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.
The Aqara Doorbell Camera G400 goes on sale today following its launch last November. Unlike the G350 Camera Hub camera, which also arrives today, it doesn’t support Matter, but it does have dual-band Wi-Fi 6, PoE, 2K resolution, a 165-degree field of view, and a 3:4 aspect ratio.
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Aqara’s G350 brings Matter 1.5 camera support, promising easier smart home integration — but it only works with Samsung SmartThings.
Brief, Sweet, and Chill options launched in January for Alexa Plus, and now there’s also Sassy, an “unfiltered personality with razor-sharp wit, playful sarcasm, and occasional censored profanity.”
The clever comebacks-equipped voice is adults-only and requires additional verification checks, but it’s no Microsoft Tay, M3gan, or AIA. Where the Sweet version leads with “I’m radiating pure joy,” this one suggests mayhem and being “ready to wreck some things together.”
DJI drones are getting pushed out of the US; TP-Link routers are under investigation. Now Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who introduced the Countering CCP Drones Act in 2022, are asking the FCC and Commerce to investigate Anker. The Select Committee on the CCP did similar last year.
The new letter cites my reporting, though not by name:
The smart lock, which launched earlier this year with support for Apple’s Home Key, is the first to work with Samsung’s new Digital Home Key.
The feature uses NFC powered by the new smart lock standard Aliro and lets you unlock your door by tapping your Samsung Galaxy smartphone on the lock. Aqara says UWB-based, hands-free unlocking is coming in Q2 2026.
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The $1,300 Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal can spot messes, adapt its cleaning to tackle them, then go back to eliminate them.
The company just revealed its “AI-native” Wi-Fi 8 portfolio at MWC, led by the FastConnect 8800 mobile chip. It promises 10+ Gbps speeds while packing Bluetooth 7.0, UWB, and Thread onto a single chip.
Alongside it, five new Dragonwing platforms will power your next ultra-fast router. The company expects commercial products by late 2026, before most of us have switched to Wi-Fi 7, and two years before the Wi-Fi 8 standard is officially ratified.
Home security company ADT has acquired Origin Wireless, which can use Wi-Fi signals to detect where people and objects are. An appropriately named commenter recognizes there might be some cause for concern.
PerpetuallySkeptical:
I’m sure that paying a company to see exactly where I am in my house at all times won’t be used against me in the future.
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In case you missed our story, DJI’s first robovac launched with now-patched holes that could’ve let hackers or even tinkerers see inside your home from a world away. DJI tells us it’ll also address another vulnerability, which we deemed too risky to disclose, in the coming months. We’ll let you know if it doesn’t.
Govee’s RGBIC Floor Lamp is on sale for just $64.98 ($35 off) at Amazon. The 4.6-foot smart lamp can light up your home with over 16 million colors, syncs with music, and boasts dozens of preset effects. I’ve owned it for more than a year, and despite being a last-gen model, it’s a reliable way to brighten your living space.
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After Ring announced that it had canceled integration with Flock Safety, the law enforcement technology company criticized for connections to ICE (a claim it denies) has released it’s own statement and blog post:
Over the past several months, Flock and Ring explored whether their respective platforms could responsibly complement one another in support of public safety. Throughout those discussions, Flock engaged extensively with customers, public officials, and community stakeholders to understand expectations around accountability, transparency, and lawful use.
Based on that engagement, Flock and Ring have chosen to cancel the planned integration.
Yes, Wyze has had its own issues, but this video is pretty funny.
Ring’s Super Bowl ad focused on how its cameras could be networked to find a missing dog, but for a lot of people, it highlighted the surveillance power hiding in those devices. Now Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has sent a letter to Amazon saying, “Get this creepy technology away from our homes.”
You can read it in full here, but here’s a snippet:
