An upcoming Galaxy Ring and SmartThings integration enables the smart ring to trigger smart home automations.
A giant super-sized model of the wearable was at IFA this week to demo how your home can respond to biometric signals.
It showed the ring sensing the wearer had fallen asleep or woken up and then starting a sleep routine or a good morning routine. Now that’s an effortless interface.
At IFA this week, Roborock and SharkNinja showed off robot vacuums that can lift themselves up to get over high room transitions, but Dreame went “a step” further.
It demoed its new ProLeap system, which uses retractable legs to navigate very low steps, as this video from The Ambient shows.
The tech is still in development but the company says it should arrive on its product line soon.
I love a good tactile dial and a sleek touchscreen for controlling my smart home gadgets, so Aqara’s new Panel Hub S1 Plus and Touchscreen Dial V1 caught my eye.
Both hardwire to existing light fixtures and can control other devices wirelessly — and that physical dial is so nice!
They’re launching in Europe and Aqara says U.S. versions could arrive next year.
The Siemens/Bosch XXL built-in fridge freezer was launched last year, and Eelco Lammertink of BSH tells me it will be upgraded to Matter in early 2025.
“Our ambition is to have our entire product line be connectable via Matter,” he said. BSH is also upgrading its Smart Kitchen Dock to be a Matter bridge, which will allow existing appliances to work with Matter.
The Camovue is a new outdoor camera from the folks behind Reolink that can send alerts when it detects specific animals.
It can spot up to 12 species, including wild boar, deer (bucks and does), mountain lions, elk, ducks, weasels, cattle, goats, turkeys, raccoons, and foxes.
The company says it’s working on adding more critter-spotting capabilities. The camera is slated for launch later this year.
A camera embedded into a keypad that can stream to a separate video intercom inside your home, Switchbot’s first video doorbell solution also works as a keypad for its smart door locks.
Both components are quite large and bulky, but it’s intriguing as an all-in-one solution for a video intercom. This is still a prototype; we expect to hear more about it next year.
The Narwal Freo Z Ultra ($1,499.99) uses two cameras to constantly scan while cleaning and adapt to what it spots.
Dual AI chips mean it can identify objects and decide how to clean — get close to chair leg but give pet poop a wide berth, retract its brush when it sees a cable, and activate mop-only when there’s a wet mess ahead.
Does it look good on me?
EcoFlow’s new $129 Power Hat is possibly the most uncomfortable hat I’ve ever worn — but if it can keep my phone charged while running around IFA in the blistering 90-degree heat in Berlin, it might be worth it.
The company says the hat can charge a 4,000mAh smartphone in a few hours. It’s surprisingly lightweight but unsurprisingly unattractive.
