Smart Home

Known for its smart locks that still look like regular ones, Level has been purchased by lock giant Assa Abloy, which will operate it as an independent brand.

Assa Abloy exec Lucas Boselli says:

Their innovative platform provides an easy transition from mechanical locking to digital access solutions with minimal effort.

Meanwhile, the Level M arm that focused on multifamily dwellings is spinning off as Ambient Property Technologies, where CEO Mike Rovito says it’s working on a new app.

Correction: Only Level M is being renamed, while Level Lock will keep its name.

The Inspelning smart plug is now available for $11.99 in the US and beyond. It works with Ikea’s Dirigera smart hub and Energy Insights feature so you can adjust how and when you use energy-intensive appliances to maybe save some money and reduce your energy usage. 

An upcoming Galaxy Ring and SmartThings integration enables the smart ring to trigger smart home automations.

A giant super-sized model of the wearable was at IFA this week to demo how your home can respond to biometric signals.

It showed the ring sensing the wearer had fallen asleep or woken up and then starting a sleep routine or a good morning routine. Now that’s an effortless interface.

At IFA this week, Roborock and SharkNinja showed off robot vacuums that can lift themselves up to get over high room transitions, but Dreame went “a step” further.

It demoed its new ProLeap system, which uses retractable legs to navigate very low steps, as this video from The Ambient shows.

The tech is still in development but the company says it should arrive on its product line soon.

I love a good tactile dial and a sleek touchscreen for controlling my smart home gadgets, so Aqara’s new Panel Hub S1 Plus and Touchscreen Dial V1 caught my eye.

Both hardwire to existing light fixtures and can control other devices wirelessly — and that physical dial is so nice!

They’re launching in Europe and Aqara says U.S. versions could arrive next year.

The Siemens/Bosch XXL built-in fridge freezer was launched last year, and Eelco Lammertink of BSH tells me it will be upgraded to Matter in early 2025.

“Our ambition is to have our entire product line be connectable via Matter,” he said. BSH is also upgrading its Smart Kitchen Dock to be a Matter bridge, which will allow existing appliances to work with Matter.

A camera embedded into a keypad that can stream to a separate video intercom inside your home, Switchbot’s first video doorbell solution also works as a keypad for its smart door locks.

Both components are quite large and bulky, but it's intriguing as an all-in-one solution for a video intercom. This is still a prototype; we expect to hear more about it next year.

The Narwal Freo Z Ultra ($1,499.99) uses two cameras to constantly scan while cleaning and adapt to what it spots.

Dual AI chips mean it can identify objects and decide how to clean — get close to chair leg but give pet poop a wide berth, retract its brush when it sees a cable, and activate mop-only when there’s a wet mess ahead.

Announced at CES, the Matter Smart Multicolor Permanent Outdoor lights are now available for pre-order starting at $199.99, shipping in October.

The full-color and tunable white lights feature 30 addressable LED pucks per 15-meter strip with a Kelvin range of 2200 to 6500 and 50 lumens per puck. The lights are trimmable and extendable up to 45 meters and work over 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi.

The modular Solix X1 already announced for the US is now available in Europe in single- or three-phase configurations. LFP battery capacities start at 5kWh and expand to 180kWh with up to 36kW of power output. That’s enough to juice any device — even your EV — for hours, days, or indefinite operation when integrated with solar.

Think Powerwall, but not from Elon Musk.

First announced at IFA last year, Switchbot’s new humidifier uses cold evaporation and a 4.5-liter tank that you’ll never have to refill yourself — if you own the Switchbot S10 robot vacuum. The latter can automatically bring water to the humidifier when it's running low.

The SwitchBot Evaporative Humidifier (Auto-refill) is now available for $239.99 / €239.99. It supports Matter through a Switchbot Hub.

Users apparently can’t adjust the brightness on the new Nest Learning Thermostat, leaving the display too dim at times. Fortunately, it seems a fix is on the way, as Google has told 9to5Google that it will soon roll out a way to adjust brightness.