikanos’ Application Gateway for Home Automation

Early in October, Ikanos Communications Inc. announced one of the industry’s first application gateways, which hosts a range of energy-management applications from the Energy@home Association using a single gateway processor.

The applications gateway is built around the Ikanos’ Fusiv Vx185 processor and AGSuite software from Gemino-Srl, and enables machine-to-machine communication in an ecosystem of connected and interacting appliances to optimize energy consumption, increase efficiency, prevent overloads, and create new services for consumers.

Homes equipped with the applications gateway will benefit from a user-friendly, single-point energy management system controllable via an in-home console or a smartphone.

Dropcam makers plan to enter home automation

Dropcam has been consistently at the top of Amazon’s list of the most sought-after home surveillance solutions, but the maker of the devices hopes to deliver more in the future by entering the home automation market.

With the recently unveiled Dropcam Pro with Bluetooth low energy radio, it has opened up the doors for communicating with other connected devices such as smart pet collars and door sensors so it will easily alert you if there’s an intruder in the house.

Aside from the new BLE feature, the Dropcam Pro now has a field of view of 130º which means more area is covered by the device, the night vision mode is now clearer, and 8x zoom so even if you enlarge the image, the quality of the image is not affected.

Samsung HomeSync

Samsung has no problems encroaching on Apple’s territory with the recently released HomeSync media center.  HomeSync is like Apple TV for Samsung fans, allowing users to sync content from their Galaxy devices to the media center, as well as get data from HomeSync anytime they want.

The HomeSync connects to a TV via an HDMI connection, connects to the internet via Ethernet, and supports wireless keyboards and mice for web browsing.  Its 1TB of storage supports up to eight separate accounts, and allows users to sync photo albums, video, and music and to upload and download mobile content, as well as purchase shows and movies online.

HomeSync pairs up with  the Galaxy S4,Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 8, the 2014 edition of the Galaxy Note 10.1, and Galaxy Camera.  The service is available for $299.

What to build a smarter home? Check out our Smart Homes collection of stories on Springpad.