Smart Home

Philips Hue unveils many new products at once: an HDMI Sync Box 2.1, smart switches for non-smart lamps, new lamps and LED strips.

LIFX launches a beta that switches existing Matter lights from Wi-Fi to Thread – no new hardware. Here’s how the migration works.

Govee unveils the Strip Light 2 – its first with Matter, improved white light and a protective coating. Prices start at $49.99.

The CSA has introduced Zigbee 4.0 and the sub-GHz brand Suzi – with more range, a more robust mesh and backward compatibility with Zigbee 3.0.

The first official ESPHome Starter Kit pairs an ESP32-C6 board with snap-on modules and a visual editor – local smart-home tinkering without soldering or YAML.

Home Assistant 2026.8 brings native support for Matter doorbell events, a Matter Server update and simpler access without the port 8123.

Home Assistant 2026.8 focuses on newcomers – with an update-all button, an overhauled ZHA Zigbee manager and a new activity timeline.

Signify’s Philips Skylight is a large LED ceiling panel that simulates natural daylight for windowless rooms – but it’s missing one key smart home feature.

Matter 1.6 brings NFC setup, Joint Fabric for cross-ecosystem devices and smarter thermostats. The CSA unveiled the specification in June 2026.

Ubiquiti’s UniFi Enterprise Audio/Video Bridge turns 4K AV distribution into a pure network application, challenging established AV-over-IP vendors.