This week’s Smart Living roundup features a home security solution appealing to Apple Fanboys, a phone manufacturer’s entry into the connected car market, and a gadget that turns you into a master baker.

Sentri fits into your lifestyle

There are several security systems available in the market catering to different needs, from professional installations to DIY solutions. What many of these security systems share in common, however, is a high price tag. Now a newly launched project on Kickstarter aims to make home automation and security much more affordable, easy to use, and sleekly designed.

Meet Sentri, a smart security system that claims to learn your behavior in order to deliver important notifications when needed and avoid false alarms.

Looking at Sentri’s design, one could easily mistake it for a product from Apple. Designed to fit with any interior, Sentri can be mounted on the wall, placed on the mantle, bookshelf or just about anywhere. It can also be used as an inconspicuous monitoring device, as it can easily be mistaken for a digital clock or digital picture frame.

Though Sentri is a home security system, it promises more. Armed with a bevy of sensors, Sentri will include a night vision camera, motion sensor, HD camera, thermometer, air quality sensor, light sensor, humidity sensor, speaker and microphone, and an accelerometer.  All these technologies will be crammed in a device that’s less than 10 inches in height and width with a depth of 1.5 inches. These technologies will play a huge role in allowing users to remote control other connected devices, see live video feeds of their home, as well as other security and automation features.

Because it’s handling sensitive information about your habits and your home, it uses bank-level security, “2048 bit RSA encryption,” the standard protocol for most bank-level data transmission.  Sentri is also making an appeal to app makers, with developer rewards and incentives.

With a few more days on Kickstarter, Sentri has already achieved its initial funding goal and aims to ship the first batch by May 2015.

LG joins Google’s Open Automotive Alliance

At Google I/O, the search giant’s annual developer conference, all eyes seemed to be on smart and connected cars. Google aims to make road vehicles distraction-free with the Android Auto, a platform that makes car dashboards behave like an Android phone.

Earlier this year, Google launched the Android-focused Open Automotive Alliance and had several big name automotive makers such as General Motors, Honda, Audi, Hyundai, as well as chipmaker Nvidia, as its early partners in making cars safer, and it recently welcomed LG, the first phone maker and Android-supporter to the alliance.

At I/O, LG introduced a new range of audio, visual and navigation (AVN) system solutions for connected cars.  Slated for a 2015 release, LG’s AVN system will enable drivers to connect their Android devices using a single cable to vehicles running Android Auto.  This will allow the drivers to access smartphone features and functions such as saved maps or navigation apps, and phone contacts.

The connected car market is expected to boom in the next three years, and LG is determined to be at the forefront. LG’s connected car offerings as well as its 4G LTE solution position the company to play a leading role in connected cars in the near future.

image courtesy Drop

Drop – the smart food scale

If you’ve ever tried baking, you know that it’s not like cooking by taste — you need exact measurements for perfect pastries to rise in the oven.

Ben Harris, an award-winning industrial designer, sees a huge potential in turning the kitchen into a smart and connected one. With friends Jack Phelan, Jonny McCauley and Tim Redfern, Harris came up with Drop.

Drop is a drop-shaped, connected scale that connects with the iPad.  It’s a connected weighing scale that not only measures the perfect amount of ingredients needed for your desired recipes, but is smart enough to make adjustments when needed.

To use Drop, just place a mixing bowl on top of it and using your iPad, you choose a recipe and start adding ingredients.  Your iPad will give you real-time feedback if you’ve added the right amount ingredients to avoid overages.

For those times when you don’t have all the ingredients on hand, the Drop app will recommend optimal alternatives based on data from the scale. Because Drop knows at what stage you are at in the baking process, the app provides images and additional information as to what your recipe should look like at a given stage.

You can pre-order Drop for $80 and if you’re one of the lucky first 2,000 customers, your order will be shipped for free.

 feature image via Sentri