More from All the smart home news, reviews, and gadgets you need to know about
The smart lock, which launched earlier this year with support for Apple’s Home Key, is the first to work with Samsung’s new Digital Home Key.
The feature uses NFC powered by the new smart lock standard Aliro and lets you unlock your door by tapping your Samsung Galaxy smartphone on the lock. Aqara says UWB-based, hands-free unlocking is coming in Q2 2026.










Ring’s Super Bowl ad focused on how its cameras could be networked to find a missing dog, but for a lot of people, it highlighted the surveillance power hiding in those devices. Now Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has sent a letter to Amazon saying, “Get this creepy technology away from our homes.”
You can read it in full here, but here’s a snippet:











It won’t clean your whole house, but it’s the perfect companion to your robot vacuum




The French smart home brand has announced the Thermostat Original (€149.99) and the Radiator Thermostat Original (coming soon). Both will work with Matter through an included Thermo Hub.
The Thermostat is Netatmo’s first product to work with Matter. Designed for European homes, it supports boilers, air-water heat pumps, and wood/pellet stoves.
As first spotted by Matter Alpha, the Chinese drone manufacturer has joined the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the organization behind Matter.
This means it could potentially add Matter support to its new Romo robot vacuum line, allowing the robot to work with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or any other Matter ecosystem.





Better prices, better features, and Matter support made this a standout year for the connected home.





Who needs humanoid robots when your vacuum can sprout legs?





