The smart home was once a far-flung pipe dream, but it is now a reality. Wherever you live, your home is ground zero for some of the most interesting tech available right now, and tech that’s yet to come. Best of all, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to get your home up and running with smart hardware and services.
Home security and monitoring solutions can alert you to a burglary, smoke, fire, or just simple motion activity. There are plenty of options with a range of capabilities, from smart doorbells and smart locks to indoor and outdoor cameras that can see in the dark.
Smart speakers, like the Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Apple HomePod each play a big role in helping you out, too. In the kitchen, they can read out recipes, or if you’re cleaning, you can call out to them to change the song on the fly. If you buy smart light bulbs, for instance, you can turn them on and off by using your voice.
From coop to attic, Home Assistant’s new Z-Wave antenna helped me connect devices in the furthest corners of my domain.
Ken Fairbanks found himself doing exactly that, just so he could keep his smart lights running.
In this week’s Vergecast, I chat with the new owner of Insteon about how and why he found himself buying a smart home company, and the challenges the industry faces today.
Originally set to launch in June when it was announced at CES 2025, the Narwal Flow mopping robovac is now available for preorder, and shipping expected to start on August 27th.
With a mopping pad that can extend to reach the edges of walls, the standard version of the Flow is discounted from $1,499.99 to $1,099.99 for preorders while a version with a more compact dock that can connect to plumbing is $1,599.99 discounted to $1,399.99.
7
Verge Score
The Eufy FamiLock has a digital peephole and can unlock with a wave, but it costs $400.
This Wired article shows how an indirect prompt injection attack against a Gemini-powered AI assistant could cause the bot to curse in responses and take over smart home controls by turning on the heat unexpectedly or opening blinds in response to saying “thanks.”
In a report dubbed “Invitation is all you need” (Sound familiar?), their Google Calendar invite passed instructions to the AI bot that were triggered by asking for a summary. Google was informed of the vulnerabilities they found in February and said it has already introduced “multiple fixes.”
Samsung is fulfilling its promise to upgrade the voice assistant with generative AI, with new features now rolling out to its 2025 TVs in the US.
Bixby should now be better at answering natural language queries about anything, whether on the TV screen or not, and will help turn your TV into a smart home hub with voice controls for SmartThings appliances.
After months of questionable leaks that haven’t revealed many details, DJI has shared a teaser video and image of its first robot vacuum being announced next week. The DJI Romo features a traditional circular robovac design with a pair of extended brushes and what appears to be a sensor array on the front.
It will also utilize a dock, but despite what the teaser image shows, the transparent version might just be DJI showing off the dock’s internals and functionality.
The company says its Outdoor UpDown Wall Light is the “industry’s first” with “independently adjustable colors on all four sides.” Through the Govee app users can choose from over 16 million shades and while the up and down beams cast a brighter glow than the sides, overall the light can illuminate over 120 square feet of wall space.
It’s available starting today through Govee’s website and Amazon for $129.99 individually, or $229.99 for a pair.
Increasingly frustrated users of Google’s smart home platform just got tossed a lifeline. After apologizing for Google Assistant’s reliability, the platform’s chief product officer offered this promise:
A firmware upgrade for its PowerView Gen 3 platform is now available, allowing users to control their shades locally via Matter platforms, including Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and others.
Hunter Douglas first said it would bring Matter to its smart shades back in 2022, and is finally following through. However, the upgrade is only coming to the gen 3 shades connected to a PowerView Gateway or Gateway Pro.
The Always Home Cam could be (re)launching soon in “limited quantities,” according to Business Insider. The publication cites sources who say that recently returned CEO Jamie Siminoff has been testing the indoor flying camera in his office and plans to make it available soon.
Announced in 2020 under Siminoff’s first tenure, the camera never shipped despite a brief invitation program. I saw it fly at CES in 2023; maybe 2025 will finally be its year.
Several of the European smart home company’s new Z-Wave Long Range products are now available in the US. Announced at CES 2025, the Shelly Wave line leverages the increased range offered by the Z-Wave LR protocol, allowing it to extend over a mile from your house.
Available now are a $38 energy monitoring plug, a $37 motion sensor, a $35 humidity and temperature sensor, and a line of electrical relays starting at $28.99, with the rest arriving later this year.
Note: If you buy something from these links, we might get affiliate revenue.
My first impressions after one day with Amazon’s smarter, more conversational, generative AI-powered assistant.
