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.
Aeotec’s $119.99 Smart Home Hub 2 features faster hardware, USB expandability, and support for Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, and Thread. It works as a Matter Controller and prioritizes on-hub communications to keep your smart home up when the cloud is down. It doesn’t support Z-Wave.
When I tested the Current Pizza Oven earlier this year, I loved its pizza-making skills, but wasn’t sold on its single-purpose design. Now, a free over-the-air update turns it into a more capable oven, adding a bake mode for things like muffins, bread, or roasting a chicken, a sear mode for cooking a steak, plus a Detroit-style pizza mode, for those who enjoy pizza pain.
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Amazon’s Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 launch this week, here are my first impressions
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Verge Score
This WALL-E-like bot fixes the stuff every other robot vacuum gets wrong.
The new Matter-over-Thread lineup delivers affordable, platform-agnostic lighting, sensors, and remotes for every smart home.
Google’s Nest cams now use AI to tell you what they see, not just show you. Only sometimes it tells me about things that aren’t there.
The US Environmental Protection Agency is considering keeping it alive, following news earlier this year that the Trump administration would shutter the money-saving program as part of its efforts to roll back energy and water efficiency standards.
[The New York TImes]
Ars Technica reports that Google’s new Gemini capabilities on Nest Cam are causing confusion, such as mistaking a dog for a deer, while others have reported fake people in notifications.
The AI-powered text descriptions and daily summaries arrived with the new cameras this month. I’m currently testing Gemini for Home, and so far, no deer in the house. I’ll have a full review next week.
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The hardware finally feels ready, but Alexa Plus is still a work in progress.
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The Atmos smart speaker goes up against the HomePod 2… and wins.
This sucker can’t fly, but it can avoid your socks.
The Roomba robot vacuum maker reported in a regulatory filing that its last potential buyer has withdrawn. The company, which has been seeking a sale since its deal with Amazon was scuppered by EU regulatory scrutiny, warned it could be forced to seek bankruptcy.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called it “a sad story” and an example of regulation gone wrong in an interview with CNBC today.
And here’s how to opt out.
The company is expanding its already diverse smart home catalog with a new line of Matter-enabled lighting products. The collection includes standing floor lamps, RGB rope and strip lights, and a candle-warming lamp. They can all be integrated into smart home routines, but each light can also function independently without Wi-Fi.
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6
Verge Score
Smart security, no hands required.
Jamie Siminoff’s new book, Ding Dong, charts how his video doorbell startup turned into a home security behemoth.
