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Haven’t You Heard? Your Home Electronics Are the Wrong Color

Wake up and smell the not-so-black coffee, homeowners: If you’re on a mission to usher your outdated abode into the smart home era with some electronic upgrades, beware what color you buy. For decades, the reigning color for home electronics has been black, but that’s just so 1980s. Today, the hot new hue among home electronics is white all the way.

According to home tech site The Verge, “White is the new black for home electronics.” And the evidence it cites is overwhelming.

To kick things off: Google Home—the much anticipated smart home hub that begins shipping Nov. 4—comes in white. Oh, were you hoping for black instead? Sorry, not an option. Same goes with Google Wifi, introduced in early October with plans to start shipping by December.

And guess what? Google Home’s predecessor and main competitor, Amazon Echo—traditionally sold only in black—came out in a white option in September. Ditto for Amazon’s second-generation Echo Dot (a pucklike device that equips existing speakers with the same Alexa voice-recognition capabilities).

Google and Amazon aren’t the only tech giants who’ve jumped on the white bandwagon, either. Just Tuesday, Sonos unveiled on Instagram a white version of its SUB subwoofer, which had been available only in black since 2012.

Your style, our sound. Pre-order the white SUB today: https://t.co/JmcaoXMfgy pic.twitter.com/xPUiEoK9vs

— Sonos (@Sonos) October 11, 2016

Even video game consoles come in white these days, including Microsoft’s Xbox One S, released earlier this year.

What’s up with this widespread move to white?

According to The Verge, “Our living room gadgets are finally moving away from the mustachioed bachelor-pad look favored by classic rock-lovin’ playboys to something far more modern.”

This trend also dovetails with how home decor experts are crowing that white is white-hot in 2016. So, it makes sense that among all that matte-white paint and whitewashed wood, a black smart home hub would stick out like a sore thumb. White, on the other hand, would blend right in.

Sadly, though, there is one major holdout. As The Verge points out, “The living room TV—the most offensive of all black plastic gadgets—won’t be joining the movement anytime soon. Not until somebody invents an LCD or OLED panel that turns white when it’s off.”

Still, if you hate how your TV is casting a dark, gloomy shadow over your snowy white decor, there are plenty of creative ways to hide a flat-screen TV—behind a one-way mirror, artwork, or otherwise.

But the overall moral of this story is if you’re heading out to buy some home electronics any time soon (cough *Christmas* cough *Hanukkah*), we wanted to warn you that the White Revolution has begun. Shop accordingly.

The post Haven’t You Heard? Your Home Electronics Are the Wrong Color appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice – realtor.com.

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