Topic: smart home
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My Google Smart Home Failed: Here's What Happened
Initial excitement for voice-controlled smart homes shifted to prioritizing practical automation, moving beyond novelty to energy savings and comfort through integrated devices. Voice commands proved unreliable and frustrating, highlighting a need for proactive, intelligent automation that Google...
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I Tested Amazon & Google's New Smart Gadgets - Ask Me Anything
Amazon introduced new Echo devices with an advanced, conversational Alexa Plus AI assistant and AI-powered Ring cameras that can help locate lost pets. Google announced the full integration of its Gemini AI into the Google Home platform, replacing Google Assistant with a smarter, language model-d...
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Can We Trust AI to Build a Smarter Home?
Ambient computing aims to create intuitive, seamless smart homes, but current systems often remain fragmented and intrusive. AI and machine learning are advancing smart homes by enabling contextual awareness, such as interpreting events and predicting needs, though privacy and infrastructure chal...
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Aqara's Cordless Presence Sensor Lasts 3 Years on a Single Charge
The Aqara FP300 Presence Multi-Sensor operates for up to three years on two coin cell batteries via Zigbee, offering a cordless design for flexible placement and occupancy detection at $49.99. It uses passive infrared and 60 GHz radar to detect both moving and stationary people up to 20 feet away...
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Ikea's Entire New Smart Home Line Runs on Matter
Ikea is launching 21 new smart home devices using the Matter-over-Thread standard, ensuring compatibility across brands and simplifying the creation of a connected home. The product lineup includes updated smart bulbs, versatile wireless remotes, and five sensors for automation, all designed to w...
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My Weekend With a Family-Watching AI Got Strange
The author tested Google's Gemini for Home AI, which provided real-time descriptive alerts of household activities, improving on generic security notifications with specific details like identifying family members versus strangers. While real-time alerts were mostly accurate, the system's daily H...
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Upgrade Your Monitor & Coffee Maker with a $24 Smart SwitchBot
The SwitchBot Bot offers an affordable way to automate existing appliances, currently available at a discounted price of $23.99 directly from SwitchBot until November 11. It easily attaches to buttons or switches without wiring, enabling smartphone control and scheduling for devices like coffee m...
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Gemini for Home Early Access Is Now Available
Gemini for Home is now available in the US through an Early Access program, offering more natural voice interactions on compatible Nest devices and replacing the traditional Google Assistant. It features advanced conversational abilities, including flexible music requests, multi-part smart home c...
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ADT & Google Launch Hands-Free Home Security
ADT Plus, developed with Google, offers an Auto Unlock feature that uses phone location and Nest Doorbell facial recognition to automatically disarm security and unlock doors for a hands-free entry experience. The system includes advanced automation like Trusted Neighbor, which grants temporary a...
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Ring CEO: Our Cameras Could 'Zero Out Crime' in 12 Months
Jamie Siminoff, founder and CEO of Ring, predicts that widespread use of AI-enhanced security cameras could nearly eliminate neighborhood crime within one to two years through advanced technology and sufficient coverage. Despite facing legal battles, product malfunctions, and near-collapse, Ring ...
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Google's Gemini AI Keeps Confusing My Dog for a Cat
Google's Gemini for Home feature enhances smart home alerts by providing detailed descriptions of detected activities, such as identifying specific delivery drivers instead of generic person notifications. Despite its advanced capabilities, Gemini persistently misidentifies the user's dog as a ca...
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My Top Smart Kitchen Gadgets Are on Prime Day Sale
Amazon's Prime Day offers significant discounts on smart kitchen gadgets that can enhance cooking efficiency and save time, making them a worthwhile investment for upgrading your culinary space. Key recommended products include the GE Profile Smart Mixer with integrated digital scales and smart s...
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Samsung SmartThings Now Supports Existing Thread Networks
Samsung SmartThings now supports "two-way Thread network unification," allowing its devices to integrate with Thread networks from other manufacturers instead of creating separate ones. This interoperability is enabled by the Thread 1.4 specification, which mandates credential sharing for devices...
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Amazon Echo Show's Full-Screen Ads Are Driving Users Crazy
Amazon's Echo Show smart displays are facing user backlash due to new, intrusive full-screen ads that cannot be disabled, transforming the device into an unwelcome digital billboard. Users feel misled as there was no prior indication of ad-supported functionality, and the ads disrupt personal exp...
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Escape Awkward Situations with SwitchBot's Fake Call Tracker
The SwitchBot Safety Alarm is a $39.99 keychain device that functions as both a personal safety tool and a smart home accessory, integrating with smart locks to send arrival notifications. In emergencies, pulling the keychain activates a 130dB audible alarm and flashing strobe, automatically aler...
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Google's Smart Home Revolution
Google reaffirms its commitment to the smart home market, emphasizing that its Gemini AI will enable a truly intelligent home environment, despite past perceptions of waning interest. The discussion highlighted Google's focus on using AI to revolutionize device interactions and acknowledged that ...
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Google's Gemini-Powered Smart Home Upgrade Arrives
Google has launched a major smart home upgrade integrating its Gemini AI into the Home app, transforming user interaction with automated environments through advanced features and a redesigned interface. The update enhances app performance with faster camera loading and fewer crashes, while offer...
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Walmart's Onn Cameras: Google-Powered Security for Just $23
Walmart has launched two new affordable security devices under its Onn brand: an indoor camera for $22.96 and a video doorbell for $49.86, both designed to integrate with Google Home. Both devices offer features like smart alerts for people, pets, and packages, and require the Google Home app for...
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Alexa Plus: Smarter, But Still Not Smart Enough
Alexa Plus introduces a conversational interface allowing natural language commands and mid-command corrections, though it still falls short of creating a fully ambient home experience. The system excels at executing multi-step commands and managing smart devices intuitively, but suffers from inc...
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Control Your Hue Lights with Sonos Speakers
Philips Hue and Sonos have integrated to allow voice control of Hue lights through Sonos speakers, enabling commands for on/off, brightness, and scenes with faster local processing. This marks the Sonos voice assistant's first expansion beyond music into broader smart home functionality, reflecti...
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Amazon & Google's Plan to Fix AI's Smart Home Problems
Amazon and Google are launching next-generation voice assistants, Alexa Plus and Gemini for Home, which use generative AI to enable more conversational, context-aware, and proactive smart home interactions, marking the biggest shift in home automation in over a decade. These AI-enhanced systems a...
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Google Defends Bumpy Gemini AI Launch as Successful
Google's Gemini AI voice assistant rollout for smart speakers is facing user-reported issues with basic commands and smart home device control, despite the company labeling the initial launch as successful. The assistant is designed to be a significant upgrade with more conversational abilities a...
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Ikea's Smart Home Takeover Is Here
Ikea is launching a range of Matter-compatible smart home devices, including customizable buttons and remotes, to make advanced home automation accessible and affordable for the average consumer. New entertainment options include "Predator: Badlands" for action movie fans, Vince Gilligan's sci-fi...
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Ring's New Feature Ends Camera Notification Overload
Ring is launching Single Event Alert on November 6th, an AI-powered feature that consolidates multiple motion alerts from one incident into a single notification to reduce notification overload. The feature builds on existing AI Video Descriptions by analyzing summaries to intelligently group rel...
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Amazon Echo Dot Max: The Biggest Little Speaker
The Amazon Echo Dot Max is a compact smart speaker with impressive audio quality, featuring a sleek design and serving as a hub for Matter, Thread, and Zigbee devices while doubling as an Eero Wi-Fi extender. Priced at $99, it offers rich sound with a separate tweeter and woofer, supports stereo ...
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MECES 2025 Dubai: AI Innovations for Smart Living
MECES 2025 Dubai, themed "AI For All," will showcase AI innovations in smart homes and personal electronics, featuring major industry leaders like Haier and Hisense. The event highlights green technology and sustainable innovations, including energy-efficient appliances and systems that integrate...
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Illuminate Your Yard with Tapo's Solar-Powered Floodlight Camera
The Tapo C615F is a solar-powered floodlight camera that combines HD surveillance with bright lighting, currently discounted to $89.99 for a limited time. It operates efficiently with minimal sunlight, running up to 24 hours on 45 minutes of sun and up to 140 days on battery, featuring a detachab...
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The iPad's New Chip Makes It the Ultimate Smart Home Hub
The new iPad Pro is Apple's first device to officially support the Thread protocol, integrating Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread via the N1 chip, which aligns it with the Matter smart home standard. Including a Thread radio allows the iPad Pro to set up and communicate directly with Thread-compat...
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New Litter-Robot Uses AI to Recognize Your Cat's Unique Features
Whisker has launched three new automated litter boxes: the Litter-Robot 5 Pro with facial recognition for $899, the Litter-Robot 5 at $799, and the budget-friendly Litter-Robot Evo for $599, all featuring a redesigned control panel with an LCD screen. The Litter-Robot 5 Pro includes dual cameras ...
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The Best Smart Locks After Testing 30 Models
Smart locks enhance home security and convenience by offering key-free entry, remote access management, and activity logs, making them a practical smart home investment. They integrate with other smart devices for automated routines and typically match the security of traditional deadbolts while ...
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Ring's Search Party Is On by Default: Should You Turn It Off?
Ring's Search Party feature uses AI to scan footage from nearby outdoor cameras to help locate lost dogs, notifying camera owners of potential matches for manual review and sharing. The feature is enabled by default on compatible devices, raising concerns about user consent and digital privacy, t...
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Tariffs Force Starling Home Hub, Google Nest's Apple Home Bridge, to Shut Down
The Starling Home Hub, which bridged Google Nest products with Apple Home, has been discontinued due to rising manufacturing costs from U.S. tariffs. This plug-and-play device enabled seamless integration, including Siri control and automation, for older Nest devices that lack native Apple Home s...
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Affordable Smart Lighting: Upgrade Your Home on a Budget
Smart lighting is now more affordable and accessible, offering an easy entry into home automation for mood setting, energy efficiency, and convenience. Tech updates include the appearance of Hollow Knight: Silksong, an Instagram iPad app, and a new The Office spinoff, alongside insights from Paul...
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Top 7 Must-See Gadgets from IFA 2025 (Available Now!)
IFA 2025 highlights practical innovations like the Philips Hue MotionAware, which enhances smart lighting with advanced motion detection using a faster hub. Wearable tech is advanced by Rokid Smart Glasses, offering AR, AI features, and real-time translation in a lightweight design, while the Eco...
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Top 7 Must-Have Gadgets from IFA 2025 (Available Now!)
The Philips Hue Bridge Pro enhances smart lighting with MotionAware, using lights as motion sensors and supporting up to 150 bulbs for a faster, more responsive system. Rokid Smart Glasses offer advanced AR and AI features, including real-time translation and object recognition, in a lightweight ...
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Top Announcements from IFA You Can't Miss
Anker's Eufy MarsWalker robotic accessory enables robot vacuums to navigate stairs, simplifying multi-story home cleaning with its planned 2026 release. Philips Hue expanded its smart home ecosystem with a video doorbell, an upgraded Hue Bridge Pro supporting more devices, and affordable Matter-c...
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Gemini's Genius: How It's Making Google Home Smarter (Mostly)
Gemini for Google Home introduces advanced AI features like "Ask Home" for query-based searches and intelligent event labeling from Nest Cam feeds, enhancing smart home interactions. Despite its innovative capabilities, the system exhibits inconsistencies such as mislabeling objects, slow respons...
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Anker Unveils Smart Energy & Living Ecosystem at All Energy 2025
Anker Innovations showcased a fully integrated ecosystem at All Energy Australia 2025, connecting power generation, energy storage, EV charging, and smart home technologies tailored for Australian households. The company's brands hold top global positions, including Soundcore in wireless audio, A...
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Ring's Battery Doorbell Plus Drops Back to Prime Day Price
The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is available at a record low price of $79.99, offering high-resolution video, a head-to-toe view, and rechargeable batteries, making it the top battery-powered doorbell choice. A Ring Protect subscription enhances functionality with features like people and package ...
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Try Google Gemini for Your Home Now
Google has launched the Gemini for Home early access program in the U.S., integrating its advanced AI into the redesigned Google Home app and replacing Google Assistant on compatible devices. Gemini enhances smart home interactions by understanding complex, multi-step commands, enabling tasks lik...
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Logitech's $100 Pop Buttons Will Stop Working on Oct. 15
Logitech will discontinue support for its Pop smart switches on October 15, 2025, rendering them non-functional and contributing to electronic waste due to planned obsolescence. The Pop switches, launched in 2016, allowed users to control smart home devices via programmable buttons and a dedicate...
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Bitdefender & NETGEAR: Rising Home Cybersecurity Threats
Modern homes face nearly triple the daily cybersecurity attacks compared to last year, with households averaging 22 connected devices and enduring about 29 attacks daily. Entertainment devices like streaming systems, smart TVs, and IP cameras are the most vulnerable, often unpatched and accountin...
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Control SmartThings with Siri Shortcuts
Samsung's SmartThings update now integrates with Siri Shortcuts, enabling users to control their smart home devices and routines through Apple's voice assistant on devices like iPhones and HomePods. This integration allows for the creation of custom or pre-designed automations that Siri can activ...
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Save $50 on Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds Before Black Friday
Bose's second-generation QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are available at a record-low price of $249, offering exceptional noise cancellation for travel by silencing low-frequency hums and chatter. These earbuds feature adjustable sound with a bass-heavy profile, an Immersive Audio mode, and up to six...
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Brighten Your Holidays with Govee's Smart String Lights on Sale
Govee's Smart String Lights 2 are currently on sale, offering smart home integration and extensive customization features for holiday decorating. They feature over 130 preset lighting effects, music synchronization, voice control, and an IP65 weatherproof rating for indoor or outdoor use. Availab...
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Your $2,000 Samsung Smart Fridge Will Soon Show Ads
Samsung will introduce advertisements on the screens of its premium Family Hub smart refrigerators in the U.S., starting with a widget on select themes from November 3rd, following a software update. The ads will appear in a rotating widget alongside news, weather, and calendar panels, but users ...
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Save $50 on Philips Hue String Lights for October Prime Day
Amazon's October Prime Day offers Prime subscribers discounted premium holiday decorations, including the Philips Hue Festavia string lights at $169.99, a $50 savings from the original price. These smart lights feature 250 color-changing LEDs, preloaded scenes, and seamless integration with other...
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The Hidden Flaws of AI Smart Home Assistants
Large language models are widely adopted for their versatility but often fail to meet high expectations in real-world applications, leaving users questioning their effectiveness. Despite significant investment, no company has perfected a reliable AI assistant, with current tools like ChatGPT offe...
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136 Top Prime Day Deals Still Live: Save Up to 55%
Amazon Prime Day has ended, but exclusive deals continue for Prime members on tested tech gadgets, home appliances, and essentials, with updates as of October 9, 2025. Notable discounts include the Fire HD 10 tablet for media consumption, the Wi-Fi 7 Netgear Orbi 770 Series for robust home intern...
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Eufy's Video Doorbell & Smart Lock Combo Hits All-Time Low Price
The Eufy FamiLock S3 Max combines a video doorbell and smart lock into one device, currently discounted to $339.99, offering convenience and security without needing multiple gadgets. It features a built-in 4-inch screen for live video viewing, supports various access methods including palm vein ...
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