Smart Home

In a growing thread on the Google Home subreddit many users are reporting an unusual issue today with the platform being unable to change the color of various brands of connected smart lights either through the app, or by using voice commands. Their brightness can still be adjusted, and the lights can be turned on or off, but changing the color only works in each bulb’s respective apps.

Is Förlig the Swedish translation for lightsaber? Because it’s impossible to see anything but a Jedi’s weapon when looking at Ikea’s new $25 USB-powered LED lamp. It cycles through multiple colors at the push of a button and can be used standing up with an included stand, hung on a wall, or swung around while you make sound effects.

The company says this will allow users to interact with lighting from their AI chatbot of choice using natural language, such as “make my room feel like sunset.” It also lets developers and advanced users link Nanoleaf lights with live weather APIs, custom webhooks, and third-party web services to respond to things like changes in the weather and calendar appointments.

The $99.99 Essential Solar Security Camera is a 2K/24fps camera with an integrated 1.2-watt solar panel so you don’t need to run any wires. Just two hours of sunlight per day can charge its capacious 14,790mAh battery that can keep the camera running for up to six months between top-ups. A subscription starting at $9.99 per month isn’t mandatory but adds features like cloud storage and AI-powered smart detection.

It says users can link the RGBICWW Light Bars with compatible AI agents to sync with light cues, like a breathing effect when the AI is thinking. The light bars also have a built-in microphone that detects ambient sound for “music-reactive effects,” 12 independently-controllable color zones, 26 preset effects, adjustable color temperature, dimming, and built-in mounting magnets.

To test the new AI-powered features on Ring, Google Nest, and Apple Home connected video doorbells, I put on the iconic Scream mask to see if any of them would warn me.

Project July replaces June’s cloud server with one that runs on the oven and connects to your phone over your local Wi-Fi network. It brings app control of the oven and live camera streaming to the device, features that went away when Weber shut down the cloud last week.

We called the K11 Plus the best robot vacuum for small spaces, but Switchbot’s upgraded K11 Plus Pro could be an even better option. For $399.99 you get a boost from 6,000Pa to 12,000Pa of suction potentially making it a more potent autonomous cleaner for apartments with multiple pets or spill-prone kids.

Today, Weber shut down June Oven’s cloud servers, leaving ovens that cost up to $1,500 unable to do anything beyond basic functions.

According to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, the long-rumored Apple home hub with a screen is now being positioned as an AI hub for the home, working in tandem with your personal AI hub, the iPhone. He writes:

You’ll have to pay at least $9.99 a month for Apple Home’s new AI-powered features, including video summaries, for just one camera. If you want access on up to five cameras, it’s $59.99 (included in the 12TB iCloud Plus plan). Is this a sign of more subscription fees on the horizon for Apple’s smart home?

Google Home just announced MCP integration. Read about how this could help your smart home — assuming we’re not all living in a post-apocalyptic battery farm — in my explainer.

For $79.99 you get a sensor compatible with Thread and Zigbee networks that’s a more private alternative to cameras. It uses mmWave radar to track occupants in real time, and knows if they’re standing, sitting, or lying down. It can also detect falls and count the number of occupants, how long they’ve hung around, and the distance they’ve traveled.

I saw the upcoming S30 Mini at IFA last week, and my bathroom floors are excited. SwitchBot’s line of mini robot vacuums is great for smaller spaces like apartments, home offices, or bedrooms, but none have full mopping capabilities — until now. The S30 Mini adds a roller mop to the 11-inch-wide vacuum, and it looks like a good solution for small bathrooms. There’s no price or release date yet.

The company’s Saros 20 Flow goes on sale today for $1,499.99 (down from $1,699.99). At 3.53 inches tall, it’s one of the slimmest roller mop models, and with 36,000 Pa suction, camera-based obstacle recognition, and the ability to climb multi-layer thresholds, this robot should be able to get the job done. I got a first look at IFA last week and plan to test it soon.

The ban, announced in July, has caused chaos for many manufacturers of robot vacuums, pool cleaners, lawn mowers, and more. Swedish company Husqvarna has secured the first exception to the rule for its 305v IQ, 310v IQ, 420v IQ, and 440v IQ after the Defense Department decided they don’t pose a national security risk.

The buzz at IFA was all around robotics — humanoids, quadrupeds, and wheeled bots designed to be household helpers and companions. I was on a panel (watch it here) where roboticists and entrepreneurs insisted that in five years everyone will know someone with a humanoid at home.

The Roomba Duo is a new concept from iRobot. Two vacuums in one: the larger robot is a vacuum and steam mop (I watched it suck up pasta from carpet) and the smaller one sits on top. When the Duo finds areas it can’t reach, it uses a mechanical arm to lower the second bot to the floor.

The Kata Mini is one of those weird AI companions that have little purpose other than to be cute and creepy — speaker and microphone on your keychain plushie, anyone?

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.

The flagship Deebot X12S Omnicyclone comes with a “FocusJet” that sprays cleaning solution on dried-on stains before scrubbing, and a dust-mite chamber that pushes down into the pile to create a seal while vacuuming. There’s also a privacy shield to cover the robovac’s built-in camera.

The Explorer 2000 Plus v2 packs a 2kWh LFP battery and features a Storm Warning Function to automatically pre-charge ahead of severe weather, and an emergency reserve mode to ensure there’s always power available in case of disaster. It supports 800W of maximum solar input, 3600W of AC output, and up to 12kWh of battery expansion capacity. It launches on September 29th for $1,199, alongside a few other Jackery x Red Cross models. More specs in the pics that follow.

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.