Published May 14, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT His love of PCs and their components was born out of trying to squeeze every ounce of performance out of the family computer. Tinkering with his own build at age 10 turned into building PCs for friends and family, fostering a passion that would ultimately take shape as a career path.  Besides being the first call for tech support for those close to him, Ty is a computer science student, with his focus being cloud computing and networking. He also competed in semi-pro Counter-Strike for 8 years, making him intimately familiar with everything to do with peripherals. For the last decade, smart home products have largely operated within the same general promise. That is, replace your stuff with our stuff, and your house becomes smart. Smart fridges with cameras inside them, smart ovens with companion apps, smart thermostats, you name it. The dream of a fully connected home is just a few purchases away, some big, some small.…