The "hands-full-of-groceries" struggle is officially over.

I’ve been living with the Aqara Smart Lock U400 for two weeks, and the UWB auto-unlock feature feels like living in the future.

Read my full review here:
www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/...
#smarthome #matter #tech

If you’re attending #CES2026 and interested in the smart home, you won’t want to miss this panel on the future of sensing and open standards in the home!

It features a number of smart home all-stars, plus yours truly 🙈

Made it to Vegas! #CES

Amazon quietly released its new Alexa+ website. It functions similar to ChatGPT or Gemini, but also includes access to smart home controls! You can try it out at alexa.amazon.com
#smarthome #alexa #ai

Amazon quietly released its first Matter smart plug! It’s cheap but only uses 2.4GHz WiFi…
www.amazon.com/Amazon-Basic...
#smarthome

Best Prime Big Deal Days Sales on Smart Home Products - Consumer Reports With Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days on Oct. 7 and 8, it's a great chance to take advantage of deals on popular smart home devices.

If you're looking for deals on smart home gear during Prime Big Deal Days, I've got you covered! www.consumerreports.org/money/sales-...
#smarthome

Gemini for Home: Expanding the Platform for a New Era of Smart Home AI- Google Developers Blog Google Home is enabling new Gemini-powered features for our partners’ devices and launching a new program to help them build the next generation of AI cameras.

Google wants every security camera maker to build Gemini AI-powered cameras developers.googleblog.com/en/gemini-fo...
#smarthome #Gemini #GoogleHome

Samsung brings ads to US fridges Samsung’s ‘screens everywhere’ initiative is morphing into ads everywhere.

Why yes, I’d love some ads on my $5,000 smart fridge 🙄
www.theverge.com/news/780757/... #smarthome #Samsung

The iPhone 17 comes with Apple’s new in-house networking chip Apple’s lineup of custom silicon continues to grow.

Apple's new N1 networking chip is a smart home powerhouse, supporting Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. It will ship in the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, and iPhone Air: www.theverge.com/news/774941/...
#smarthome

Last week, Ring quietly rolled out a new take on its video request tool for law enforcement that was shuttered over a year ago. This new version is called Community Requests.
www.consumerreports.org/electronics/... #Ring #Amazon #smarthome

Philips Hue lights get bigger, brighter, and cheaper with a major product refresh It’s a HUE-ge launch

Philips Hue just overhauled its entire product line and its smart bulbs now support Matter over Thread! That’s quite the endorsement for the nascent wireless protocol. www.theverge.com/ifa-berlin/7... #smarthome #ifa2025

Belkin is ending support for nearly all its Wemo smart home devices No mo’ Wemo

And another early smart home brand bites the dust...
#smarthome
www.theverge.com/news/705136/...

Best Amazon Prime Day Smart Home Deals on Smart Thermostats, Security Cameras, and More - Consumer Reports These are the best Prime Day deals on smart thermostats, smart locks, and more that have all performed exceptionally in Consumer Reports' tests.

I'm tracking the best Amazon Prime Day (more like Week) smart home deals every day over the 4-day sale. Keep checking my deal roundup for the latest finds: www.consumerreports.org/money/sales-... #smarthome

Products built for Google Home now have their own dedicated “Preferred Product” badge #smarthome #googlehome

Stories - Consumer Reports

CR is collecting consumer stories on installing solar panels. If you’ve bought solar panels for your home and want to share you story, you can do so here: www.consumerreports.org/stories?ques...

Belkin sold Phyn to an investor group led by the Property Brothers’ Jonathan Scott for $24.9 million

Sonos and Ikea are ending their partnership | The Verge Get those Symfonisk speakers before they’re gone.

This is a real bummer. The Symfonisk line was a great way to try out Sonos without spending Sonos levels of money. Maybe that’s why the partnership is ending… www.theverge.com/news/661491/...

Eufy Omni E28, ESR Find My Wal… - HomeKit Insider - Apple Podcasts Podcast Episode · HomeKit Insider · 05/05/2025 · 59m

I had the pleasure of going on the HomeKit Insider podcast to chat about the latest #smarthome news and all the cool smart home work CR does. You can listen to the episode here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Yale’s latest smart lock can disarm your ADT security system with your fingerprint | The Verge Touch to disarm

The spiritual successor to Nest Secure, ADT Plus, now has its own Yale smart lock that can disarm the system with just your fingerprint
www.theverge.com/news/658636/...

Later this year, Google will end support for its oldest Nest thermostats. You can still use them as a thermostat, but they won't connect to the Nest app, Google Home app, or Google Assistant, and features that require connectivity like Home/Away Assist won't work. More here: tinyurl.com/58wcym7v

Aqara also announced a custom feature called Advanced Matter Bridging that will add Aqara triggers and scenes as virtual occupancy sensors and plugs (respectively) to third-party Matter platforms. This allows you to use them in automations on those platforms.

Aqara is becoming a full fledged Matter platform with support through version 1.4 coming this month. That means it’s further along than Apple, Amazon, and Google.

Samsung's Ballie AI robot companion will have Gemini onboard when it launches this summer in the US and Korea | TechRadar A recommitment to a 2025 launch and a partnership with Google Cloud

I’m surprised Samsung is claiming Ballie will ship this summer despite all the tariff chaos. And it will now have Google’s Gemini built-in. www.techradar.com/home/smart-h...

Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is back at Amazon | The Verge Jamie Siminoff returns.

Interesting move. I would argue Ring has floundered a bit since Jamie’s departure. Maybe he can make it innovative again? www.theverge.com/news/644013/...

Nintendo delays Switch 2 preorders over tariff concerns | The Verge Preorders won’t start April 9th as originally announced.

Looks like the tariffs might derail Nintendo’s launch plans for Switch 2…
www.theverge.com/news/643483/...

Switchbot just announced official integrations with Home Assistant! There are three to choose from: Bluetooth, Matter, and the cloud. More details on supported devices here:
https://us.switch-bot.com/pages/home-assistant

Does anyone know of a no-neutral smart switch or dimmer that is compact enough to fit inside old, no-longer-to-code metal switch boxes? I’ve tried Leviton and Lutron but both are too big for the box 😤

Long live Amiibo!

Best Smart Thermostats of 2025 - Consumer Reports Consumer Reports' exhaustive tests reveal the best smart thermostats, including models from Ecobee, Google Nest, Honeywell Home, Mysa, and Sensibo.

We recently completed our first-ever tests of smart thermostats for mini splits, window ACs, and heat pumps! You can see our top picks here: www.consumerreports.org/appliances/thermostats/b...

tvOS 18.4 Beta Further Hints at Apple's Work on Smart Home Hub - MacRumors In the latest beta of tvOS 18.4, there are new hints of Apple's work on a smart home hub accessory that's rumored to be coming as soon as...

Given all the rumors over the last few years, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple’s rumored HomeOS is just a rebranded and overhauled tvOS… www.macrumors.com/2025/03/04/tvos-18-4-sma...