Platforms & Ecosystem
5 articlesGoogle Wallet adds digital home keys to open your front door smart lock with a tap4 min
Google Wallet is turning Android phones into a more convenient smart-lock key: compatible doors can open via NFC tap or automatically as you approach with UWB. The catch is a small launch lineupāAliro and Matter locks from Aqara, Schlage, and Nukiāand youāll need a Google Thread hub plus a supported phone. One Wallet key can cover multiple locks, while verification controls help limit accidental or unauthorized entry. Rollout starts in Google Home Public Preview.
Changes to the SmartThings integration for Home Assistant: whatās happening and what you need to do3 min
SmartThings is replacing Home Assistantās integration and will require individual users to pay for its Developer Plan after December 15, 2026. Update Home Assistant on December 2 or later, remove and re-add the integration, and supply a 24-hour personal access token; automations should survive because they retain device IDs. Check country availability and API usage: the 100,000-call monthly cap could affect unusually busy setups.
Roku will stop selling smart home devices and refocus on streaming - Engadget2 min
Roku is exiting the smart home market after Foxās $22 billion takeover, winding down sales of cameras, doorbells, lights, plugs and its monitoring system while promising continued support for existing owners. Stock is already disappearing from Roku and retail channels, so buyers should treat the lineup as end-of-life rather than an expanding ecosystem. The retreat reflects poor economics: hardware losses more than doubled despite device revenue growth.
Hunter is killing Google Home, Alexa controls for its smart ceiling fans3 min
Hunter is ending the cloud bridge that lets HunterSMART ceiling fans work with Google Home and Alexa on January 1, 2027, so voice commands, scenes, and automations will stop unless you migrate. Eligible fans can move to Matter through a firmware update; others need new hardware and some models are left behind. The catch is that migration requires re-pairing, and the authorās Android app crash shows the process may be painful.
After Supermarket Freezers, Factories Next? Attackers Hijack Unsecured Node-RED Systems12 min
An unsecured Node-RED editor can hand over a smart-home hub, Raspberry Pi, or industrial gateway with a single web requestāand attackers are now exploiting that exposure at scale. The issue is not a Node-RED code bug but an unsafe default amplified by vendors and operators. If you run it, update affected Siemens gateways, enable authentication, block port 1880 from the internet, use a VPN, and inspect flows for backdoors.
Product Launches
5 articlesNo device left behind: Home Assistant Connect AUX-212 min
Home Assistantās $69 Connect AUX-2 is a useful bridge between legacy gear and modern automations. It can bring old amplifiers, TVs, solar equipment, and other serial devices under local Home Assistant control, while also acting as a Bluetooth proxy or a networked Z-Wave adapter. PoE makes placement easy, but Thread isnāt supported and Zigbee remains experimentalāso its value depends on the gear you already own.
Amazon finally launches the $250 Ring Drone Cam and also the Ring Rover Cam - Engadget7 min
Amazon is finally shipping Ringās long-delayed autonomous security devices: a $250 indoor drone in January and a Rover Cam aimed at business patrols. The drone can investigate sensor alerts or scheduled routes, but only flies for 8ā10 minutes and relies heavily on cloud processing and WiāFi. The concept is compelling for targeted checks, though noise, privacy, and connectivity remain major concerns.
LocalDot ā Open-source PCB for 3rd-gen Amazon Echo Dot enables Home Assistant support (Crowdfunding)3 min
LocalDot gives a third-generation Echo Dot a second life as a cloud-free Home Assistant voice satellite: swap in the open-source board, keep the original microphones, speaker, buttons, LEDs, case, and power adapter, and run wake-word detection locally. It still sends recognized requests to your Home Assistant server, so local control works without Amazonābut the project is crowdfunding, with shipping planned for 2027 and a $50 board.
Wyze Lever Lock brings fingerprint scanning to your door handle2 min
Wyzeās $99.98 Lever Lock puts fingerprint unlocking in the handle itself, making it a compelling retrofit for single-bore side, garage, or office doors where a deadbolt replacement doesnāt fit. It also offers hub-free remote access, guest codes, and Alexa/Google Home support, but Grade 3 security and IP54 weather resistance keep it practical rather than premium. Check compatibility firstāespecially if your door already has a deadbolt.
A Cable-Driven Robot That Tidies Up4 min
Stringman offers a refreshingly practical take on the home robot: a ceiling-mounted cable system that can reach cluttered floors where wheels and legs fail, then move items to tagged bins. The open-source robot costs $795 and works locally without sending data to the cloud, but installation requires structural mounting and its 2 kg payload limits what it can handle. It is an intriguing early platform for software-driven tidying, not a finished household servant.
Reviews & Spotlight
5 articlesApple HomeView review: Shallow launch, but incredible potential26 min
Appleās first smart display is a frustratingly unfinished product that may still be the best Apple Home control panel yet. HomeView delivers exceptionally fast light and camera control, a genuinely useful glanceable interface, and a remarkably dim bedside screen. But its $299 hardware is undermined by buggy widgets, limited apps, no non-Apple ecosystem support, and inconsistent Siri. Great for committed Apple Home households; wait if you need a mature general-purpose display.
Encryption Weakness: What It Means for You8 min
Eufy HomeBase local storage is not as private as owners may think: a researcher recovered about 171 hours of video, audio, thumbnails, and metadata from the drive without an account or password. This is not a remote camera hack; the threat begins when the base or drive is stolen, returned, resold, or discarded. Keep using the cameras, but secure or destroy the drive and treat old footage as exposed until Anker ships a real fix.
10 Smart Soil Sensors Tested and Compared26 min
After 45 days of side-by-side testing in Home Assistant, the Ecowitt WH51 delivered the most trustworthy moisture trends and is the best choice for gardensāprovided you accept its gateway or RTL dongle. For a local Zigbee setup, the Tuya ZG-303Z was the standout. The reviewās bigger lesson is that absolute percentages are misleading: buy for consistent wet/dry response, and avoid sensors that saturate or need converter fixes.
Can AI really save you money on your heating bill? I spent two years testing to find out7 min
After two winters in a 1930s house, a Guardian test found Tadoās room-by-room AI heating used 18% less gas than a tightly managed manual scheduleāsaving about Ā£206 over 213 daysāwhile making the home more comfortable. The catch: the setup cost about Ā£930 plus an optional AI subscription, and this is one householdās comparison, not a controlled trial. The biggest gains may come from automation and zoning, not AI alone.
mmWave vs PIR: which motion sensor should you buy?6 min
Choosing between PIR and mmWave comes down to whether people pass through or stay put. PIR is inexpensive, battery-friendly and dependable for hallways, stairs and security, but it stops seeing someone who sits still. mmWave keeps lights and automations running by detecting breathing and can support room zones, though it costs more, needs power and may require tuning around pets, fans or thin walls. Use PIR for transit; mmWave for occupied rooms.
Projects & How-To
4 articlesFrickelalarm in detail: setting up the alarm system that lives in Home Assistant Ā· Frickelfabrik5 min
Frickelalarm turns Home Assistant into the alarm controller itself, with mode-specific sensors, entry/exit delays, tamper handling, panic, siren reactions, and presence-based arming or disarmingāall configured from the UI rather than YAML. Its standout twist is service-based configuration, letting an MCP-connected language model manage the setup. Itās a promising hobby beta, but Alarmo remains the more mature choice for production security.
Nest Thermostat in 202619 min
An abandoned second-generation Nest can still become a capable local thermostat when paired with NoLongerEvil and Home Assistant. The real project is running a new C wire, then navigating a fiddly Linux-only flash and setup process. In return, you get reliable manual control, rich scheduling, fan cycling, remote access, and automation without depending on Googleās cloudāthough compatibility and installation effort are significant caveats.
Stop Silent Failures: Why Your Smart Home Needs Device Sentinel - The Thinking Home10 min
Home Assistantās Device Sentinel aims to catch the failures dashboards routinely hide: frozen sensors that keep showing stale values, batteries draining faster than a fixed threshold suggests, and deteriorating Zigbee or Z-Wave links. It learns each deviceās reporting rhythm, preserves its history across restarts, consolidates network outages into one actionable alert, and runs locally. Itās promising, but signal monitoring is experimental and early tuning may cause false alarms.
How I added Matter lighting to IKEAās YXSTABY gaming table ā with no drilling7 min
Turn IKEAās dark YXSTABY gaming side table into a Matter-controlled light without drilling or permanently altering it. The project uses 3D-printed fixtures that grip a trimmed Govee COB strip in the tableās existing screw holes, while Matter provides basic control through Apple Home, Home Assistant, or SmartThings. A motion sensor can trigger the glow, and a metering plug can automate controller chargingāthough advanced effects remain in Goveeās app.
Perspectives
3 articlesNot the Key: Home Assistant Stores Every Bearer Token in Cleartext, and Changing Your Password Revokes Nothing11 min
Home Assistantās password is not the credential that matters most: anyone who reads the instanceās config can recover cleartext refresh tokens and keep controlling the home after a password change. Some tokens never expire, while normal ones renew when used; backups can preserve the same access. Until the design changes, operators should manually revoke every token, rotate backup credentials, and audit add-ons with config access.
HomeView is Appleās first post-iPhone device5 min
Appleās HomeView is less a small iPad than a deliberate rethink of the household screen: a shared, Siri-first hub designed to keep people present rather than enable another private scrolling session. Its lack of an App Store protects that role while nudging developers toward App Intents and Appleās HomeKit ecosystem. The bigger bet is that HomeView trains usersāand developersāto rely less on the iPhone before Appleās next devices arrive.
Ohme knows when Iām in. Its ānever sellā promise is out8 min
Why it matters: a smart EV charger can reveal when youāre home, what you drive, your whole-house energy use and even your car-account data. The author finds Ohmeās rewritten policy drops its ānever sellā promise, removes a firm deletion deadline, expands marketing and ad-ID collection, and feeds more data into AI and flexibility services. The charger still saves money, but the practical response is to opt out of marketing and tracking and request your data under UK GDPR.