Ward Zhou has been immersed in the smart home and industrial tech space throughout his career. Based in Shenzhen, the industrial hub of smart home, he began his journey with local media outlets and a prominent smart home solution provider, eWeLink, cultivating his expertise in smart home devices and industrial dynamics. Ward has contributed hundreds of review and news pieces to respected publications such as TechNode, PingWest, and Caixin Global. When he’s not covering the latest in tech, Ward enjoys coding, design, street photography, and video games.
In an exclusive interview with Matter Alpha, Third Reality Product Manager Yi Zhang explains why the company is aggressively expanding its Thread roadmap despite zero current financial return, preferring separate SKUs and local chip suppliers to keep smart home devices simple.
Aqara brings its high-end mmWave radar tracking global with the FP400, adding Matter over Thread, multi-person tracking, and hub-less configuration.
Silicon Labs is giving Arduino builders a broader Matter and Zigbee toolbox.
In an exclusive Matter Alpha interview, IKEA product leaders detail how the retail giant is expanding its affordable smart home lineup with new hubs, air purifiers, and heating controls.
Getting a feature into the Matter specification requires surviving a strict "rule of three," but as Silicon Labs' Rob Alexander explains, certification tells you nothing about whether major smart home apps will actually support it.
Apple’s N1 chip is quietly making Thread a standard feature across the entire ecosystem, from the latest iPhone 18 Pro to M-series Macs. Here is every Apple device that packs Thread hardware.
IFA 2026 wrapped up its Berlin run with a diverse showcase of smart home hardware, highlighted by Third Reality’s Thread soil sensors, Tuya’s modular Matter cameras, and high-capacity hubs from UGREEN and Anker combining local storage with AI automation.
Heiman showcased a new generation of smart home sensors and gateways at IFA 2026, highlighted by what appears to be the first hardware demonstration of Matter 1.6’s zero-power NFC commissioning feature.
A much broader Aqara lighting portfolio is heading global.Aqara has expanded its smart lighting portfolio at IFA 2026 with a global lineup spanning indoor lamps, architectural downlights, and outdoor fixtures, all featuring dual-protocol support for Thread and Zigbee.
Sensereo has opened preorders at IFA 2026 for Airo, a modular indoor environmental monitoring system that separates temperature, humidity, CO2, TVOC, and particulate sensors into wireless pods communicating through a central Matter-over-Thread dock.
Homey has introduced Portal, a new room-specific touchscreen controller featuring a stainless steel rotary ring that brings localized smart home device management, lighting control, and custom Flows off mobile apps and onto the wall or desk.
An early Matter 1.7 draft reveals provisional support for proximity ranging, predictive occupancy sensing, electrical infrastructure panels, and post-quantum device attestation.
IKEA is stepping up its smart home ambitions by introducing LILJEBAGGE, a Matter-over-Thread radiator thermostat designed to control water-based heating systems for a budget-friendly 199 Swedish krona.
Homey has rolled out support for Matter over-the-air firmware updates, allowing users to patch compatible smart home devices directly through the platform using the official Distributed Compliance Ledger.
Home Assistant’s latest monthly beta release introduces a built-in Matter network topology map directly to the main interface, alongside improved troubleshooting tools for serial hardware and security dashboards.
LIFX has kicked off a public beta enabling its current-generation Matter-compatible smart lights to switch from Wi-Fi to Matter-over-Thread via a simple firmware update.
Apple’s recent open-source code contributions to Matter’s OpenWrt integration have sparked speculation that the tech giant could be quietly laying the groundwork to re-enter the home router market.
Aqara has expanded its H1 full-color lighting lineup in China with new downlights and spotlights, bringing dual Zigbee and Matter-over-Thread connectivity to built-in ceiling illumination.
Aqara shows how Matter cameras should move forward.
Virtual devices can fill some surprising gaps between Matter ecosystems.
