About

Technology, Applied. is an English-language technology publication exploring technology through real-world use and turning experience into insight.

It covers the part of technology that only becomes visible once something is actually installed, configured and lived with: the integration that needed a workaround, the automation that had to be rewritten, the device that behaved differently from its datasheet.

What this publication covers

• Smart Home — Devices, integrations and setups that have to survive everyday use.
• Home Assistant — Integrations, dashboards and automations built and run in a real household.
• Local First — Keeping data and control on your own network instead of in someone else’s cloud.
• Automation — Automations that solve an actual problem, including the ones that needed a rewrite.
• AI & Automation — Where machine assistance genuinely helps with technical work — and where it does not.
• Matter — Matter devices and bridges in practice, beyond the specification.
• Zigbee — Zigbee networks, coordinators and the realities of mesh behaviour.
• Privacy & Local Control — What leaves the house, what stays, and how much control is actually available.
• Homelab — Servers, services and storage running at home, and what it takes to keep them running.
• Hardware — Devices and components in real use: what they do well, and where they disappoint.
• Software — Tools and systems judged by how they behave after the first week.
• Practical Technology — Tests, measurements and problem solving that did not fit a narrower topic.

How articles come about

Articles are not assembled from press releases or product pages. They start as work done in a real household, and they keep the limits of that work: one setup, one set of devices, one set of conditions. Where external facts are needed, they are researched and attributed rather than assumed.

An AI editorial system helps with selection, research, structuring and adapting the material for an international audience. It never supplies the experience. How this publication works describes that division in detail.

The person behind the fieldwork

The hands-on work this publication is built on comes from Lukas Knöller (opens in a new tab) , who runs the smart home, tests the hardware and writes the original material — much of it first published in German. Technology, Applied. is its own publication rather than a personal blog, but the practical work behind it has a name, and that name stays visible.

Independence

Most of the hardware written about here was bought and used for its actual purpose. Some of it was not: a manufacturer occasionally supplies a device, and some articles are paid placements. Where that applies, it is stated on the article itself, not hidden in a policy page.

What does not happen is the part that would matter: an opinion is never part of the deal. A supplied device is set up, used and reported on exactly like one that was paid for — and if it turns out to be disappointing, that is what the article says. Nobody gets to review, approve or influence a conclusion before publication.

Contact

Contact details are listed in the imprint. Articles are also available as an RSS feed.