A Retro Toy Hack That Can Open Most Garages

Short post, but I saw this video from one of my YouTube faves, Veritasium, where they hack a retro Mattel instant messaging toy for little girls, called IM me, to open garages when they don’t use rolling code tech. Interesting, nerdy, and a little disconcerting but not THAT easy to pull-off. Apparently, this has been a … Read more

Turn Any Garage Door Into a Smart Garage Door

Over the past year or so, smart and/or WiFi-enabled garage door openers have been released from brands like Craftsman, Ryobi, and others. Those units, however, require you to purchase and install a new system for upwards of $200-$400+, depending on what features you go with. Wouldn’t it be sweet if you could just plug a little … Read more

The New Craftsman Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener

Craftsman announced its new “smart” garage door opener recently, and while it’s got nothing on the Ryobi modular opener in terms of features, sometimes and for some folks, simpler is better. Like most openers these days the Craftsman Wi-Fi Smart Control Garage Door Opener ($230) is belt-driven for much quieter operation than chain-driven openers. The 1¼ … Read more

A Smartphone Case and Universal TV & Garage Remote in One?

Um… I suppose if you’re in the market for a new smartphone case and you have a strange habit of losing your TV remote and/or garage remote (??) then this will be handy. I’ll just let the video speak for itself… The PhoneMote comes in three colors: And here’s a breakdown of what the PhoneMote … Read more

LiftMaster's New Mini Universal Remote

For the 70% of folks like me who use the garage as the primary entry point into our homes and need a remote door opener, LiftMaster is introducing its new Mini Universal Remote Control.

The RYOBI Modular Garage Door Opener

After living with an obnoxiously loud chain drive garage door opener for eight years, we just replaced our opener with an amazingly quiet belt drive. But wouldn’t ya’ know it… this thing comes out a month later, and I want one! Call it the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of garage door openers, the new RYOBI Garage Door … Read more