Smart Home Archive

Using the wrong screws when attaching the camera to its solar panel could accidentally puncture the battery’s metal casing, according to the USCPSC. To date there have been 13 reports of batteries overheating while six exploded and caught fire. Wyze is offering full refunds, replacements, or gift cards to its online store.

The company’s new agentic developer tools are giving the discontinued smart displays a second life as a smart home controller, family message board, art display, or anything you can dream up. The move comes shortly after Microsoft announced Project Solara. Meta says the tools are hardware-agnostic and work with many existing devices. Still, anything that breathes new life into a defunct gadget is a good thing.

You all know how much we here at The Verge love market consolidation. SwitchBot’s acquisition of Nanoleaf offers all that, plus a sprinkling of something extra.

Pricing details weren’t specified when the Weather Station was announced in January, but you can now buy one through SwitchBot’s online store and Amazon for $109.99. Battery life is estimated to be up to a full year thanks to its low-power 7.5-inch E Ink screen that displays indoor and outdoor conditions or synced calendar data.

Its PowerDetect UV Reveal now comes in four colors — brown, green, blue, and ivory. The earthy neutral palettes feature metallic accents and look surprisingly good — for a robot. I’ve been testing the blue one, and I like how it blends in with my kitchen cabinets.

The new feature in Google Home lets you add your pets’ faces to your indoor cameras, so you get alerts that tell you which cat is walking on the counter rather than just that a cat is traversing the kitchen. To enable it, type your pet’s name and species into the Ask Home search box in the Home app; you need Google Home Premium Advanced ($20/month).

The smart lighting company best known for its modular RGB lighting panels has been acquired by OneRobotics, the parent company of Switchbot. According to a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the purchase will take two years to complete.

Alongside a $35 outdoor camera, $23 plug-in indoor cam, and $45 wired video doorbell launched last week, the retailer has leaked a floodlight camera at the end of a promo video. Question is, will it or the rumored Onn speaker launch first?