SmartThings

A smart home hub is only as useful as the number of languages it can speak. Given the number of disparate smart home platforms available today, it pays to either understand all those or at least have the ability to learn to communicate with other smart home products. That was practically what the SmartThings Link USB dongle did for the NVIDIA SHIELD TV but that dongle itself will lose its ability to speak the SmartThings language when Samsung upgrades its ecosystem in June.

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At its very early Unpacked 2021 event last week, Samsung didn't just announce a new Galaxy S21 smartphone, Galaxy Buds Pro earbuds, and Galaxy Smart Tag trackers. It also announced a collaboration that made sense but few probably expected would ever happen. Samsung revealed that it was nurturing a closer relationship with Google, even in areas where they have competing products, bridging the gap between Samsung's SmartThings IoT platform and Google's Nest-branded devices and Android Auto car platform.

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The Galaxy Watch Active 2 is getting a big update today, as Samsung is pushing SmartThings Find functionality to the watch. First revealed last year, SmartThings Find uses ultra-wideband and Bluetooth Low Energy to locate lost devices that may not be able to connect to the internet. With SmartThings Find rolling out to the Galaxy Watch Active 2 today, we might see it roll out to the company's other wearables before long too.

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Samsung's big Galaxy S21 launch may be coming later this week, but it's home appliances which are getting their moment in the spotlight today. Fresh for CES 2021 are updates in the kitchen, the laundry room, and roving the floors in the shape of a new, smarter robotic vacuum cleaner.

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For those looking to get a smart home set up rolling, there are a number of ecosystems to choose from - Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, Nest, the list goes on. Generally speaking, these ecosystems don't feature a ton of interoperability with one another, but that might be starting to change. Today, Samsung and Google announced that they're teaming up to allow compatibility between SmartThings, Nest, and Google Assistant devices.

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Samsung is hoping to give SmartThings, its connected home platform, a boost, adding new rules support and coaxing device-makers into adding compatibility. Announced at the Samsung Developer Conference 2019 today, the company's annual developer event, SmartThings' new Rules API promises to better link together multiple devices acting on a single command or trigger.

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Samsung's SmartThings has added a new connected camera, LED bulb, and WiFi smart plug to its line-up, and unusually most don't need to be connected to the SmartThings hub in order to work. The smart home platform was revamped back in 2018, with an updated and more powerful hub, along with a new set of sensors.

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Samsung has introduced SmartThings Tracker, a new tracking device that features LTE-M and GPS for tracking items like bags and keys. The system supports real-time tracking using an app available for Android and iOS. Even better, the tracking device can double as an arrival sensor to trigger certain Internet of Things devices, such as a connected porch light that turns on when you get home.

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NVIDIA has a smart TV device called SHIELD TV which, as of this week, has a fourth individual bundle. A bundle includes the SHIELD TV itself and an assortment of controllers. This week the device was officially wrapped up in a bundle called "SHIELD TV SMART HOME EDITION" complete with a SmartThings Link. That SmartThings link otherwise costs approximately $40 on its own.

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Samsung wants to tame your smart home and end your WiFi deadspots, with its new SmartThings Wifi mesh router system. Promising not only smoother internet access for things like online gaming, streaming media, and general browsing, the mesh networking system also integrates an IoT hub that could leave you spending less time jumping between apps and more time letting your connected home do the hard work in the background.

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Samsung has a new SmartThings Mesh WiFi router, promising not only whole-home wireless coverage but control over your smart home too. The new router, which taps into Plume's WiFi mesh technology, arrives alongside a refreshed SmartThings hub for those happy with their existing router, together with a bunch of new sensors.

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SmartThings is finally back online after the Samsung-owned home hub - which promises to tie together multiple IoT gadgets - left many users unable to control their connected lights, locks, and other hardware this week. The company reported on Tuesday afternoon that the issues it was encountering with the SmartThings Cloud had been resolved. However, at its peak, many users found they were unable to operate their smart home devices and were forced to control them manually.

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