Wi-Fi 7 is ready, but your devices aren't — and that's costing you hundreds
…smart plugs. This means that your 40+ IoT devices are still using 802.11n logic, otherwise known as Wi-Fi 4. They occupy air time on the 2.4 GHz band, and…
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I connected my dumb appliances to Home Assistant, and it felt like upgrading my whole house
…Don't get rid of your dumb appliances Turn them into smart devices instead Upgrading your home and implementing smart home products doesn't require sending functional appliances to the landfill. By…
I gave Matter two years to work, then ripped out every Thread node for Zigbee
Jasmine Mannan May 3, 2026, 8:00 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 Google Pixel has replaced half of my smart home products without costing me a penny
…Related My old phones replaced three smart devices in my Home Assistant setup And it's all thanks to the cool sensors included in modern smartphones Get rid of your Google Nest…
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Your smart home devices will outlast the companies that made them if you ditch the cloud
2d agoYour smart home doesn't need Matter — a local Zigbee network is faster and lasts longer
3d agoSmart plugs are replacing smart appliances, and your decade-old washing machine just became future-proof
5d agoHome Assistant is way more than a smart home dashboard, and here's what I actually run on it
1w agoZigbee solved the smart-home battery problem years ago, and Matter still hasn't
…Restrict your Matter over Thread devices exclusively to mains-powered hardware, such as smart plugs and light switches. They can act as stable Thread border routers without battery penalties. The next thing…
New rumor revives claim that OnePlus might leave the US market
…OnePlus initially denied the shutdown and pledged after-sales support and updates. It's unclear if this also includes new flagship devices. The OnePlus 15T launches on March 24th; global availability is…
I'd rather build a Raspberry Pi security camera than ever pay for Ring again
…my surveillance camera spying on me Between outdated firmware, weak hard-coded credentials, and lack of encryption, smart devices are already infamous for their insecure nature. But then you’ve got Ring…
Voice assistants are getting worse at simple tasks, and nobody's talking about why
…Yes, generative AI is now in charge of your voice assistant, and Google is far from the only company that jumped on the AI train. Alexa+ is also powered by AI, which…
4 Pixel AI features I miss every time I use another Android phone
…Moreover, the entire transcript is searchable for keywords, and I can directly copy text from it to search the web while Recorder runs in the background. For on-device AI implementations that…
Home Assistant's local LLM support outperforms Gemini for Home, and Google knows it
…He has worked as an editor and managed teams since 2015. His expertise broadly covers computers, smartphones, game consoles, headphones, smart home products, browsers, and apps. Sign in to your XDA account…