This might surprise you but I think the new Matter smart home standard is the best thing that's happened with Apple HomeKit yet. And just because I like sharing multiple surprises, you might not know how much HomeKit has influenced that standard. … [Read more...]
With Insteon down, possibly for good, what options do you have for your devices?
This hasn't been a good week for the smart home as yet another connected device service seems to have disappeared. It appears anyone using Insteon products has faced a dead-end as the company's cloud service has gone silent. So too has the company up … [Read more...]
Sharing a smart home with multiple digital assistants isn’t bad
We're finally approaching the end of 2021! I don't know about you, but perhaps the biggest change I made to my smart home this past year was transitioning to Apple HomeKit. When I started out on my digital assistant journey a few years back, it … [Read more...]
How to add some smarts to your under cabinet lights
On our most recent IoT Podcast, Michael called in to our voicemail hotline with a question about his under cabinet light strips. He’s looking for a switch or other option to add some smarts to them, although he’s using a set of smart LIFX light … [Read more...]
Samsung SmartThings is making all the right moves when it comes to the IoT
Given the smart home successes of Amazon, Apple, and Google, I've generally considered Samsung to be an also-ran in the consumer IoT space. Yes, I used Samsung SmartThings hardware and software to power my smart home in the past. Yes, it worked. But … [Read more...]