Platforms & Ecosystem
4 articlesApple opens its new Siri AI to everyone with the iOS 27 public beta | TechCrunch4 min
Appleās new Siri AI is now in the iOS 27 public beta, meaning a lot more people can test Appleās āchatbot-gradeā assistant before the fall launch. For smart homes, the big deal is deeper, system-wide access to on-device context and actionsāthough early betas still show occasional confusion, so donāt install on a must-be-reliable phone.
Philips offers free replacements after update bricked smart lighting hubs - Engadget2 min
If you rely on Hue as your lighting ābackbone,ā this is a reminder that hub updates can be a single point of failure. Philips says a rare manual-update edge case bricked fewer than 100 Hue Bridge Pro units, and itāll replace affected hubs for free even out of warranty. Youāll still have to rebuild your setup, but Philips is pushing a fix to prevent repeats.
Sonos brings tab navigation, speaker sorting and more to its app - Engadget2 min
Sonosā latest app update is about making big multi-room systems easier to live with: optional bottom tabs for faster navigation, plus a System view that lets you sort and pin rooms/speakers so the ones you actually use stay on top. iOS also gets a refreshed volume UI and small āNow Playingā polish. Itās a cautious, incremental rollout after past app drama.
The wait is finally over: Home Assistant just unlocked the true power of Matter 1.66 min
Home Assistantās Matter stack is speeding up again: the OHF Matter Server beta now speaks Matter 1.6, which unlocks real quality-of-life gains like ICD sleep controls for longer battery life and broader Thread network diagnostics. It also adds multi-network credential handling and backend work that gets Matter cameras closerāthough the Home Assistant UI still needs follow-up work.
Product Launches
4 articlesWithingsā New Smart Scale Zaps the Sweat Glands in Your Feet for Signs of Trouble3 min
Withingsā $600 BodyScan 2 pushes the āsmart scaleā into early-warning health monitoring: it uses a handle plus foot electrodes to estimate body composition and vascular metrics, and even tests foot-nerve response aimed at spotting diabetes-related issues sooner. Big asterisk: most health claims arenāt FDA-reviewed, though the ECG and AFib features are FDA-cleared.
Airversa unveils New HomeKit over Thread humidifier w/ plans for Matter3 min
If you want a humidifier that wonāt clog your WiāFi or die when the cloud hiccups, Airversaās new Humelle talks to Apple Home over Thread for fast, local control and easy automation around target humidity. Itās $69.99 today, with Matter promised later via firmwareāuseful if it lands, but donāt buy solely on that future upgrade.
Home robots can already walk. The hard part is stopping them from crushing your glassware2 min
Humanoid robots can already āwalk like a robot,ā but that doesnāt make them useful at homeāthe real bar is gentle, adaptive handling of messy objects. 1X says NEOās new tendon-driven, tactile hands can sense slip and yield on contact to avoid breakage. The authorās takeaway: hardware is promising, but autonomy in cluttered, wet real homes is still unproven.
OpenAI's first device will reportedly be a 'humanlike' rechargeable speaker - Engadget3 min
OpenAIās rumored first gadget sounds less like a smart speaker and more like a roaming āAI companionā you carry room-to-room: screenless, rechargeable, voice-first, and designed to feel alive with moving parts plus a camera/sensors for context. Itās also pitched as a smart-home controller ā but Appleās lawsuit could slow a 2027 launch.
Reviews & Spotlight
3 articlesGovee Floor Lamp 3 review9 min
If you want a floor lamp that can actually light a room (not just do RGB vibes), Goveeās Floor Lamp 3 is a big step up: high brightness plus noticeably smoother, more natural colors thanks to better blending and multi-zone control. It supports Matter, but the best scenes and customization still live in Goveeās busy app. Pricier than budget rivals, but the output and polish justify it.
Orange Pi 6 gives homelabbers what Raspberry Pi 5 doesnāt5 min
If your smart home is turning into a homelab (router, NVR, local AI, Home Assistant), this argues Orange Pi 6 is a more capable foundation than a Raspberry Pi 5: dual multiāgig Ethernet and built-in NVMe slots mean fewer dongles and HATs. The trade-off is the classic āaltāPiā pain: smaller community, messier docs, and more DIY legwork.
Reolink E331 Review8 min
A sub-$60 indoor pan/tilt cam that doesnāt try to bait you into a subscription is rare, and Reolinkās E331 nails that lane. You get full-room coverage with reliable auto-tracking and genuinely useful alert filtering, plus local microSD recording by default. The trade-offs: a busy app learning curve and an exposed SD slot if someone can reach it.
Projects & How-To
4 articlesI run local LLMs on slow hardwareāhere's what actually works6 min
Running a local LLM in your smart home can be practical even on weak hardware if you treat it like a batch job. The author uses Home Assistant to feed sensor/calendar/weather data into a local model overnight, so morning briefings and āvariedā kitchen reminders are ready instantly. Biggest win: privacyākeep sensitive data local, then upload only sanitized docs when you must.
I let this app take over my sprinklers, and my lawn looks better for less6 min
Smart sprinklers can be a real quality-of-life upgrade: Rachioās app automates watering based on local weather and seasons, so you stop overwatering (and stop babysitting schedules). You still get manual āquick runā control when needed, plus voice/smart-home integrations. The catch: some advanced monitoring features sit behind newer paid add-ons.
Why I installed climate sensors in every room of my house7 min
Room-by-room climate sensors turn āone thermostat tempā into actionable data: youāll spot which rooms need insulation or airflow help and you can automate fans, purifiers, humidifiers, or heaters based on humidity and air quality. The gotchas are device sprawl in your app and, for many SwitchBot sensors, needing a hubāThread-friendly sensors can also strengthen your network.
Half my automations don't live in Home Assistant anymore, and my smart home is better for it4 min
Your smartest āHome Assistantā move might be doing less in Home Assistant. This piece argues youāll get faster, more reliable lighting and buttons by pushing simple automations down to devicesāESPHomeās on-device logic and Zigbee direct binding keep basics working even during reboots. Let HA focus on dashboards, history, and heavy jobs like notifications and analytics.
Perspectives
3 articlesSamsung: Hand over tour health data to train AI, or weāll delete it all2 min
Samsung Health now appears to make cloud sync a bargaining chip: donāt consent to your health data being used to train Samsungās AI and the app warns your cloud-stored health history will be deleted, breaking multi-device sync. The toggle is on by default and buried in settingsāraising a big privacy and lockāin red flag for wearable users.
Smart speakers could help OpenAI lose even more money - Engadget6 min
OpenAI reportedly wants a āhumanlikeā smart speaker, but Engadget argues itās a money-losing distraction: the smart-speaker market is shrinking, most people donāt upgrade because improvements are cloud-based, and even Amazon hasnāt found reliable Alexa monetization. Hardware could help OpenAI put AI āin the world,ā but the economics look brutal for an already unprofitable company.
Now Meta wants its glasses camera to be "always-on", sparking new privacy concerns ā will it make up its mind, please?3 min
Meta is reportedly testing āsuperāsensingā smart glasses with always-on mics/cameras for AI memory and recall ā and sources claim the recording LED might not light during that mode. Thatās a sharp reversal from Metaās recent move to disable the camera if the privacy light is tampered with, and it could reignite consent and bystander-privacy backlash fast.