Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

ASRock wants to put its X10 router at the center of your smart home

By Jon Martindale Published June 15, 2022

ASRock’s new X10 internet of things (IoT) router is a smart piece of equipment in its own right, but its creator wants to make it the center of your own smart home. Linking up with smart appliances, you can use the X10’s connectivity to control just about anything with remote access, all from the comfort of your mobile handset.

Once upon a time, the idea of a smart home meant building brand-new houses with wired connections throughout. Nowadays though, thanks to the advent of fast local Wi-Fi connections and capable smartphones, we can all enjoy the benefits of increased appliance connectivity, no matter the age of our home. The X10 is ASRock’s attempt to facilitate that while being a core component of it.

Recommended Videos

The Buy Now features support for 802.11AC wireless networking and has a pair of high-gain antennas to offer good signal coverage. It also supports both MU-MIMO and beamforming. It has four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a single USB 3.0 connection. It also comes with additional features like parental controls and the ability to operate a private VPN server.

Although it’s described as an IoT router, the ASRock X10 actually stands apart through its smartphone application connectivity. Available on iOS and Android, you can use the official app to control aspects of your internet connection and local network, as well as the devices that connect to it. Whether smart locks, smart lighting, or smart home sensors or cameras, you can control them all through the X10’s own application.

The control doesn’t have to be manual, either. You can set up what ASRock describes as “scenes,” that automate certain functions. You can have the lights turn off when you go to bed, or turn on your TV when you get up in the morning. You can even have the curtains close and set some mood lighting when you want to watch a movie.

Combine that ability with the X10’s support for geofencing and you can have cameras and security systems turn on when you leave your house, or turn on your lights when you return.

Although none of these features are unique in their own right, in combination, they allow the X10 does offer a comprehensive connectivity platform, and ASRock is hoping that for many people, it will be their window to a new world of interconnected devices, with its router at the center of it all.

You can Buy Now now for $140.

Evergreen writer

Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…

Topics

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content -- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.