Home Automation

Beta software is labeled "beta" for a reason. They are often distributed only to people willing to test software for bugs and are willing to take the risk using potentially unstable software. Of course, some beta versions are in a better state than others but that doesn't remove the chance of a bad release wreaking havoc on devices. That is the unfortunate reality that owners of some HomePods are now facing after what they claim to be a rather buggy HomePod Software 15 beta caused smart speakers to overheat and, in some cases, fry the logic board beyond repair.

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Smart home products are getting more common and more accessible, but, as recent events prove, they are far from being the completely reliable and trustworthy parts of our lives that ads and videos would have us believe. Part of that relies on companies and agents on the remote side acting more responsibly in their ability to control these devices from afar. Another part of that formula, however, also depends on manufacturers ensuring the security and privacy of their products and customers, something that Google's Nest is promising to do better.

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The smart homes and cities of the future are often painted as places full of transparent touch screens, voice-controlled assistants, and robots that can often predict what we need before we even ask. Unfortunately, what these advertisements and marketing materials don't always show is who is really in control of these future worlds.

Sure, most of these videos or images show regular people like you and me as the main actors, but it is really the companies that run the services and networks behind the scenes that are really in control, and it's going to take a long while before we can and should completely trust these systems with our safety and our lives.

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There has been an explosion in smart home appliances in the past years but the most common kind has been smart lighting and smart locks. The latter has sometimes proven to be a bit controversial, considering their security implications. Wyze's smart lock, however, has been criticized for a different flaw, one that prevented it from connecting to Google's nearly ubiquitous smart home platform. That has finally changed, however, and the Wyze Lock now finally speaks Google Home's language so that you can lock or unlock your door with the power of your voice.

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Super-surreptious smart lock company Level has revealed its third product, and the new Level Lock continues the tradition of hiding its connected security features. Unlike other smart locks, which typically have outsized control panels, battery enclosures, or other mechanisms, Level's system manages to squeeze all that into something which looks at first glance like a regular, mechanical lock.

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Devices come and go, no matter how popular or how loved. Sometimes older devices are replaced by newer models, but there are also times when they are completely retired instead. The latter is the case for the first Apple smart speaker, the much-delayed HomePod that the company announced would be discontinued. Supplies of the full-sized speaker have finally gone out of stock but, while it can no longer be purchased from direct channels, nothing really changes for those who already own one, at least not yet.

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Samsung has launched its latest generation of SmartThings, with the smart home and connected devices platform promising to make automations easier and actions more stable. The revamped SmartThings gets a new interface, too, following Samsung's release of a version of the app for Windows.

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Google Assistant has always revolved around voice interactions but Google was able to give it a face in the form of smart displays. Now falling under the Nest smart home brand, Google has provided some visual feedback to augment Google Assistant's capabilities in your house. Not all smart Assistant features are available yet on those smart displays, however, and one upcoming addition will make booking tables at restaurants a breeze. At least when Google Duplex does finally arrive on the Nest Hub Max and its kin.

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Philips Hue is getting a new app, and with the fourth-generation there's an increased focus on automation along with easier control to multiple bulbs, lamps, and bridges. It's been a long time since Hue first launched in 2012, and since then the range of lights has increased considerably - along with the expectations of how intelligently those lights act in the home.

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Swedish furniture brand IKEA enjoys both popularity and notoriety of its minimalist design, DIY assembly, and, more recently, integration with IoT technologies. Unlike makers of smart home products, IKEA incorporates Internet-connected features in tasteful and sometimes bizarre ways. Its newest attempt might be to sell you an IKEA Symfonisk picture frame that isn't really a picture frame but more like an art deco that happens to house an invisible Sonos speaker inside the frame.

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It was really not unexpected that the beginnings of the smart home market saw different systems that spoke different languages, a.k.a. protocols, to coordinate their activities. There were attempts to consolidate these different systems or at least support most of them one way or another. Matter, the new name of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, is the latest such attempt and it's coming not only to Android but also Google's Nest smart home platform.

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Smart home products are called smart mostly because of how they're able to connect to the Internet to allow for features and experiences that may not have been possible without such a connection. In some sense, networking equipment manufacturers have the advantage of already being knowledgeable and well-known when it comes to exactly that field. It's no surprise, then, that the likes of TP-Link have long jumped on board the smart home train and it is expanding that line with two new 24/7 recording cameras and smart plugs that can make any old appliance a bit smarter.

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