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.
You’re in luck. I just published a big update to my robot vacuum buying guide following months of testing dozens of new bots. Plus, this week is the best time of year to buy a floor-cleaning machine, as they’re seeing major discounts ahead of Black Friday. (Well, all except my top pick!).
From my colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy’s story about Matter 1.5:
The Matter 1.5 spec, announced today, adds support for all types of video cameras — from video doorbells, indoor and outdoor, wired and battery-powered cameras, to baby monitors and pet cams. And, perhaps most importantly, Matter support can be added to existing cameras with an OTA update. The new spec also adds garage door controllers, bi-directional charging for EVs, soil sensors, and more advanced integration with utilities for energy management.
Read her whole piece for more, including an interview with the Connectivity Standards Alliance.
The 1.5 spec fills a huge gap in the standards’ promise of universal smart home compatibility.
Hot on the heels of the launch of its big Z-Wave stick, Home Assistant is launching a slightly smaller stick to support Zigbee and Thread protocols.
The Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 USB adaptor launches today for $49 (€45) and is a plug-and-play option for connecting Zigbee, Thread, or Matter devices directly to the Home Assistant platform.
According to the organization, it replaces the Connect ZBT-1 and is more powerful, with four times the speed, and features an ESP32-S3 chip that supports experimental firmware.
Following Aqara and Meross, SwitchBot has announced a new presence sensor with light, PIR, and 60 GHz mmWave radar sensors to detect when people are in a room. It runs on two AAA batteries that are easy to replace and is compatible with various smart home platforms when paired with the SwitchBot Matter Hub.
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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
9
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.
8
Verge Score
The hardware finally feels ready, but Alexa Plus is still a work in progress.
8
Verge Score
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.
