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The $899 Litter-Robot 5 Pro is a great pooper-scooper wrapped in AI that just doesn’t work.
Is it time to fire the neighbor kid and hire a robot lawnmower instead? Last year I wrote that “in all but a few scenarios, robot lawnmowers still aren’t worth your money,” but there’s a new class of Roombas with razor blades ready to tackle bumpy terrain and dodge crazy chickens. Realtor and smart home reviewer Brandon Doyle joins me to talk about our reviews of the newest robotic mowers and to let you know if they’re finally worth all that money. Read my review for more and check out Brandon’s video review.
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I pitted five automowers against each other to find the best cutter for my challenging garden.
But also pricier. The HydraSense is a new countertop water filter that dispenses water with a button press, filling your cup or bottle in seconds.
The $199 gadget launches today, and is more elegant than a big water jug in your fridge, while costing less than cold/hot filtration devices. I just got one to test, and think it’s useful if you don’t have a built-in fridge filtration system and find waiting on your Brita a pain. Here’s a first look.
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Your Sonos speakers can now control your Lutron Caséta lights, plugs, and shades alongside your music with Sonos Voice Control. This is the second lighting integration for the speaker’s built-in assistant, which added the ability to control your Hue lights last year.
The Chinese-owned appliance manufacturer announced it will use US-manufactured Texas Instruments semiconductors in its new laundry machines made at its Louisville, Kentucky, headquarters. Along with its Wi-Fi and BLE connectivity solutions, GE Appliances says it’s exploring using TI’s intelligent microcontroller platform to bring advanced AI to its washers and dryers.
You’ll have fewer robot floor cleaners to choose from and higher prices.
According to Hueblog.com, the smart lighting company is readying a new solution for its popular entertainment sync feature. “Screen Sync” is a TV-mounted camera that matches Hue lights to on-screen content. Unlike Hue’s HDMI Sync box and TV Sync apps, a camera-based system — popularized by rivals Govee and Nanoleaf — should be able to sync with any content on the screen.
I tested four locks that unlock with a look, and while hands-free with UWB is better, if you want a sci-fi experience for your front door, facial recognition is worth considering.
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The $399 smart lock ditches keys for ultra-wideband hands-free unlocking. It’s magical, but it’s Apple-only for now.
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The Google Home Speaker nails the hardware, but Gemini for Home isn’t the assistant we’ve been waiting for.
At the CSA’s inaugural Unify conference, the mood was optimistic but realistic. Matter hasn’t delivered on its promise — but I left convinced that it still can.
Thread Group and the Broadband Forum are teaming up to help IoT devices and home internet work better together. The Broadband Forum — the organization that develops the standards ISPs use to manage gateways and routers — is adding support for connecting to Thread networks, giving ISPs visibility into both networks.
The group behind Matter has released the next version of its Product Security Certification Program, a cybersecurity standard designed to provide a single security label for consumer IoT devices.
The update extends certification beyond devices to include apps, gateways, and remote processes, allowing companies to certify entire ecosystems. It also adds independent validation through physical test labs and is now integrated into the Matter spec, with companies seeking Matter certification encouraged to complete the security certification as well.
A Thursday email to Google Home users says there are over 3.5 million Gemini for Home early access testers, and that people should “keep a very close eye on your inbox next week” for news about “a certain speaker.” That sounds like the Google Home speaker we previewed in October, which was projected to launch in spring 2026.
The headline feature is the camera upgrades, but the smart home app is getting more new features, including energy monitoring.
As spotted by Matter Alpha, the first iOS 27 dev beta introduces a dedicated Power tab that displays the total energy consumption of compatible devices. There’s also an improved onboarding flow for new devices and support for Thread 1.4.
The robot vacuum company just launched its first robot lawnmower designed for US yards. The RockNeo Q110H combines RTK and VSLAM navigation and costs $1,299. It’s designed for small- to medium-sized yards and handles 45% slopes.
I’m currently testing models from Mammotion and Dreame for a robot lawnmower battle royale take-two, and I’ve been impressed by the improved mobility and navigation of these new bots.
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