Platforms & Ecosystem
4 articles2026.10: You are here š56 min
Home Assistant 2026.10 makes the platform meaningfully easier to use: a new Triggered by UI lets one automation handle multiple triggers without hand-managed IDs, while the vector-based map improves presence and zone visibility and works through brief outages. The release also adds a Modbus connection panel, one-click AI/MCP setup, and a broad wave of local energy integrations. Check breaking changes before upgrading.
Home Assistant is bringing HACS into Core ā and Marketplace could make custom integrations much easier4 min
Home Assistant is folding HACS into Core as Marketplace, putting community integrations, dashboard cards, themes, and templates directly in Settings. That removes a major onboarding hurdle for hardware the official platform does not support, while making updates easier to find and manage. The trade-off remains important: Marketplace content is still community-maintained, unaudited, and unsupported by Home Assistant. Existing HACS installs are expected to migrate automatically when the feature ships.
Appleās āWelcome homeā event could reveal its biggest smart home push yet ā with LG and Schneider onboard6 min
Appleās āWelcome homeā teaser points to a broader smart-home push than a new hub or speaker: the company may be co-developing LG doorbells, locks, cameras and climate devices, while iOS evidence ties Schneider thermostats and sensors into Apple Home. The strategy matters because Apple could shape setup and advanced features beyond baseline Matterābut most accessories are months away, and the October 13 lineup remains unconfirmed.
Hackers exploit 32 zero-days on first day of Pwn2Own Ireland3 min
Pwn2Own Irelandās first day exposed a sobering smart-home risk: researchers chained seven zero-days to compromise a Philips Hue Bridge Pro and used four more to take over a Sonos Era 300. The flaws are under coordinated disclosure, giving vendors 90 days to patch before details go public. For owners, this is a reminder that hubs and speakers deserve firmware updates and network isolationānot just phones and PCs.
Product Launches
4 articlesRing's smart lock still works even if the power goes out thanks to a hand crank2 min
Ringās upcoming $249 Smart Lock tackles the biggest smart-lock anxiety: being locked out by a dead battery. Three or four turns of its front-mounted hand crank charge a supercapacitor, giving you about 30 seconds to use the fingerprint reader, keypad, app or Alexa. With a battery rated for roughly a year, itās emergency insurance rather than a daily featureāespecially compelling for remote cabins. Itās due in early 2027; UK availability is unconfirmed.
Meta wants people to build their own Muse gadgets, too - Engadget2 min
Meta is opening Muse to hardware tinkerers, with open-source firmware and a Linux SDK for building devices around its AI agent. The smart-home proof of concept is Muse Home Link, a USB-C dongle that lets Muse reach networked TVs, speakers, and other HTTPS-enabled devices. Itās an intriguing route to agent-powered home control, but the project is early, subscription-dependent, and the first 5,000 links are limited to subscribers.
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can finally power your home5 min
Teslaās Model 3 and Model Y can now serve as home batteries during outages, bringing vehicle-to-home backup to its mass-market EVsābut only for newly ordered cars with the right hardware. The catch is substantial: a Powerwall 3 and Wall Connector are mandatory, older cars may not qualify, and grid sell-back is excluded. Tesla is finally catching Ford and GM, years late, but existing owners get little.
M5 Smart Curtain Rod Automatically Syncs With Sun to Minimize Glare3 min
REZE FLOWās M5 replaces your existing curtain rod with a concealed motor, so automated drapes look like ordinary curtains rather than a retrofit gadget. Its Matter-over-Wi-Fi support avoids a proprietary hub, while localized sun tracking can reduce screen glare and open curtains at sunrise without relying on fixed timers. The $159 Kickstarter entry price is appealing, but this is still a pre-production promise; real-world reliability and installation fit remain unproven.
Reviews & Spotlight
4 articles12 Best-Selling Zigbee Temperature Sensors Tested26 min
Shopping for Zigbee temperature sensors? This hands-on comparison of 12 popular models finds Sonoffās SNZB-02P the best overall: accurate readings, configurable reporting, and a long-lived CR2477 battery. The tiny Moes ZSS-S01-TH is the runner-up, while the SNZB-02B is the best AAA option. For damp locations, only Tuyaās TH09Z is IP65; most others are indoor-only, and several cheaper models need calibration or report unreliably.
TP-Link Tapo Doorbell Pro D260 Review: Everything You Need at No Extra Cost13 min
TP-Linkās $220 Tapo D260 is a strong subscription-free doorbell: its sharp 4K video, reliable detection, local microSD recording, and wired-or-battery installation cover the essentials without a monthly fee. The trade-offs are meaningful: Apple Home and Home Assistant are absent, thereās no RTSP/FTP backup, and 24/7 recording requires wired power and disables an existing chime. The reviewer also finds its AI summaries useless and 4K claims overstated.
UGREEN HomeAgent HA100 Review: Powerful Local AI, Complicated Setup - HomeTechHacker14 min
UGREENās HA100 combines local AI, NAS storage, camera recording, and smart-home control in one privacy-minded box. Its camera tracking, natural-language event search, and low-light detection are genuinely useful, but setup is unusually involved: services, models, permissions, reboots, and a failed Matter pairing all get in the way. It looks best for patient power users, while everyone else should wait for the prerelease software to mature.
IT pro says his parentsā Keurig smart coffee maker sent 1 terabyte of data over their Wi-Fi in 10 days ā it saturated an access point on its own, but he says most of the traffic never left the home network5 min
An ownerās UniFi dashboard reportedly showed a Keurig K-Supreme SMART moving about 1TB in 10 daysāenough to saturate a WiāFi access point. The evidence is anecdotal and most traffic apparently stayed inside the LAN, so this is more likely a firmware or networking bug than mass data theft. Rebooting the brewer and isolating it on a VLAN stopped the problem temporarily; until Keurig explains it, segment noisy IoT gear.
Projects & How-To
4 articlesI hired an illustrator to draw my house. Now it's my Home Assistant dashboard.11 min
Home Assistant can become a dashboard the whole household actually wants to use when it feels like part of the home instead of another control app. This project combines a commissioned illustration with animated device layers, day/night scenes, and a TV kiosk display. The approach is approachable but artwork and asset preparation take most of the effort; the TV is mainly for viewing, while phones and computers handle control.
Hacking an Orcon 15RF ventilation remote with ESPHome12 min
This renter-friendly hack brings an otherwise closed ventilation system into Home Assistant without opening the appliance: an ESP32 electrically āpressesā the original Orcon remoteās buttons, while ESPHome exposes fan speed control. CO2, humidity trends, and indoor/outdoor temperature then drive automatic ventilation. The trade-off is that the setup remembers the last speed rather than reading the unitās actual state, but itās a clever, low-risk workaround.
Battery Storage for Solar with Home Assistant ā Towards Zero28 min
An AC-coupled battery can shift rooftop solar into the evening, but it cannot deliver āzeroā grid use: a measured 3 kWh block covered a 420 W base load until about 11 pm, with only ~70% round-trip efficiency. The tested setup raised modeled self-sufficiency from 33% to 54%, yet its ā¬1,348 price implies a 10+ year payback. Home Assistant provides local dashboards and alerts; control remains unavailable until a firmware fix, and German registration and electrical rules need checking.
What my smart home got done while I was away ā¢ The Smart Home Maker6 min
This is a convincing field report on what a smart home can do when its owner stops being the operator. Local AI agents keep a backlog moving, while email-driven inventory knows which parts are actually availableānot merely ordered. Home Assistant surfaces 3D-printer progress on the lock screen, Watch, and CarPlay, while a custom camera adapter shows why DIY fabrication matters: the biggest win is solving the oddly specific problem no off-the-shelf product fits.
Perspectives
3 articlesBig Tech ruined the cloud, so weāre renaming ours7 min
Home Assistant Cloud is becoming Home Assistant Link, but the important change is conceptual: Nabu Casa is positioning it as an optional, privacy-focused way to connect a locally run Home Assistantānot a cloud dependency. Your automations and devices keep working if you cancel; Link mainly simplifies remote access, Alexa and Google integration, online backups, speech-to-text, and support. Subscriptions also help fund the project.
AI breakthroughs in robotics wonāt change your life any time soon18 min
Humanoid robots are making real progress, but theyāre nowhere near becoming household helpers. Vision-language-action models can fold laundry or pack a lunch when tasks resemble training data; a newer world-model approach has only just managed an incomplete air-fryer experiment. The bigger issue is reliability: a 70% success rate is unusable at home, where environments vary wildly. Expect useful domestic robots to remain roughly a decade awayāand early products to rely on remote human operators.
With Latest Update, Alexa Refuses To Pass The Aux2 min
Amazon has removed voice control for the 3.5 mm auxiliary input from Echo speakers, leaving the jack working but forcing users into the Alexa app to mute or manage external audio. Bluetooth control is unchanged. Itās a small regression, but a telling one: Amazon says usage was low, while the author questions why a harmless local feature was deleted and wonders whether reduced visibility into playback played a role.