Prime Day is great time to expand your smart home, and Aqara has some great products in the line up.
If you’re building your Matter smart home, one of the key areas that you’ve probably identified is the kitchen. But is Matter-compatible kitchenware available? As of mid-2024, the list of compatible hardware is short, but the kitchen is a key opportunity for Matter.
You could think of Matter as a subset of IoT devices, but the differences go far beyond that.
If you have multiple HomePods or Apple TVs in your smart home, you may notice that the Home app doesn't always pick the most centrally located or the most powerful home hub. This can lead to slower response times and disconnections, and it may even break Matter device automation. To better optimize your smart home, you'll need to know how to set your preferred Apple Home hub.
Been waiting for a bargain on SwitchBot devices? Now's the time to buy at deep discounts.
One of Matter's big selling points is its simplicity. But there are still some things to remember when setting it up for the first time.
Motion sensors play a critical role in automating and securing our smart homes. With their wire-free ability to turn on the lights when our hands are full, and sending smart notifications for potential activity around our homes, it's hard to imagine life without them. This includes the Eve Motion, which I have been using to automate my home over the course of the past year.
Staying on top of the latest firmware updates is crucial for securing your Matter devices and ensuring your smart home runs smoothly. However, navigating through various vendor apps for each of your devices can make tracking down updates rather tedious.Thankfully, some Matter platforms—like the Apple Home app—can help by offering firmware updates directly to compatible devices.
Mesh networking is critical to the smart home, and it's partly why Thread is the network of choice for Matter.
If you're busy reading up on Matter smarthome devices, you may have come across mentions of something called Thread. But what is it?
Smart homes technology has been surprisingly slow to build integrations with TVs. Aside from support for smart assistants, there is little to shout about. It’s hardly smart, is it? But with increased support for Matter, that might be about to change.
With the current boom in AI, it won't be long before we all have a HAL9000 to manage our smart homes for us.
Matter is bringing smart home convenience outdoors with connected lighting, sensors, plugs, and weather-ready automation
IKEA has spent the last decade flogging its TRADFRI gateway. But IKEA is a member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, and Matter is the CSA’s pet project. Then Matter 1.3 happened, and suddenly IKEA’s new smart home looked a lot more interesting. Could the DIRIGERA bridge Matter in your home?
Now you can make a DIY Matter accessory... in Swift!
In our guide to the best smart plugs, we covered how they are a simple, yet effective way to add Matter capabilities to older devices with physical controls. However, smart plugs aren't so hot when it comes to devices that don't save their state after powering down or for those that rely on a remote. For these types of devices, you'll need to turn to a Matter-compatible IR Blaster to get the job done.
For some smart home users, there are likely household members who don't quite share the same level of enthusiasm for home automation. For them—or just for those times when pressing a button is just plain quicker and easier—having a smart button or remote in the home is a must. Enter the TUO Smart Button.
The internet is abuzz with talk of a "secret" Thread radio chip in some Apple devices, so let's speculate on what it could be used for in future.
A collection of new features have been unveiled in Home Assistant 2024.6, which boasts various improvements and the inclusion of Matter 1.3. The Spring 2024 revision of Matter adds various smart home interoperability enhancements, which are now supported in the new Home Assistant release.
When you need the versatility of smart plugs for your desk or behind a TV, you'll want to consider a Matter-compatible smart power strip with USB (or without).