Platforms & Ecosystem
6 articlesPhilips Hue isnât the only Philips lighting brand anymore â hereâs whatâs changed3 min
Signify is splitting âPhilipsâ smart lights into two tracks: Hue stays the premium, Bridge-based ecosystem, while âPhilips Smart Lightingâ becomes the cheaper, simpler WiâFi line powered by the WiZ app. The big catch is ecosystem separationâPhilips Smart Lighting wonât slot into Hue the same way, so choose based on how much you value Hueâs hub features vs easy setup and price.
Google won't rest until Gemini is everywhere in your home - Engadget2 min
Google is turning Gemini into the default âbrainâ for more thirdâparty smart home gear by giving partners validated reference designs and a shortcut path to build cameras and speakers. The bigger shift: Google wants ISPs and security firms to bundle a paid âGoogle Home Premiumâ AI layer for summaries and simulated presenceâmaking the smart home more subscription-shaped (and harder to opt out of).
Shelly relay switches finally run on Thread with open-source firmware4 min
This is a big deal for Shelly owners who want Thread without replacing hardware: an open-source firmware makes Gen4 relays run Matter over Thread and even act as Thread routers, so they can strengthen your mesh while syncing cleanly across Apple, Google, Alexa, and Home Assistant. The catch is trust: flashing community firmware can add security risk, so back up and tread carefully.
Meet Alexa for Shopping, your personalized, agentic AI assistant on Amazon9 min
Amazon is turning Alexa into an always-on shopping agent that carries context between your Echo and Amazon accountâso research, price tracking, and reorders can continue across phone, web, and Echo Show without starting over. The big shift is automation: it can watch for deals, build carts, and even buy for you at other retailers, which boosts convenience but raises new privacy and âaccidental purchaseâ concerns.
Homey's app turns your TV into smart hub to control your house2 min
Homey just made the TV a legitimate smart home control surface: new Android TV and LG webOS apps turn your biggest screen into a remote-friendly dashboard for favorites and routines, so âmovie nightâ and bedtime flows arenât trapped on someoneâs phone. A new Homey.tv web UI also lets you trigger automations remotely (even from some car browsers).
Forget DIY smart homes: mash is aiming at housebuilders4 min
Smart homes may be shifting from DIY gadgets to âbuilt-inâ infrastructure. MashNet, from ex-Apple/Matter contributor Oren Segal, pitches itself as a digital backbone for housebuilders: networking, Matter onboarding, identity, device management, and automation services that make a new-build smart from day one. Big if it delivers reliability and scale DIY rarely does.
Product Launches
4 articlesSwitchBotâs Newest Smart Lock Has More Biometrics Than You Can Shake a Stick at3 min
SwitchBotâs new Lock Vision line is trying to win the smart-lock race with âpick your biometricsâ accessâface unlock on-device, plus fingerprint and even palm-vein scanning on the Proâwhile still playing nicely with Apple Home/Google Home via Matter over WiâFi (no hub). The catch: SwitchBotâs reliability has been uneven, so itâs one to watch, not impulse-buy.
Dysonâs latest fan follows you around the room with AI2 min
Dysonâs new Purifier Cool aims to make âsmart airflowâ actually feel smart: it uses on-device vision tracking to aim purified cooling at whoeverâs in the room, and stops when nobodyâs thereâso youâre not cooling empty space. It claims movement tracking (not identity) with local processing, plus MyDyson app control. Itâs premium-priced at $894.99.
Ray-Ban Meta just got a major competitor â Samsung and Google reveal "Intelligent Eyewear"3 min
Samsung and Google are making a direct play at Ray-Ban Meta with âIntelligent Eyewearâ glasses arriving this fall. Think phone-tethered, voice-driven Gemini help for notifications, directions and live translation, plus a camera and open-ear audioâno built-in display yet. The big shift: Android XR could turn smart glasses into a real ecosystem race, not a one-off gadget.
iRobot Drops 8 New Roombas at Once in Its Biggest Comeback Yet4 min
iRobotâs back in the robot-vac fight with an unusually aggressive move: eight new, smaller Roombas launched at once after bankruptcy and a new owner. The pitch is practicalâmore under-furniture reach plus stronger cleaningâand strategic: lower top-end pricing to undercut Roborock/Shark. Real-world performance will decide if itâs a true comeback or just spec-sheet swagger.
Reviews & Spotlight
3 articlesEcovacs T90 Pro Omni Review: Powerful Vacuuming & Elite Mopping13 min
If you want a mostly hands-off floor-care robot, Ecovacsâ T90 Pro Omni looks like the brandâs most complete package yet: standout vacuuming and near-best-in-class roller mopping, plus a big jump in obstacle avoidance so itâs less likely to eat cords and clutter. The main trade-offs are a tiny onboard dustbin and occasional navigation quirks, though frequent auto-emptying helps.
Anyone on the Internet Can Ring Your Doorbell41 min
If you bought a bargain âTemu smart doorbell,â this is the nightmare scenario: the author found a shared cloud backend where requests can be forged, device IDs are guessable, and long-lived tokens donât rotateâso an attacker can make your phone ring, silently steal the doorbell onto their account, or even impersonate the camera feed during a live call. VLAN itâor replace it.
Ikea Matter-over-Thread review: Amazing smart home tech, when they work18 min
Ikeaâs cheap Matter-over-Thread gear can be the âfinally, affordable smart homeâ momentâespecially with Apple Home perks like Adaptive Lighting and in-app firmware updatesâbut reliability is the gamble. Some homes are rock-solid, others see onboarding and random disconnects in complex Thread setups, and the air-quality sensorâs CO2 readings look untrustworthy. Try 1â2 first, return if flaky.
Projects & How-To
5 articlesI gave Claude Cowork access to my Home Assistant config, and it unlocked automations I didn't know were possible6 min
Letting an LLM âseeâ your Home Assistant setup can turn it into a power tool: Claude proposed useful automations fast, but more importantly it spotted misconfigurations and walked the author through fixing broken backups and deprecated YAML. The big win isnât voice control â itâs faster debugging and automation design without drowning in entities or YAML.
How Ronald uses Homey in his greenhouse â Homey Stories | Homey4 min
This is a great blueprint for âset-and-forgetâ greenhouse automation: Homey ties Aqara temp sensors to a multi-zone water controller so misting ramps up only when heat becomes dangerous, not on a dumb timer. The best part is reliabilityâfallback to another sensor if one fails, and restart + manual-use shutoffs so valves donât get stuck on.
Integrating the Ecowitt WH52 into an Automated Greenhouse10 min
If youâre automating irrigation, the WH52âs real value is watering from root-zone data instead of a dumb timerâreducing overwatering and improving consistency for tomatoes/chillies. The article suggests building a âwatering windowâ using soil moisture plus greenhouse temp/humidity, then tuning thresholds over time. Caveat: the author couldnât yet pull WH52 data into Home Assistant.
I replaced my Google TV remote with a $25 ESP32 display, and it controls Home Assistant too9 min
If your TV remote feels like a dead-end, this DIY ESP32 touchscreen build turns it into a context-aware âTV + roomâ controller. It mimics Google TVâs phone-remote protocol to handle pairing, navigation, and custom app-launch buttons, then adds a swipe-over page that triggers Home Assistant services (lights, scripts, movie-time scenes) from the same deviceâreconfigurable via a built-in web UI.
I ignored Home Assistantâs best calendar trick for way too long5 min
Home Assistantâs built-in calendar is a simple way to schedule âhome choresâ and turn them into automation triggersâthink recycling day, annual sensor battery swaps, or a monthly reminder to update HA. The key trick: triggers fire on any calendar event, so you filter by event name with a condition, then start and end an indicator (like a colored âsignal lightâ) for the event window.
Perspectives
2 articlesMan Finds Robot Dog Is Bad at Protecting His Chickens, But Might Be Good at Sending Data to China3 min
A consumer robot dog may be less âsmart home helperâ and more âsmart home liability.â A researcher claims he got root access via a trivial input trick, enabling unauthenticated control plus audio/video capture, and then observed heavily encrypted traffic allegedly sent to China. If these bots are on WiâFi (or used by police), treat them like untrusted IoT.
Why The Smart Home Bubble Popped3 min
The âsmart homeâ hype cooled because the hard parts werenât gadgets â they were business models and reliability. Cloud backends cost money, so companies push subscriptions/ads and then shut services down, leaving e-waste. Meanwhile, crowded 2.4GHz radios and too many standards make systems flaky, and local options like Home Assistant still arenât truly plug-and-play for normal people.