"Smart Homes for Dummies" has been around since 2000. A new edition was released without fanfare in July of this year, 2007.

From a quick flick through and comparing it with the 2nd Edition "Smart homes for Dummies", January 2003, there doesn't seem to be anything major but there certainly are updates relating to the availability of high tech products.

My favorite, though, because I run Linux on three of my four computers in my home network, is "Linux Smart Homes for Dummies" (August 2006). This book is all about using the vast array of open source tools available in Linux to control your home.

These two books have a vast amount of overlapping information. There is no need to own both these books. You would buy one or the other and each of these books is relatively up-to-date.