Home Assistant's best integrations aren't the obvious ones – here's what actually changed my setup
Ayush Pande Mar 20, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT Ayush Pande is a PC hardware and gaming writer. When he's not working on a new article, you can find him with…
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I built a touch-enabled ePaper Home Assistant dashboard, and it's better than any tablet
…The reTerminal E1003 will set you back by about $160 for just the display, and the aluminum frame will set you back another $20. You're paying extra for the hardware, battery…
These $10 home lab upgrades solved problems I didn't know I had
Ayush Pande Mar 29, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Ayush Pande is a PC hardware and gaming writer. When he's not working on a new article, you can find him with…
I connected my dumb appliances to Home Assistant, and it felt like upgrading my whole house
Jasmine Mannan Jun 7, 2026, 10:01 AM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming…
My old phones replaced three smart devices in my Home Assistant setup
…I use the Bubble Card integration to design mobile-sized UIs While we’re on the subject of dashboards, any smartphone with a functioning screen can display dynamic information, widgets, and buttons…
Someone merged SteamOS with NixOS, and the result is the strangest Linux distro I've ever loved
…If you only care about gamescope and controller integration, you can enable just those pieces. If you want the full SteamOS-style flow, including auto-login and session management, that is just…
I connected my local LLM to Home Assistant through MCP, and now my smart home manages itself
Ayush Pande Apr 11, 2026, 3:30 PM EDT Ayush Pande is a PC hardware and gaming writer. When he's not working on a new article, you can find him with…
I tried Arcane for Docker management, and here's why Dockhand remains my pick
…The lack of a selection checkbox mechanism surprised me, but it’s not impossible to integrate into the tool. Arcane doesn’t display a container’s hardware usage and other metrics in…
My Home Assistant dashboard got better when I stopped trying to put everything on one screen
…It's a vast ecosystem with countless integrations, ways to present data, interact with branded hardware, and do some seriously cool automations. I wanted to try everything . There’s a strong temptation…
I built a 10-inch ePaper dashboard for my 3D printer, and it's the best display I've ever used
…Ports USB-C Display 10.3-inch ePaper Wireless Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Pros & Cons Looks great Easy to develop for Open hardware No ESPHome support yet reTerminal E1003 Aluminum frame Ten…