Smart home news, reviews, and guides — making your home smarter.
Smart home news, reviews, and guides — making your home smarter.
TP-Link, the brand behind an estimated 35% of America’s home routers, still has no FCC clearance to sell new models in the US, while Netgear, eero and Asus have all won exemptions. Your current router is safe, and updates are guaranteed until at least 2029. Here is what the ban means for your smart home.
Read MoreFor years, a smart home meant picking a team: Alexa, Google Home, or Apple Home. Matter, the universal standard from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, ends that trade-off. Matter-certified devices work across platforms, pair with a single QR code, and keep working over your local network when the internet drops. Here is how a mixed-platform home works, and the limits worth knowing before you buy.
Read MoreA class action filed November 3, 2026 accuses Axon of running an AI-powered license plate surveillance network that tracks millions of California drivers — and allegedly taps into privately owned doorbell cameras police can search without a warrant. Here is what the lawsuit claims, and what it means for smart home owners.
Read MoreAt least 10 local governments have moved to drop Flock Safety’s license plate cameras since summer 2026, TechCrunch reports. From voter referendums to terminated contracts, the backlash over data sharing and privacy is reshaping how neighborhoods think about the cameras watching their streets — and what it means for your own home security setup.
Read MoreToday’s verified smart home deals for November 8, 2026: a bObsweep robot vacuum and mop at 76% off, a three-camera Blink Outdoor 4 kit at 65% off, a fingerprint Yale smart lock, a Copeland Sensi thermostat, and a 2K Blink add-on camera — all checked on the retailers’ own product pages.
Read MoreSeven in 10 Americans now own up to 10 smart home devices, a Vivint survey of 5,000 homeowners finds, but only 24% fully trust their devices with their privacy. We break down the numbers behind the smart home boom, the caregiving and security trends driving adoption, and what the trust gap means for buyers.
Read MoreHackers forced supermarket freezers across Europe into defrost mode overnight, pushing temperatures to 122°F and forcing stores to throw out food. The attacks exploited internet-exposed refrigeration controllers running end-of-life software — the same weakness that puts smart home devices at risk. Here is what happened, why it matters, and how to protect your own connected home.
Read MoreCrestron has launched two compact DIN rail lighting modules — the DIN-8SWU8 universal switch and DIN-4DIMU4 universal dimmer — designed for today’s all-LED homes. The pair cuts lighting panel sizes in half, drops extra cabling, and configures from the front panel without a laptop. Here is what the new hardware means for professionally installed smart lighting.
Read MoreApple has quietly removed the waitlist for Siri AI: eligible users can now download the rebuilt assistant immediately after opting in, with a queue kept only for peak demand. The timing matters for the smart home, because Siri AI powers Apple’s new HomeView hub, which arrives November 13.
Read MoreHomey Pro vs Home Assistant: which smart home hub should you buy in late 2026? A new hands-on comparison weighs Athom’s $449 multi-radio hub against the free, open-source Home Assistant platform, covering Matter and Thread support, radios, automations, and total cost — and the answer depends on how much of your smart home you want to build yourself.
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