Platforms & Ecosystem
4 articlesAlexa Home Map shows your house in 3D – and gives you full control2 min
Alexa Home Map could make large smart homes far easier to use: instead of hunting through device names, you’ll tap lights, speakers, and rooms in a 3D model of your house, with live visual cues for lighting, music, weather, and outdoor camera activity. The trade-off is setup: you’ll need a LiDAR-equipped iPhone and must place devices manually. Preview rollout starts on iOS later in 2026; Android follows in 2027.
Philips Hue lights get local Matter control in Google Home update3 min
Google Home is quietly moving existing Philips Hue bridges from cloud relays to local Matter control, without re-pairing. That should make lights react faster and remain usable through at least some internet outages, though Google has not defined offline limits. The same update improves local control for other Matter devices and polishes third-party controls; Gemini fixes are useful, but mostly early-access housekeeping rather than the main event.
Attackers Take Control of Dahua Cameras and Video Recorders Via Easy4IP3 min
Dahua’s Easy4IP cloud access can expose cameras and recorders even when they sit behind a router, because attackers can reach devices through an outgoing cloud connection rather than an open port. CERT-UA says predictable serial numbers, weak credentials, and unpatched CVE-2021-33044/33045 can enable takeover, including live viewing and new admin accounts. Disable P2P/Easy4IP, update firmware, audit accounts and logs, and check forgotten devices.
HomePod 27.2 hands-on: default wireless speaker for Mac, Sound Glow and more [Video] - 9to5Mac7 min
HomePod 27.2 finally makes newer HomePods practical default speakers for a Mac, not just laggy AirPlay targets. The catch is significant: low-latency output requires a Wi‑Fi 6E-capable Mac, excluding older M1 machines, though your router needn’t support 6E. Lock Controls fixes accidental touches across every generation, while Sound Glow adds reactive lighting. Surround sound is compelling but an expensive Apple TV-centered setup.
Product Launches
4 articlesAmazon's 2026 Echo Dot is both an eero Wi-Fi extender and a complete smart home hub2 min
Amazon’s 2026 Echo Dot matters because it turns a familiar $100 speaker into a three-part smart-home upgrade: a Zigbee, Matter, and Thread hub, an eero Wi‑Fi extender, and a presence-aware Alexa controller. That could eliminate a separate hub and help cover dead zones, but the extender only helps existing eero owners. On-device Alexa+ processing may improve responsiveness, while the real value depends on how well Omnisense automations work.
Bird Gawkers Rejoice: Birdbuddy’s New Video Bird Feeder Is Just $1003 min
Birdbuddy’s $100 Nook makes connected backyard wildlife monitoring far more accessible, pairing a camera-equipped feeder with 2K HDR video and bird identification. The cheaper model retains slower 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and a smaller seed hopper; the Home adds 5GHz and capacity. Automatic identification requires a subscription, while both now require bringing the whole feeder indoors to recharge. Vertical footage may also look narrower and less vibrant.
Heatbit Says Your Water Heater Should Be Mining Bitcoin, and Now It Can7 min
Heatbit’s Bitwater turns an electric water-heater element into a Bitcoin miner, using the tank’s water to cool its chips while producing hot water. The idea is clever, but the $899 price makes the economics highly dependent on Bitcoin prices, mining difficulty, electricity costs, and hardware lifespan. Heatbit’s earnings estimate is unverified, so this is an intriguing experiment—not yet an obvious money-saving upgrade.
Matic’s new Serene robot vacuum is designed for people who hate noise4 min
Noise-sensitive households may finally have a robot vacuum they can run without pausing the evening: Matic’s Serene maintains full suction at 52 dB, about refrigerator-hum loudness and quieter than most vacuums’ reduced-power modes. It costs $1,695, and existing owners can upgrade in 2027—but early buyers may owe $600. The trade-off is clear: you’re paying a premium almost entirely for peace and quiet, not new cleaning features.
Reviews & Spotlight
4 articlesEverything I set up in my first month with an all-Matter smart home — and what still doesn’t work10 min
After a month of rebuilding an apartment around Matter, the author finds the standard ready for everyday lighting, sensing, remotes, and basic climate control—but not a complete Zigbee replacement. Matter’s biggest wins are a more cohesive multi-platform setup and fewer hubs; its biggest frustrations are stripped-down AC controls, weak neutral-free switch options, scarce high-power plugs, and thin support for media devices. Home Assistant bridges and workarounds remain essential.
SwitchBot Lock Vision Pro review12 min
SwitchBot’s $229.99 Lock Vision Pro makes biometric entry genuinely practical: its palm-vein scanner stayed reliable in wet weather, while face and fingerprint recognition give households flexible alternatives. Battery backup and emergency USB-C power reduce lockout anxiety. The trade-offs are a plastic-heavy build, clunky credential management, and Matter that handles basic control but leaves guest codes and biometrics in SwitchBot’s app; Aliro and UWB are also absent.
Ubiquiti's $99 Vape Detector is actually pretty good4 min
Ubiquiti’s $99 UP-AirQuality is a surprisingly credible CO2 and air-quality monitor, using Sensirion’s SEN66 sensor rather than estimating CO2. Testing showed readings close to dedicated monitors, and the teardown reveals thoughtful thermal and sensor isolation. The catch is significant: it only works through a UniFi Protect controller, so Home Assistant users can’t connect it directly to an arbitrary PoE network.
The Future of Wet Cat Food Dispensers Is Here. My Review of Neakasa Riko - CNET11 min
Neakasa’s $240 Riko tackles wet-food feeding by storing freeze-dried food and water separately, then grinding and rehydrating portions on schedule, with capacity for about 10 days. CNET found it convenient and easy to clean, but not a true canned-food replacement: freeze-dried meals are costly, small servings may defeat its safety retraction, and it lacks smart-home integrations. Test it before trusting it unattended.
Projects & How-To
5 articlesMarelleo, a story box I built for my kids24 min
Marelleo is an open-source ESP32 story box that uses NFC-tagged figurines to play local audio or internet radio, without a locked content catalogue or companion app. Its web interface handles uploads, Wi-Fi setup and safe over-the-air updates, making it practical for family use. The real value is the unusually honest build log: it covers lithium-battery safety, child-proofing, PCB mistakes and update rollbacks, while providing everything needed to build or adapt one.
ESP32 touch screens for Home Assistant · Tessera5 min
Tessera turns inexpensive ESP32 touchscreens into polished Home Assistant control panels without a cloud account or subscription. Configure pages and resizable tiles from a drag-and-drop editor, then control lights, heating, scenes, energy, cameras and Assist from anywhere in the house. It is a compelling local dashboard project, though features such as live cameras and voice depend heavily on the screen hardware and plugins you choose.
Home Assistant integrations I've stopped using - Neil Turner's Blog5 min
After three years with Home Assistant, Neil Turner removed a range of integrations that added clutter, broke often, or no longer matched his setup. The useful takeaway is that a smaller installation can be easier to maintain: he replaced cloud-dependent Home Connect with a local option, swapped unreliable services, and moved Tasmota devices to ESPHome. His Nest Protect problems also reinforce the value of choosing locally functional, Matter-ready replacements.
I connected Home Assistant to a retro handheld, and now I control my smart home like it’s 19895 min
An R36 Ultra retro handheld becomes a glorified—but wonderfully fun—Home Assistant dashboard: walk through a pixel-art version of your house and interact with in-game switches to control real lights, TVs, music, heating, and more. The author used Codex to build the Python game and generate room art from photos, though correcting AI’s spatial mistakes took work. It’s impractical by design, but a compelling blueprint for playful, personalized control.
Start iPhone automations from your Flows – Inspiration | Homey3 min
Homey and Apple Shortcuts can now work in both directions: an iPhone can trigger a Homey Flow, while a Homey notification can launch an iPhone automation. The guide’s bedtime example turns off lights, switches on Sleep Focus, and works while the phone is locked. It’s a practical bridge between ecosystems, but requires a unique notification subtitle and care to avoid automation loops.
Perspectives
1 articlesNOMO CO29 min
Jimmy’s 22-year-old gas HVAC became the last obstacle to an all-electric home—but replacing it took 18 months of bids, rebate confusion, and analysis paralysis. A local group buy finally delivered a correctly sized 2-ton heat pump instead of the usual 4-ton replacement, letting him remove the gas meter. His monitored system now heats the whole house at surprisingly modest electrical draw, while solar and batteries keep Home Assistant, networking, and security online during outages.