Smart Home

Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale lock

Google, Nest, Smart Home, Tech / 9u50fv / March 29, 2025

Google acquired Nest in 2014 for a whopping $3.4 billion but seems increasingly uninterested in making smart home hardware. The company has just announced two of its home gadgets will be discontinued, one of which is quite popular. The Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector is a common fixture in homes, but Google says it has stopped manufacturing it. The less popular Nest x Yale smart lock is also getting the ax. There are replacements coming, but Google won’t be making them.

Nest launched the 2nd gen Protect a year before it became part of Google. Like all smoke detectors, the Nest Protect comes with an expiration date. You’re supposed to swap them out every 10 years, so some Nest users are already there. You will have to hurry if you want a new Protect. While they’re in stock for the moment, Google won’t manufacture any more. It’s on sale for $119 on the Google Store for the time being.

Likewise, Google is done with the Nest x Yale smart lock, which it launched in 2018 to complement the Nest Secure home security system. This device requires a Thread-enabled hub, a role the Nest Secure served quite well. Now, you need a $70 Nest Connect to control this lock remotely. If you still want to grab the Nest x Yale smart lock, it’s on sale for $229 while supplies last.

Smart home hangover

Google used to want people to use its smart home devices, but its attention has been drawn elsewhere since the AI boom began. The company hasn’t released new cameras, smart speakers, doorbells, or smart displays in several years at this point, and it’s starting to look like it never will again. TV streamers and thermostats are the only home tech still getting any attention from Google. For everything else, it’s increasingly turning to third parties.

Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale lock Read More »

When software updates actually improve—instead of ruin—our favorite devices

airpods, fire tv, Smart Home, Software, Tech, valve / Shannon Garcia / February 12, 2025

Opinion: These tech products have gotten better over time.

The Hatch Restore 2 smart alarm clock. Credit: Scharon Harding

For many, there’s a feeling of dread associated with software updates to your favorite gadget. Updates to a beloved gadget can frequently result in outrage, from obligatory complaints around bugs to selective aversions to change from Luddites and tech enthusiasts.

In addition to those frustrations, there are times when gadget makers use software updates to manipulate product functionality and seriously upend owners’ abilities to use their property as expected. We’ve all seen software updates render gadgets absolutely horrible: Printers have nearly become a four-letter word as the industry infamously issues updates that brick third-party ink and scanning capabilities. We’ve also seen companies update products that caused features to be behind a paywall or removed entirely. This type of behavior has contributed to some users feeling wary of software updates in fear of them diminishing the value of already-purchased hardware.

On the other hand, there are times when software updates enrich the capabilities of smart gadgets. These updates are the types of things that can help devices retain or improve their value, last longer, and become less likely to turn into e-waste.

For example, I’ve been using the Hatch Restore 2 sunrise alarm clock since July. In that time, updates to its companion app have enabled me to extract significantly more value from the clock and explore its large library of sounds, lights, and customization options.

The Hatch Sleep iOS app used to have tabs on the bottom for Rest, for setting how the clock looks and sounds when you’re sleeping; Library, for accessing the clock’s library of sounds and colors; and Rise, for setting how the clock looks and sounds when you’re waking up. Today, the bottom of the app just has Library and Home tabs, with Home featuring all the settings for Rest and Rise, as well as for Cue (the clock’s settings for reminding you it’s time to unwind for the night) and Unwind (sounds and settings that the clock uses during the time period leading up to sleep).

A screenshot of the Home section of the Hatch Sleep app.

Hatch’s app has generally become cleaner after hiding things like its notification section. Hatch also updated the app to store multiple Unwind settings you can swap around. Overall, these changes have made customizing my settings less tedious, which means I’ve been more inclined to try them. Before the updates, I mostly used the app to set my alarm and change my Rest settings. I often exited the app prematurely after getting overwhelmed by all the different tabs I had to toggle through (toggling through tabs was also more time-consuming).

Additionally, Hatch has updated the app since I started using it so that disabled alarms are placed under an expanding drawer. This has reduced the chances of me misreading the app and thinking I have an alarm set when it’s not currently enabled while providing a clearer view of which alarms actually are enabled.

The Library tab was also recently updated to group lights and sounds under Cue, Unwind, Sleep, and Wake, making it easier to find the type of setting I’m interested in.

The app also started providing more helpful recommendations, such as “favorites for heavy sleepers.”

Better over time

Software updates have made it easier for me to enjoy the Restore 2 hardware. Honestly, I don’t know if I’d still use the clock without these app improvements. What was primarily a noise machine this summer has become a multi-purpose device with much more value.

Now, you might argue that Hatch could’ve implemented these features from the beginning. That may have been more sensible, but as a tech enthusiast, I still find something inherently cool about watching a gadget improve in ways that affect how I use the hardware and align with what I thought my gadget needed. I agree that some tech gadgets are released prematurely and overly rely on updates to earn their initial prices. But it’s also advantageous for devices to improve over time.

The Steam Deck is another good example. Early adopters might have been disappointed to see missing features like overclocking controls, per-game power profiles, or Windows drivers. Valve has since added those features.

Valve only had a few dozen Hardware department employees in the run up to the launch of the Steam Deck. Credit: Sam Machkovech

Valve has also added more control over the Steam Deck since its release, including the power to adjust resolution and refresh rates for connected external displays. It’s also upped performance via an October update that Valve claimed could improve the battery life of LCD models by up to 10 percent in “light load situations.”

These are the kinds of updates that still allowed the Steam Deck to be playable for months, but the features were exciting additions once they arrived. When companies issue updates reliably and in ways that improve the user experience, people are less averse to updating their gadgets, which could also be critical for device functionality and security.

Adding new features via software updates can make devices more valuable to owners. Updates that address accessibility needs go even further by opening up the gadgets to more people.

Apple, for example, demonstrated the power that software updates can have on accessibility by adding a hearing aid feature to the AirPods Pro 2 in October, about two years after the earbuds came out. Similarly, Amazon updated some Fire TV models in December to support simultaneous audio broadcasting from internal speakers and hearing aids. It also expanded the number of hearing aids supported by some Fire TV models as well as its Fire TV Cube streaming device.

For some, these updates had a dramatic impact on how they could use the devices, demonstrating a focus on user, rather than corporate, needs.

Update upswings

We all know that corporations sometimes leverage software updates to manipulate products in ways that prioritize internal or partner needs over those of users. Unfortunately, this seems like something we have to get used to, as an increasing number of devices join the Internet of Things and rely on software updates.

Innovations also mean that some companies are among the first to try to make sustainable business models for their products. Sometimes our favorite gadgets are made by young companies or startups with unstable funding that are forced to adapt amid challenging economics or inadequate business strategy. Sometimes, the companies behind our favorite tech products are beholden to investors and pressure for growth. These can lead to projects being abandoned or to software updates that look to squeeze more money out of customers.

As happy as I am to find my smart alarm clock increasingly easy to use, those same software updates could one day lock the features I’ve grown fond of behind a paywall (Hatch already has a subscription option available). Having my alarm clock lose functionality overnight without physical damage isn’t the type of thing I’d have to worry about with a dumb alarm clock, of course.

But that’s the gamble that tech fans take, which makes those privy to the problematic tactics used by smart device manufacturers stay clear from certain products.

Still, when updates provide noticeable, meaningful changes to how people can use their devices, technology feels futuristic, groundbreaking, and exciting. With many companies using updates for their own gain, it’s nice to see some firms take the opportunity to give customers more.

Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She’s been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK.

When software updates actually improve—instead of ruin—our favorite devices Read More »

Three bizarre home devices and a couple good things at CES 2025

AI, ai slop, CES, CES 2025, Google Home, Google Nest Hub, home automation, lg, matter, philips hue, Smart Home, switchbot, Tech / DJ Henderson / January 11, 2025

You can’t replace cats with AI, not yet

Some quietly good things made an appearance at CES 2025, amidst the AI slush.

Credit: Verity Burns/WIRED UK

Every year, thousands of product vendors, journalists, and gadget enthusiasts gather in an unreasonable city to gawk at mostly unrealistic products.

To be of service to our readers, Ars has done the work of looking through hundreds of such items presented at the 2025 Consumer Electronic Show, pulling out the most bizarre, unnecessary, and head-scratching items. Andrew Cunningham swept across PC and gaming accessories. This writer stuck to goods related to the home.

It’s a lie to say it’s all a prank, so I snuck in a couple of actually good things for human domiciles announced during CES. But the stuff you’ll want to tell your family and friends about in mock disbelief? Plenty of that, still.

AI-powered spice dispenser: Spicerr

A hand holding a white tubular device, with spice tubes loaded into a bottom area, spices dropping out of the bottom. — Credit: Spicerr

Part of my job is to try and stretch my viewpoint outward—to encompass people who might not have the same experiences and who might want different things from technology. Not everybody is a professional writer, pecking away in Markdown about the latest turn-based strategy game. You must try to hear many timbres inside the common voice in your head when addressing new products and technologies.

I cannot get there with Spicerr, the “world’s first AI-powered spice dispenser,” even leaving aside the AI bit. Is the measurement and dumping of spices into a dish even five percent of the overall challenge? Will a mechanical dispenser be any more precise than standard teaspoons? Are there many kinds of food on which you would want to sprinkle a “customized blend” of spices? Are there home cooks so dedicated to fresh, bright flavors that they want their spices delivered in small vials, at presumably premium prices, rather than simply having small quantities of regularly restocked essentials?

Maybe the Spicerr would be a boon to inexperienced cooks, whose relatives all know them to under-season their food. Rather than buying them a battery-powered device, they must charge to “take the guesswork out of seasoning,” though, you could … buy them good cookbooks, or a Times Cooking subscription, or just a few new bottles of paprika, oregano, cumin, cayenne, and turmeric.

Philips Hue’s (sigh) AI-powered lighting assistants

Image of AI assistant responding to prompts from user, — Credit: Signify

I’m not dismayed that Philips Hue is jumping on the “This has AI now” bandwagon. Well, I am, but not specifically dismayed, because every vendor at CES this year is hawking AI. No, the bad thing here is that Hue lights are devices that work great. Maybe Philips’ pursuit of an “AI assistant” to help you figure out that Halloween lights should be orange-ish won’t distract them from their core product’s reliability. But I have my doubts.

Hue has recently moved from a relatively open lighting system to an app-and-account-required, cloud-controlled scheme, supposedly in the name of security and user control. Having an AI assistant is perhaps another way to sell services beyond hardware, like the $130 or $3/month LG TV app it now offers. The AI service is free for now, but charging for it in the future is far from impossible.

Again, none of this should necessarily affect people who, like me, use Hue bulbs to have a porch light come on at sunset or turn a dim, warm hue when it’s time to wind down. But it felt like Hue, which charges a very decent amount for their hardware, might have held off on chasing this trend.

Robot vacuums doing way too much

Switchbot K20+ Pro holding up a tablet while a woman does a yoga pose in front of an insanely wealthy-person view of a California cliffside. — Credit: Switchbot

Robot vacuums are sometimes worth the hassle and price… if you don’t mind doing a pre-vacuum sweep of things that might get stuck in its brushes, you’ve got room for an emptying base or will empty it yourself, and you don’t mind that they usually miss floor edges and corners. They’re fine, I’m saying.

Robot vacuum makers have steadfastly refused to accept “fine” and are out way over their skis this year. In one trade show, you can find:

Eureka’s J15 Max Ultra, incorporating “IntelliView AI 2.0,” infrared, and FHD vision, detects liquid spills and switches brushes and vacuums to better clean and avoid spreading.
Roborock’s Saros Z70 has a “mechanical task arm” that can pick up objects like socks and small debris (up to 10.5 ounces) and put them in a pre-determined pile spot.
SwitchBot’s modular K20+ Pro, which is a vacuum onto which you can attach air purifiers, tablet mounts, security cameras, or other things you want rolling around your home.
Dreame’s X50, which can pivot to clean some small ledges but cannot actually climb.
The Narwal Flow, which has a wide, flat, off-center mop to reach wall edges.

Pricing and availability are not available for these vacuums yet, but each is likely to set you back the equivalent of at least one new MacBook. They are also rather big devices to stash in your home (it’s hard to hide an arm or an air purifier). Each is an early adopter device, and getting replacement consumable parts for them long-term is an uncertain bet. I’m not sure who they are for, but that has not stopped this apparently fertile field from growing many new products.

Now for good things, starting with Google Home

Nest Hub second generation, on a nightstand with a bamboo top and dim lamp in the near background. — Credit: Corey Gaskin

I’ve been watching and occasionally writing about the progress of the nascent Matter smart home protocol, somewhat in the vein of a high school coach who knows their team is held back by a lack of coordination, communication, and consistent direction. What Matter wants to do is vital for the future of the smart home, but it’s very much a loose scrimmage right now.

And yet, this week, in a CES-adjacent announcement, Google reminded me that Matter can really, uh, matter. All of Google Home’s hub devices—Nest screens and speakers, Chromecasts, Google TV devices running at least Android 14, and a few other gadgets—can interoperate with Matter devices locally, with no cloud required.

That means people with a Google Home setup can switch devices, adjust volumes, and otherwise control devices, faster, with Internet outages or latency no longer an issue. Local, no-cloud-required control of devices across brands is one of Matter’s key promises, and seeing it happen inside one major home brand is encouraging.

More we’ll-see-what-happens news is the unveiling of the public Home APIs, which promise to make it easier for third-party devices to be set up, integrated, and automated in a Google Home setup. Even if you’re skeptical of Google’s long-term support for APIs, the company is also working with the Matter group to improve the Matter certification process for all devices. Device makers should then have Matter to fall back onto, failing enthusiasm for Google Home APIs.

This cat tower is also an air purifier; it is also good

Two fake cats, sitting on seats atop an air purifier at CES 2025 — Credit: Verity Burns/WIRED UK

There are a lot of phones out there that need charging and a bunch of gamers who, for some reason, need even more controllers and screens to play on. But there is another, eternally underserved market getting some attention at CES: cats wanting to sit.

LG, which primarily concerned itself with stuffing generative AI interfaces into every other device at CES 2025, crafted something that feels like a real old-time trade show gimmick. There is no guarantee that your cat will use the AeroCat Tower; some cats may just sit inside the cardboard box it came in out of spite. But should they deign to luxuriate on it, the AeroCat will provide gentle heat beneath them, weigh them, and give you a record of their sleep habits. Also, it purifies the air in that room.

There is no pricing or availability information yet. But if you like your cats, you want to combine the function of a cat tower and air purifier, or you just want to consider something even just a little bit fun about the march of technology, look out for this one.

Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch.

Three bizarre home devices and a couple good things at CES 2025 Read More »

Startup set to brick $800 kids robot is trying to open source it first

Open Source, Robots, Smart Home, Tech / Beth Washington / December 20, 2024

Earlier this month, startup Embodied announced that it is going out of business and taking its Moxie robot with it. The $800 robots, aimed at providing emotional support for kids ages 5 to 10, would soon be bricked, the company said, because they can’t perform their core features without the cloud. Following customer backlash, Embodied is trying to create a way for the robots to live an open sourced second life.

Embodied CEO Paolo Pirjanian shared a document via a LinkedIn blog post today saying that people who used to be part of Embodied’s technical team are developing a “potential” and open source way to keep Moxies running. The document reads:

This initiative involves developing a local server application (‘OpenMoxie’) that you can run on your own computer. Once available, this community-driven option will enable you (or technically inclined individuals) to maintain Moxie’s basic functionality, develop new features, and modify her capabilities to better suit your needs—without reliance on Embodied’s cloud servers.

The notice says that after releasing OpenMoxie, Embodied plans to release “all necessary code and documentation” for developers and users.

Pirjanian said that an over-the-air (OTA) update is now available for download that will allow previously purchased Moxies to support OpenMoxie. The executive noted that Embodied is still “seeking long-term answers” but claimed that the update is a “vital first step” to “keep the door open” for the robot’s continued functionality.

At this time, OpenMoxie isn’t available and doesn’t have a release date. Embodied’s wording also seems careful to leave an opening for OpenMoxie to not actually release; although, the company seems optimistic.

However, there’s also a risk of users failing to update their robots in time and properly. Embodied noted that it won’t be able to support users who have trouble with the update or with OpenMoxie post-release. Updating the robot includes connecting to Wi-Fi and leaving it on for at least an hour.

Startup set to brick $800 kids robot is trying to open source it first Read More »

Home Assistant’s Voice Preview Edition is a little box with big privacy powers

home assistant voice, home asssistant, home automation, Smart Home, Tech, voice assistant, voice preview edition / DJ Henderson / December 19, 2024

Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition

Home Assistant’s voice device is a $60 box that’s both focused and evolving.

Credit: Home Assistant Foundation

Home Assistant announced today the availability of the Voice Preview Edition, its own design of a living-room-friendly box to offer voice assistance with home automation. Having used it for a few weeks, it seems like a great start, at least for those comfortable with digging into the settings. That’s why Home Assistant is calling it a “Preview Edition.”

Using its privacy-minded Nabu Casa cloud—or your own capable computer—to handle the processing, the Voice Preview Edition (VPE) ($60/60 euros, available today) has the rough footprint of a modern Apple TV but is thinner. It works similarly to an Amazon Echo, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri device, but with a more focused goal. Start with a wake word—the default, and most well-trained version, is “Okay, Nabu,” but “Hey, Jarvis” and “Hey, Mycroft” are available. Follow that with a command, typically something that targets a smart home device: “Turn on living room lights,” “Set thermostat to 68,” “Activate TV time.” And then, that thing usually happens.

Home Assistant’s Voice Preview Edition, doing what it does best. I had to set a weather service to an alias of “the weather outside” to get that response worked out.

“That thing” is primarily controlling devices, scenes, and automations around your home, set up in Home Assistant. That means you have to have assigned them a name or alias that you can remember. Coming up with naming schemes is something you end up doing in big-tech smart home systems, too, but it’s a bit more important with the VPE.

You won’t need to start over with all your gear if you’ve got a Google Home, Alexa, or Apple Home ecosystem, at least. Home Assistant has good “bridge” options built into it for connecting all the devices you’ve set up and named inside those ecosystems.

It’s important to have a decently organized smart home set up with a VPE box, because it doesn’t really do much else, for better or worse. Unless you hook it up to an AI model.

The voice device that is intentionally not very chatty

The VPE box can run timers (with neat LED ring progress indicators), and with a little bit of settings tweaking, you can connect it to Home Assistant’s built-in shopping lists and task lists or most any other plug-in or extension of your system. If you’re willing to mess with LLMs—like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini—locally or through cloud subscriptions, you could trigger prompts with your voice, though performance will vary.

Home Assistant’s Voice Preview Edition, not quite sure what to do with non-home-related questions.

What else does Home Assistant’s hardware do? Nothing, at least by default. It listens for its prompt, it passes them onto a Home Assistant server, and that’s it. You can’t ask it how tall Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is or how many consecutive Super Bowls the Bills lost. It won’t do simple math calculations or metric conversions. It cannot tell you whether you should pack an umbrella tomorrow or a good substitute if you’re out of eggs.

For some people either hesitant to bring a voice device into their home or fatigued by the failures of supposedly “smart” assistants that can seem quite dumb, this might be perfect. When the Home Assistant VPE hears me clearly (more on that in a moment), it almost always understands what I’m saying, so long as I remember what I named everything.

There were times during the month-long period when I muted Google Assistant and stuck with Home Assistant that I missed the ability to ask questions I would normally just look up on a search engine. The upside is that I didn’t have to sit through 15 seconds of Google explaining at length something I didn’t ask for.

If you want the VPE to automatically fall back to AI for answering non-home-specific questions, you can set that up. And that’s something we’ll likely dig into for a future post.

The hardware

Home Assistant’s Voice Preview Edition device, with Apple TV (4K, 2022) for scale. Kevin Purdy

As a product you want to keep somewhere it can hear you, the Home Assistant VPE blends in, is reasonably small, and has more useful buttons and switches than the competition. It looks entirely innocuous sitting on a bookshelf, entertainment center, kitchen counter, or wall mount. It’s quite nice to pay for a functional device that has absolutely no branding visible.

There are four neat things on top. First is two microphone inputs, which are pretty important. There’s an LED ring that shows you the VPE is listening by spinning, then spinning the other way to show that it’s “thinking” and reversing again when responding. A button in the middle can activate the device without speech or cancel a response.

Best of all, there is a physically rotating dial wheel around the button. It feels great to spin, even if it’s not something you’ll need to do very often.

Around the sides is clear plastic, with speaker holes on three sides. The speakers are built specifically for voice clarity, according to Home Assistant, and I agree. I can always hear what the VPE is trying to tell me, at any distance in my living room.

There’s a hardware mute switch on one side, with USB-C inputs (power and connection) and a stereo headphone/speaker jack. On the bottom is a grove port for deeper development.

Hearing is still the challenge

The last quasi-official way to get a smart speaker experience with Home Assistant was the ESP32 S3 Box 3, which was okay or decent in a very quiet room or at dining room table distance. The VPE is a notable improvement over that device in both input and output. If I make a small effort to speak clearly and enunciate, it catches me pretty much everywhere in my open-plan living room/dining room/kitchen. It’s not too bad at working around music or TV sound, either, so long as that speaker is not between me and the VPE box. It is best with its default wake phrase, “Okay, Nabu,” because that’s the most trained and sampled by the Open Wake Word community.

And yet, every smart speaker I’ve had in my home at some point—a Google Home/Nest Mini, Amazon Echo (full-size or Dot), Apple HomePod (original), the microphones on Sonos speakers—has seemed better at catching its wake word, given similar placement as the VPE. After all, Home Assistant, a not-for-profit foundation, cannot subsidize powerful microphone arrays with advertising, Prime memberships, or profitable computer hardware ecosystems. I don’t have lab tests to prove this, just my own experiences—with my particular voice, accent, phrasing, room shape, and noise levels.

I’ve been using this device with pre-release firmware and software, and it’s under active development, so it will almost certainly get better. But as a device you can buy and set up right now, it’s very close—but not quite—to the level of the big ecosystems. It is notably better than the hodgepodge of other devices you can technically use with Home Assistant voice prompts.

Is it better for my privacy that the VPE is not great at being triggered by ambient speech in the room? Maybe. At the same time, I’m more likely to switch away from said big-tech voice devices only if I don’t feel like I have to say everything twice or three times.

It’s fun to craft your own voice system

I’ve been able to use the VPE on a bookshelf in my living room for weeks, asking it to turn on lights, adjust thermostats, set scenes with blinds and speakers, and other automations, and the successes are far more common than failures. I still want to test some different placements and try out local hardware processing (requiring an Intel N100 or better for common languages), since I’ve only tested it with Home Assistant’s cloud servers, the generally faster solution.

The best things about the VPE are not the things you’ll notice by looking at or speaking to it. It’s a smart speaker that seems a lot more reasonable for private places, especially if you’re running on local hardware. It’s not a smart speaker that is going to read you an entire Wikipedia page when it misunderstands what you want. And it doesn’t demand you to use an app tied into an ecosystem to use, other than the web app running off your Home Assistant server.

Paulus Schoutsen said on the VPE’s launch stream that the VPE might not be the best choice for someone switching over from an established Google/Amazon/Apple ecosystem. That might be true, but I think the VPE also works as a single-user device at a desk, or for anyone who’s been waiting to step into voice but concerned about privacy, ecosystem lock-in, or their kids’ demands to play Taylor Swift songs on repeat.

This post was update at 5 p.m. to note the author’s wake word experience may relate to his voice and room characteristics.

Home Assistant’s Voice Preview Edition is a little box with big privacy powers Read More »

Z-Wave Long Range and its mile-long capabilities will arrive next year

home automation, shelly, Smart Home, Tech, z-wave, z-wave long range, z-wave lr / DJ Henderson / December 18, 2024

Z-Wave can be a very robust automation network, free from the complications and fragility of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Just how robust, you ask? More than a mile long, under the right circumstances, as hardware soon to hit the market promises.

All claims of radio distances should be taken with amounts of salt unhealthy for consumption. What can be accomplished across an empty field is not the same as what can be done through buildings, interference, and scatter. But Z-Wave Long Range (or Z-Wave LR), operating “in long range mode at full power,” can hit 1.5 miles, according to the Z-Wave Alliance, presuming you’ve got the right star-shaped hub network.

By using a star network topology instead of a more traditional mesh, Z-Wave LR reduces the need for hubs and repeaters, relying instead on a central hub. It can be more reliable for larger commercial spaces, security setups, and bigger homes, and also more power efficient. Devices automatically adjust their signal strength while on Z-Wave networks, extending the battery life of a single coin cell up to 10 years—again, under best-case circumstances. If you’re really a glutton for punishment, you can fit up to 4,000 devices on a network running Z-Wave LR, because LR can co-exist on the same network as standard Z-Wave meshes.

Z-Wave Long Range and its mile-long capabilities will arrive next year Read More »

Startup will brick $800 emotional support robot for kids without refunds

Robots, Smart Home, Tech / DJ Henderson / December 10, 2024

In addition to the robot being bricked, Embodied noted that warranties, repair services, the corresponding parent app and guides, and support staff will no longer be accessible.

“Unable to offer refunds”

Embodied said it is “unable” to offer most Moxie owners refunds due to its “financial situation and impending dissolution.” The potential exception is for people who bought a Moxie within 30 days. For those customers, Embodied said that “if the company or its assets are sold, we will do our best to prioritize refunds for purchases,” but it emphasized that this is not a guarantee.

Embodied also acknowledged complications for those who acquired the expensive robot through a third-party lender. Embodied advised such customers to contact their lender, but it’s possible that some will end up paying interest on a toy that no longer works.

Embodied said it’s looking for another company to buy Moxie. Should that happen, the new company will receive Embodied customer data and determine how it may use it, according to Embodied’s Terms of Service. Otherwise, Embodied said it “securely” erases user data “in accordance with our privacy policy and applicable law,” which includes deleting personally identifiable information from Embodied systems.

Another smart gadget bites the dust

Currently, there’s some hope that Moxies can be resurrected. Things look grim for Moxie owners, but we’ve seen failed smart device companies, like Insteon, be resurrected before. It’s also possible that someone will release of an open-source version of the product, like the one made for Spotify Car Thing, which Spotify officially bricked today.

But the short-lived, expensive nature of Moxie is exactly why some groups, like right-to-repair activists, are pushing the FTC to more strongly regulate smart devices, particularly when it comes to disclosure and commitments around software support. With smart gadget makers trying to determine how to navigate challenging economic landscapes, the owners of various types of smart devices—from AeroGarden indoor gardening systems to Snoo bassinets —have had to deal with the consequences, including broken devices and paywalled features. Last month, the FTC noted that smart device manufacturers that don’t commit to software support may be breaking the law.

For Moxie owners, disappointment doesn’t just come from wasted money and e-waste creation but also from the pain of giving a child a tech “companion” to grow with and then have it suddenly taken away.

Startup will brick $800 emotional support robot for kids without refunds Read More »

Smart gadgets’ failure to commit to software support could be illegal, FTC warns

Smart Home, Tech / DJ Henderson / November 27, 2024

Makers of smart devices that fail to disclose how long they will support their products with software updates may be breaking the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned this week.

The FTC released its statement after examining 184 smart products across 64 product categories, including soundbars, video doorbells, breast pumps, smartphones, home appliances, and garage door opener controllers. Among devices researched, the majority—or 163 to be precise—”did not disclose the connected device support duration or end date” on their product webpage, per the FTC’s report [PDF]. Contrastingly, 11.4 percent of devices examined shared a software support duration or end date on their product page.

Elusive information

In addition to manufacturers often neglecting to commit to software support for a specified amount of time, it seems that even when they share this information, it’s elusive.

For example, the FTC reported that some manufacturers made software support dates available but not on the related product’s webpage. Instead, this information is sometimes buried in specs, support, FAQ pages, or footnotes.

The FTC report added:

… some used ambiguous language that only imply the level of support provided, including phrases like, “lifetime technical support,” “as long as your device is fully operational,” and “continuous software updates,” for example. Notably, staff also had difficulty finding on the product webpages the device’s release date …

At times, the FTC found glaring inconsistencies. For example, one device’s product page said that the device featured “lifetime” support, “but the search result pointing to the manufacturer’s support page indicated that, while other updates may still be active, the security updates for the device had stopped in 2021,” per the FTC.

Those relying on Google’s AI Overviews may also be misled. In one case, AI Overviews pointed to a smart gadget getting “software support and updates for 3–6 months.” But through the link that AI Overviews provided, the FTC found that the three to six months figure that Google scraped actually referred to the device’s battery life. The next day, AI Overviews said that it couldn’t determine the duration of software support or updates for the gadget, the FTC noted.

Smart gadgets’ failure to commit to software support could be illegal, FTC warns Read More »

The good, the bad, and the ugly behind the push for more smart displays

Amazon, Apple, Google, Monitors, Smart Home, Tech / Mike M. / November 22, 2024

After a couple of years without much happening, smart displays are in the news again. Aside from smart TVs, consumer screens that connect to the Internet have never reached a mainstream audience. However, there seems to be a resurgence to make smart displays more popular. The approaches that some companies are taking are better than those of others, revealing a good, bad, and ugly side behind the push.

Note that for this article, we’ll exclude smart TVs when discussing smart displays. Unlike the majority of smart displays, smart TVs are mainstream tech. So for this piece, we’ll mostly focus on devices like the Google Next Hub Max or Amazon Echo Show (as pictured above).

The good

When it comes to emerging technology, a great gauge for whether innovation is happening is by measuring how much a product solves a real user problem. Products seeking a problem to solve or that are glorified vehicles for ads and tracking don’t qualify.

If reports that Apple is working on its first smart display are true, there may be potential for it to solve the problem of managing multiple smart home devices from different companies.

Apple has declined to comment on reports from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman of an Apple smart display under development. But Gurman recently claimed that the display will be able to be mounted on walls and “use AI to navigate apps.” Gurman said that it would incorporate Apple’s smart home framework HomeKit, which supports “hundreds of accessories” and can control third-party devices, like smart security cameras, thermostats, and lights. Per the November 12 report:

The product will be marketed as a way to control home appliances, chat with Siri, and hold intercom sessions via Apple’s FaceTime software. It will also be loaded with Apple apps, including ones for web browsing, listening to news updates and playing music. Users will be able to access their notes and calendar information, and the device can turn into a slideshow display for their photos.

If released, the device—said to be shaped like a 6-inch iPhone—would compete with the Nest Hub and Echo Show. Apple entering the smart display business could bring a heightened focus on privacy and push other companies to make privacy a bigger focus, too. Apple has already given us a peek at how it might handle smart home privacy with the HomePod. “All communication between HomePod and Apple servers is encrypted, and anonymous IDs protect your identity,” Apple’s HomePod privacy policy states.

The good, the bad, and the ugly behind the push for more smart displays Read More »

I, too, installed an open source garage door opener, and I’m loving it

APIs, apple home, Cars, esp32, Features, garage door, Garage Door Opener, GENIE, home assistant, home automation, homekit, ifttt, mqtt, Open Source, opengarage, Smart Home, Tech / 9u50fv / November 15, 2024

Open source closed garage

OpenGarage restored my home automations and gave me a whole bunch of new ideas.

Hark! The top portion of a garage door has entered my view, and I shall alert my owner to it. Credit: Kevin Purdy

Like Ars Senior Technology Editor Lee Hutchinson, I have a garage. The door on that garage is opened and closed by a device made by a company that, as with Lee’s, offers you a way to open and close it with a smartphone app. But that app doesn’t work with my preferred home automation system, Home Assistant, and also looks and works like an app made by a garage door company.

I had looked into the ratgdo Lee installed, and raved about, but hooking it up to my particular Genie/Aladdin system would have required installing limit switches. So I instead installed an OpenGarage unit ($50 plus shipping). My garage opener now works with Home Assistant (and thereby pretty much anything else), it’s not subject to the whims of API access, and I’ve got a few ideas how to make it even better. Allow me to walk you through what I did, why I did it, and what I might do next.

Thanks, I’ll take it from here, Genie

Genie, maker of my Wi-Fi-capable garage door opener (sold as an “Aladdin Connect” system), is not in the same boat as the Chamberlain/myQ setup that inspired Lee’s project. There was a working Aladdin Connect integration in Home Assistant, until the company changed its API in January 2024. Genie said it would release its own official Home Assistant integration in June, and it did, but then it was quickly pulled back, seemingly for licensing issues. Since then, no updates on the matter. (I have emailed Genie for comment and will update this post if I receive reply.)

This is not egregious behavior, at least on the scale of garage door opener firms. And Aladdin’s app works with Google Home and Amazon Alexa, but not with Home Assistant or my secondary/lazy option, HomeKit/Apple Home. It also logs me out “for security” more often than I’d like and tells me this only after an iPhone shortcut refuses to fire. It has some decent features, but without deeper integrations, I can’t do things like have the brighter ceiling lights turn on when the door opens or flash indoor lights if the garage door stays open too long. At least not without Google or Amazon.

I’ve seen OpenGarage passed around the Home Assistant forums and subreddits over the years. It is, as the name implies, fully open source: hardware design, firmware, and app code, API, everything. It is a tiny ESP board that has an ultrasonic distance sensor and circuit relay attached. You can control and monitor it from a web browser, mobile or desktop, from IFTTT, MQTT, and with the latest firmware, you can get email alerts. I decided to pull out the 6-foot ladder and give it a go.

Prototypes of the OpenGarage unit. To me, they look like little USB-powered owls, just with very stubby wings. Credit: OpenGarage

Installing the little watching owl

You generally mount the OpenGarage unit to the roof of your garage, so the distance sensor can detect if your garage door has rolled up in front of it. There are options for mounting with magnetic contact sensors or a side view of a roll-up door, or you can figure out some other way in which two different sensor depth distances would indicate an open or closed door. If you’ve got a Security+ 2.0 door (the kind with the yellow antenna, generally), you’ll need an adapter, too.

The toughest part of an overhead install is finding a spot that gives the unit a view of your garage door, not too close to rails or other obstructing objects, but then close enough for the contact wires and USB micro cable to reach. Ideally, too, it has a view of your car when the door is closed and the car is inside, so it can report its presence. I’ve yet to find the right thing to do with the “car is inside or not” data, but the seed is planted.

OpenGarage’s introduction and explanation video.

My garage setup, like most of them, is pretty simple. There’s a big red glowing button on the wall near the door, and there are two very thin wires running from it to the opener. On the opener, there are four ports that you can open up with a screwdriver press. Most of the wires are headed to the safety sensor at the door bottom, while two come in from the opener button. After stripping a bit of wire to expose more cable, I pressed the contact wires from the OpenGarage into those same opener ports.

Wires running from terminal points in the back of a garage door opener, with one set of wires coming in from the bottom and pressed into the same press-fit holes. — The wire terminal on my Genie garage opener. The green and pink wires lead to the OpenGarage unit. Credit: Kevin Purdy

After that, I connected the wires to the OpenGarage unit’s screw terminals, then did some pencil work on the garage ceiling to figure out how far I could run the contact and micro-USB power cable, getting the proper door view while maintaining some right-angle sense of order up there. When I had reached a decent compromise between cable tension and placement, I screwed the sensor into an overhead stud and used a staple gun to secure the wires. It doesn’t look like a pro installed it, but it’s not half bad.

A garage ceiling, with drywall stud paint running across, a small device with wires running at right angles to the opener, and an opener rail beneath. — Where I ended up installing my OpenGarage unit. Key points: Above the garage door when open, view of the car below, not too close to rails, able to reach power and opener contact. Credit: Kevin Purdy

A very versatile board

If you’ve got everything placed and wired up correctly, opening the OpenGarage access point or IP address should give you an interface that shows you the status of your garage, your car (optional), and its Wi-Fi and external connections.

Image of OpenGarage web interface, showing a — The landing screen for the OpenGarage. You can only open the door or change settings if you know the device key (which you should change immediately). Credit: Kevin Purdy

It’s a handy webpage and a basic opener (provided you know the secret device key you set), but OpenGarage is more powerful in how it uses that data. OpenGarage’s device can keep a cloud connection open to Blynk or the maker’s own OpenThings.io cloud server. You can hook it up to MQTT or an IFTTT channel. It can send you alerts when your garage has been open a certain amount of time or if it’s open after a certain time of day.

Screenshot showing 5 sensors: garage, distance, restart, vehicle, and signal strength. — You’re telling me you can just… see the state of these things, at all times, on your own network? Credit: Kevin Purdy

You really don’t need a corporate garage coder

For me, the greatest benefit is in hooking OpenGarage up to Home Assistant. I’ve added an opener button to my standard dashboard (one that requires a long-press or two actions to open). I’ve restored the automation that turns on the overhead bulbs for five minutes when the garage door opens. And I can dig in if I want, like alerting me that it’s Monday night at 10 pm and I’ve yet to open the garage door, indicating I forgot to put the trash out. Or maybe some kind of NFC tag to allow for easy opening while on a bike, if that’s not a security nightmare (it might be).

Not for nothing, but OpenGarage is also a deeply likable bit of indie kit. It’s a two-person operation, with Ray Wang building on his work with the open and handy OpenSprinkler project, trading Arduino for ESP8266, and doing some 3D printing to fit the sensors and switches, and Samer Albahra providing mobile app, documentation, and other help. Their enthusiasm for DIY home control has likely brought out the same in others and certainly in me.

I, too, installed an open source garage door opener, and I’m loving it Read More »

Matter 1.4 has some solid ideas for the future home—now let’s see the support

alexa, apple home, Biz & IT, connectivity standards alliance, csa, EVSE, Google Home, home automation, matter, matter 1.4, Smart Home, Tech, Thread / Shannon Garcia / November 8, 2024

With Matter 1.4 and improved Thread support, you shouldn’t need to blanket your home in HomePod Minis to have adequate Thread coverage. Then again, they do brighten up the place. Credit: Apple

Routers are joining the Thread/Matter melee

A whole bunch of networking gear, known as Home Routers and Access Points (HRAP), can now support Matter, while also extending Thread networks with Matter 1.4.

“Matter-certified HRAP devices provide the foundational infrastructure of smart homes by combining both a Wi-Fi access point and a Thread Border Router, ensuring these ubiquitous devices have the necessary infrastructure for Matter products using either of these technologies,” the CSA writes in its announcement.

Prior to wireless networking gear officially getting in on the game, the devices that have served as Thread Border Routers, accepting and re-transmitting traffic for endpoint devices, has been a hodgepodge of gear. Maybe you had HomePod Minis, newer Nest Hub or Echo devices from Google or Amazon, or Nanoleaf lights around your home, but probably not. Routers, and particularly mesh networking gear, should already be set up to reach most corners of your home with wireless signal, so it makes a lot more sense to have that gear do Matter authentication and Thread broadcasting.

Freeing home energy gear from vendor lock-in

Matter 1.4 adds some big, expensive gear to its list of device types and control powers, and not a moment too soon. Solar inverters and arrays, battery storage systems, heat pumps, and water heaters join the list. Thermostats and Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE), i.e. EV charging devices, also get some enhancements. For that last category, it’s not a moment too soon, as chargers that support Matter can keep up their scheduled charging without cloud support from manufacturers.

More broadly, Matter 1.4 bakes a lot of timing, energy cost, and other automation triggers into the spec, which—again, when supported by device manufacturers, at some future date—should allow for better home energy savings and customization, without tying it all to one particular app or platform.

CSA says that, with “nearly two years of real-world deployment in millions of households,” the companies and trade groups and developers tending to Matter are “refining software development kits, streamlining certification processes, and optimizing individual device implementations.” Everything they’ve got lined up seems neat, but it has to end up inside more boxes to be truly impressive.

Matter 1.4 has some solid ideas for the future home—now let’s see the support Read More »

Smart gardening firm’s shutdown a reminder of Internet of Things’ fickle nature

Smart Home, Tech / Beth Washington / October 14, 2024

AeroGarden, which sells Wi-Fi-connected indoor gardening systems, is going out of business on January 1. While Scotts Miracle-Gro has continued selling AeroGarden products after announcing the impending shutdown, the future of the devices’ companion app is uncertain.

AeroGarden systems use hydroponics and LED lights to grow indoor gardens without requiring sunlight or soil. The smart gardening system arrived in 2006, and Scotts Miracle-Gro took over complete ownership in 2020. Some AeroGardens work with the iOS and Android apps that connect to the gardens via Wi-Fi and tell users when their plants need water or nutrients. AeroGarden also marketed the app as a way for users to easily monitor multiple AeroGardens and control the amount of light, water, and nutrients they should receive. The app offers gardening tips and can access AeroGarden customer service representatives and AeroGarden communities on Facebook and other social media outlets.

Regarding the reasoning for the company’s closure, AeroGarden’s FAQ page only states:

This was a difficult decision, but one that became necessary due to a number of challenges with this business.

It’s possible that AeroGarden struggled to compete with rivals, which include cheaper options for gardens and seed pods that are sold on Amazon and other retailers or made through DIY efforts.

AeroGarden’s closure is somewhat more surprising considering that it updated its app in June. But now it’s unknown how long the app will be available. In an announcement last week, AeroGarden said that its app “will be available for an extended period of time” and that it’ll inform customers about the app’s “longer-term status as we work through the transition period.”

A screenshot from the AeroGarden app. Credit: AeroGarden

However, that doesn’t provide much clarity to people who may have invested in AeroGarden’s Wi-Fi-enabled Bounty and Farm models. The company refreshed both lines in 2020, with the Farm line starting at $595 at the time. The gardens also marketed compatibility with Amazon Alexa. The gardens will still work without the app, but remote control features most likely won’t whenever the app ultimately shuts down.

Smart gardening firm’s shutdown a reminder of Internet of Things’ fickle nature Read More »