All the smart home news, reviews, and gadgets you need to know about

This week, Apple is hosting its first-ever dedicated smart home event. While the company hasn’t shared details about what it will reveal at the “Welcome Home experience” in New York City on Tuesday, October 13th, it doesn’t take an army of internet sleuths to deduce we’ll get news about Apple Home — specifically, new hardware. Apple finally seems to be taking the smart home seriously.

According to Bloomberg, Apple will release a smart home display alongside a refreshed HomePod Mini and Apple TV. The display, which MacRumors reports may be called HomeView, is arguably Apple’s first dedicated Apple Home hardware since it launched the HomeKit platform in 2014. As exciting as this is (and I’ll be there in person to check it out), the real shift will be bringing Siri AI and Apple Intelligence into the home. Apple is years behind Google and Amazon in smart-home hardware, but success in the home depends far more on software. That’s where Apple could leapfrog the competition.

Of all the things Alexa Plus can do, I never expected it to make me cry. Since my son left for college, the Echo Show in my office has been making then-and-now photo montages: the toddler with his first tennis racket next to the captain of his varsity team; me hugging him as a tween beside me hugging him as a young man. I’ve teared up more than once. But then comes the ad, a full-screen photo of a hideous brown leather recliner. I go from nostalgic joy to irritation in an instant.

That pretty much sums up my year with Alexa Plus. One minute it will do something seriously impressive; the next, it acts like it doesn’t know who I am.

Apple is collaborating with LG on a new lineup of smart home devices, including a video doorbell, thermostat, indoor camera, and more, according to a report from Bloomberg. The products will reportedly feature LG branding but integrate with the company’s rumored smart home hub that’s expected to launch during an event on October 13th.

Sources tell Bloomberg that the upcoming line of devices also includes a deadbolt lock, outdoor security camera, and a floodlight camera.

The open-source smart home platform Home Assistant is kicking the cloud to the curb — in name at least. “We are renaming Home Assistant Cloud to Home Assistant Link, because we hate clouds,” founder Paulus Schoutsen told The Verge in an interview ahead of today’s announcement. “Big tech ruined the cloud, so we’re out.”

The move is part of a long-term strategy Schoutsen and his team have been pursuing to make Home Assistant a mainstream smart home platform. Schoutsen says most users find the powerful platform after hitting the limits of mainstream options like Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Home. But it has a steep learning curve, and that’s what he’s looking to change.

A few years back, I was at a beachside Easter egg hunt, watching my kids dash through sand dunes searching for sweet treats. My phone buzzed in my pocket; I ignored it. A moment later, it buzzed again. I pulled it out, glanced down, and saw a “motion detected” notification from my security camera. “Just my dog in the yard,” I thought, dismissing it.

As the colorful eggs piled up in the baskets, my phone kept buzzing. Reluctantly, I pulled it out again and saw several more “motion detected” alerts. I tried to load a video clip, but it just buffered endlessly.

Google is opening up its smart home to AI agents, letting tools like Claude and Open Claw access and control your connected devices and analyze your home’s data using the standardized Model Context Protocol.

Google Home MCP is a new integration that lets third-party AI agents control and monitor your smart home and act on your behalf. It “allows any AI agents that support MCP, including Google Antigravity, Claude, Hermes or Open Claw, to securely work with all of the devices and event history in your Google Home ecosystem,” Taylor Lehman, group product manager at Google Home & Nest, said in a blog post.

DIY home security company SimpliSafe is bringing its AI-powered proactive security feature to the front door. The new SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Series 2 launches today for $199.99 and works with the company’s Active Guard Outdoor Protection (starting at $49.99 a month). This combines AI analysis with live agents to detect potential threats and respond proactively.

When the camera detects suspicious activity — using a combination of on-device AI, cloud-based computer vision, and facial recognition — a SimpliSafe monitoring agent can drop in on the camera to “see, speak to, and attempt to deter potential intruders and package thieves,” according to the company.

John Ternus didn’t mention Apple Home once during his first keynote as Apple CEO. But he did open by describing an “intelligent personal hub” that prioritizes local processing, protects your privacy, and integrates with all your other devices, apps, and services. While Ternus was talking about the iPhone — not a new smart home device — what he spelled out is exactly what I want to see Apple make: an intelligent home hub, a computer for your home.

Rumors suggest Apple’s first smart home hub with a screen is imminent. While that’s long overdue, it’s likely to be more interface than infrastructure, a device that can run your home locally but still uses the cloud. What the smart home needs is a computer to run it — one that controls and processes data from connected devices locally, improving speed, reliability, and privacy while securely storing your digital life, from photos and files to music and movies. Crucially, it would do all this inside your home.

Ring has a new way to protect your videos. It’s developed an encryption method called TAKE, short for Throw Away the Key Encryption, that the Amazon-owned company says will protect your videos without traditional end-to-end encryption. TAKE limits when and why Amazon’s cloud can access those videos, while still providing features like smart alerts for people and packages, AI-powered video search, and video descriptions.

The feature is rolling out gradually starting in September, regardless of whether you have a subscription, and will become the default encryption for all Ring customers.

Comcast announced a new platform this week called Xfinity Shield that includes the option to let customers turn their routers into motion sensors. Many people reacted with fear and anger.

“I am not enabling this. I am also seriously considering replacing my leased gateway with my own equipment, because a device I do not control sitting in my living room measuring the motion of my family is not a feature I asked for,” wrote one customer on the r/Comcast subreddit

Robot vacuums are great at keeping your floors clean, but there are a few areas they fall down on the job — stairs being one. Another is chairs and stools.

You know the scenario: You have a row of stools at a kitchen table, or chairs tucked under a dining table, and the robovac just can’t get in and around them, leaving a dust bunny bonanza. Plus, as these are generally areas where you eat, crumbs and food debris can quickly accumulate.

Comcast is bringing Wi-Fi motion sensing to millions of routers that are already in customers’ homes, turning the devices into activity monitors. A new update to the Xfinity Internet app, arriving today, August 18th, enables the feature on compatible Xfinity routers at no extra cost.

Announced as part of its new Xfinity Shield service, WiFi Motion can monitor activity in your home and send you notifications, similar to a standalone motion sensor. It works by detecting disruptions in the Wi-Fi signal between the Xfinity gateway and any Wi-Fi-connected device, giving you some insight into what’s happening in your home without buying additional hardware. Xfinity Shield is free for all customers and includes a new advanced security feature that protects devices from online threats, including malware and phishing attacks, and improved parental controls.