Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (aka Jen) writes about all things smart home, home automation, and connected tech for The Verge. A journalist for three decades, she has covered the smart home since 2013, writing for The New York Times: Wirecutter, Dwell, Wired, The Ambient, BBC Science Focus, and US News & World Report, among others. She joined The Verge in 2021, and now tests everything from robot vacuums, video doorbells, and smart locks to connected chicken coops and smart ovens. She’s an expert on the Matter smart home standard and is passionate about the connected kitchen and home energy management. She started her career on London’s Fleet Street with The Daily Telegraph newspaper before moving to Sun Valley, Idaho, where she worked in local news for ten years. She now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, two children, a dog, two cats, a rabbit, and several chickens.
And they won’t be making more, meaning there won’t be a way to add Z-Wave devices to a SmartThings smart home. Aeotec, which makes both hubs for Samsung, told me they have about 10,000 left, which may last through the end of the year. Samsung discontinued the V3 last year and replaced it with the Smart Home Hub 2, which has twice the performance, but doesn’t support Z-Wave.
The fiercely open-source smart home platform had its first-ever booth at IFA this week and, true to form, didn’t pull any punches.
Along with the chargers and cables, Belkin showed off matching power banks for its colorful laptop at IFA this week. The UltraCharge Pro 20K Power Bank ($99.95) and BoostCharge Pro Magnetic Power Bank 5K ($59.95) in matching Neo colors are Apple Store exclusives. The entire collection could really cheer up my desk on a dreary Monday morning.
The Nurovi range features a robot mop with spinning pads, a vacuum-only option, and an upgraded version of its Spot+Scrub AI, which adds UV detection and comes in white. Nurovi supposedly stands for “neural intelligence” combined with a camera-based vision system, which makes the robots better at navigation than prior models — based on limited demos I saw at IFA in Berlin. All three robots go on sale this month.
Dyson showed off its CameraJet toothbrush in Berlin, Germany, today, at what was quite the event for a dental hygiene product.
It must mean IFA Media Days are in full swing. I’m on my way to check out Anker’s press conference, and Dom is going to seek out something that folds somewhere in the basement of the Messe. Keep up with us all day as we track down the hottest new gadgets in Berlin ahead of the show’s official opening tomorrow!
