Connecting and controlling all your home devices—including major appliance and heating and cooling systems—can be a daunting and expensive task. But Belkin hopes to simplify home automation with its WeMo devices introduced at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

This week comes the annual Green Industry and Equipment Expo (GIE+Expo), a trade show for outdoor power equipment and related products, which starts Thursday in Louisville. We’ll be previewing interesting products on display at the three-day show, which is a joint effort of the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, Professional Grounds Management Society, and Professional Landcare Network (or PLANET). We also hope, given the show’s 19-acre outdoor demo area, to get our hands on some of the outdoor gear we’ll be testing over the coming year.

Lawn tractors with power steering can cost as much as $5,100 for a John Deere X360. But this week, MTD announced that its Cub Cadet brand will feature power steering on models costing as low as $2,500. The news was...

Robotic mowers have been around even longer than the Roomba and other robotic vacuum cleaners. And as with robotic vacuums, Consumer Reports has found self-motivating mowers both pricey and persnickety as a group. But that hasn’t daunted Worx, which...

Most hedge trimmers plug into an outlet—great for long trimming sessions, not so great if you hate fussing with (or slicing through) a power cord. Stihl is among the major names changing the scenario: The company unveiled its cordless...

The annual Green Industry and Equipment Expo (GIE+Expo), a trade show for outdoor power equipment and related products, starts today in Louisville. The three-day show is a joint effort of the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, Professional Grounds Management Society,...

We’re about to start testing new snow blowers for an upcoming report, and one in our sights is a new take on Toro’s 1800 Power Curve, which is in our current Ratings (available to subscribers). Toro is showing it...

The Symphony II manages generator power. Energy use and savings generated a lot of the buzz at last month's International Builders' Show, as did such related products as GE smart appliances, the Honeywell Wind Turbine WT6500, and Dow Solar...

The building industry put on a good face in Vegas. Throughout last week's International Builders' Show, rain fell on Las Vegas, an unusual occurrence for the host city that was somehow fitting for the reeling building industry. But the...

Cree has introduced the CR6 LED recessed downlight, which it hopes can be a real contender to compact fluorescent lightbulbs.By reducing the number of LEDs used in the 6-inch CR6, Cree has limited its energy consumption to 12 watts,...

Proponents of the smart grid hope it will pave the way for real-time electricity pricing, enabling you to lower your utility bills by powering down appliances during peak demand periods when the kilowatt-hour cost of electricity is at its...

The Consumer Reports Home team is in Las Vegas this week at the 2010 International Builders' Show, covering the event via our Twitter page, blog posts, and videos. Here are some day-one updates.• We expected that attendance at this year's...

The recession has hit all sectors of the economy, and the appliance industry has not been spared. At this year's Kitchen/Bath Industry Show & Conference, held last month in Atlanta, there were fewer displays and attendees. But like all the...

In this installment of 10 Questions for . . . , Senior Editor Daniel DiClerico speaks with Tyler Jones, president of Blue Heron Development, which built the New American Home 2009 at the International Builders' Show in Las Vegas. Here,...

The Consumer Reports Home & Garden team has been in Las Vegas this week attending the 2009 International Builders' Show, the housing industry's largest trade event. Our market analysts are checking out the latest home products and gear across the...