Smart Home

Everything to Know If You Still Use an Original Philips Hue Bridge

Philips Hue was one of the first smart lighting systems to go mainstream. However, after first launching way back in 2012, Hue is finally ending support for its Bridge v1 at the end of April. Here’s what you should know. First, for those who aren’t sure if they have a first or second-gen Hue Bridge,…

Gadgets Sam Rutherford

Why All the Smart Home Platforms Suck and How They’re Going to Fix Them

If you buy a smart home device right now, it’s more than likely it’ll work with Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant, or maybe even both—but while these digital assistants are adding a layer of convenience on top of a living space full of sensors and gadgets, they aren’t really the smart home platforms we should…

Gadgets David Nield

Google Assistant: Now More Helpful Around the House and More Respectful of Privacy

After three years of learning new tricks at CES, in 2020 Google is giving the Google Assistant some seriously useful smart home upgrades while also teaching it how to better respect your privacy. For anyone who may have gotten a new smart home gadget over the holidays, the Google Assistant’s new skill around the house…

Tech News Sam Rutherford

The Smart Home Is a Technological Teenager Going Through Some Awful Growing Pains

It can take a new technology decades to fully mature into a product that’s reliable and genuinely useful. Computers and mobile phones have arguably reached that point, but the smart home is barely a teenager by comparison, and as it starts to go through puberty it’s revealing a troubling, rebellious side. The idea of a…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski

Apple, Google, and Amazon Are Joining Forces to Help Smart Home Devices All Play Nicely Together

In an effort to make it easier for consumers to transition to a smart home setup without having to buy into a proprietary system, Apple, Google, Amazon, and the rest of the Zigbee Alliance announced today they’re forming a new working group that will (hopefully) develop a new connectivity standard allowing hardware from all these…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Motion Sensing Wifi Is a Limited But Fascinating Peek at the Future of the Smart Home

In 2013, researchers at MIT demonstrated how the wifi signals that fill every corner of your home with high-speed internet could also be used to detect the movements of pets and people—even through walls. Six years later, Linksys has introduced similar functionality on its tri-band mesh routers, and while the technology is clearly still in…

Home Entertainment & Smart Home Andrew Liszewski

How to Give Ring and Nest the Boot and Set Up Your Own Home Security Camera

If you want a camera to sit on your mantelpiece and ping your phone every time the dog walks past, you’ve got more choice than ever before. But if you’re worried about what these devices are going to do with your videos, and with your data, there’s another option—build your own bespoke solution. Like a…

Gadgets David Nield

How to Turn Your Smart Speaker Into a White Noise Generator

Those smart speakers you’ve allowed into your home can do more than look up the weather forecast and set timers for your eggs—they’re growing increasingly capable of taking on a host of other tasks, including becoming an ambient or white noise generator. If you need help focusing or falling to sleep, a path to peaceful…

Gadgets David Nield

The Nest Mini Is an Excellent, if Unnecessary, Upgrade

If it ain’t broke, and you manage to sell over 100 million units, don’t fix it. That best sums up the latest version of Google’s Nest Mini (formerly the Home Mini) smart speaker. If you’re in the market for a cheap smart speaker that will occasionally be used for listening to music, it’s still Google’s…

Home Entertainment & Smart Home Andrew Liszewski

11 Clever Uses for Smart Plugs That Make Them Worth Buying

The humble smart plug might not be the most eye-catching or featured-packed smart home device out there, but the ability to turn electrical sockets on and off with a tap on your phone (or a preset schedule) is more useful than you might think—and we’ve got the examples to prove it. At least buying a…

Gadgets David Nield

Why Nest Accounts are Becoming Google Accounts and What You Can Do About It

It’s official: If you’ve got a Nest account, you can now swap everything over to your Google account. But should you do it right away, if at all? And why is Google asking you to combine accounts anyway? Here’s everything you need to know if you’ve got Nest-branded smart home gear set up. A brief…

Gadgets David Nield

Amazon: Here’s $5,000 Worth of Crap to Turn Your New Home Into a Hellscape

You know what none of us needs more of in our homes? Amazon products. And yet that’s exactly what’s promised to prospective homebuyers should they decide to purchase through its new TurnKey service. The company will reportedly gift thousands of dollars in products and services to tempt homebuyers to transform their homes into Amazon-surveilled hellscapes.…

Commerce Catie Keck

How Many of Your Smart Gadgets Can Actually Get a Virus?

You might have noticed the brouhaha over the since-deleted Samsung tweet advising users to run antivirus scans on their smart TVs—but is such a malware attack possible? Just how many of your smart home gadgets are vulnerable to viruses in the same way that your laptop might be? We called in the experts to find…

Gadgets David Nield

This ‘Smart’ Light Bulb Video Is the Most Ridiculous Thing We’ve Ever Seen

People of the 20th century imagined that Americans of the future would be zipping around in flying cars and jetpacks. Instead, we’ve got a plummeting life expectancy, the rise of measles, and even a resurgence of concentration camps on U.S. soil. But if you really want a reminder of just how dumb everything is in…

Gadgets Matt Novak

Apple’s Got a Fresh Plan to Make HomeKit Actually Useful

When it comes to smart home platforms, Apple HomeKit’s been sort of like the ugly stepchild. Smart home devices were much slower to adopt it than Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, and even though it works well, it required a bit more research to make sure the devices you were buying specifically supported it. But…

Tech News Victoria Song

How to Choose the Right Platform to Run Your Smart Home

Maybe you’re taking your first tentative steps into the smart home market, or maybe you’re expanding what you’ve already got, but at some point you’re going to want to get everything working together—or else be faced with using dozens of different apps every day to get your smart gadgets doing your bidding. Here we’re going…

Gadgets David Nield

Here’s What You Should Know About the Upcoming Nest/Google Account Migration

At Google I/O 2019, Google announced it was renaming the Google Home Hub smart display to be the Google Nest Hub while also combining the two brands into a presumably more harmonious single entity. Now Google wants Nest users to better understand what’s happening. The piece of news that didn’t get a lot of attention…

Tech News Sam Rutherford

Amazon’s Oil Addiction, Black Holes, and Tiny Ancient Humans: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

Wow, it’s finally here: The last season of HBO’s Game of Thrones premieres tonight. In a matter of mere minutes, viewers will have the chance to re-experience the magical world of Westeros, spending a final few episodes in the company of fan favorites like Dragon Owner, The Explosion Doer, Grizzled Conscience Man, Zombie McHugenstein, Sword…

Tech News Tom McKay

This Simple Tool Will Reveal the Secret Life of Your Smart Home

We live in the glorious future that technophiles have long dreamed of. Almost everything can now connect to the internet: cameras, coffee pots, televisions, vacuums, toilets, children’s toys, sex toys. If you build it, a wireless connection will come for it. These smart devices are always on, always connected, and often up to more than…

Privacy & Security Kashmir Hill

This Cheap Robot Vacuum Isn’t Super Flashy, But It Gets the Job Done

Even though they’re still kinda dumb, robot vacuums happen to be the most successful type of home robotright now. But a couple of years ago, they were too expensive for the average person, and budget options tended to be hilariously awful. They’d miss obvious dust bunnies, crash into furniture, and get hopelessly lost under your…

Home Entertainment & Smart Home Victoria Song

Everything to Know If You Still Use an Original Philips Hue Bridge

Why All the Smart Home Platforms Suck and How They’re Going to Fix Them

Google Assistant: Now More Helpful Around the House and More Respectful of Privacy

The Smart Home Is a Technological Teenager Going Through Some Awful Growing Pains

Apple, Google, and Amazon Are Joining Forces to Help Smart Home Devices All Play Nicely Together

Motion Sensing Wifi Is a Limited But Fascinating Peek at the Future of the Smart Home

How to Give Ring and Nest the Boot and Set Up Your Own Home Security Camera

How to Turn Your Smart Speaker Into a White Noise Generator

The Nest Mini Is an Excellent, if Unnecessary, Upgrade

11 Clever Uses for Smart Plugs That Make Them Worth Buying

Why Nest Accounts are Becoming Google Accounts and What You Can Do About It

Amazon: Here’s $5,000 Worth of Crap to Turn Your New Home Into a Hellscape

How Many of Your Smart Gadgets Can Actually Get a Virus?

This ‘Smart’ Light Bulb Video Is the Most Ridiculous Thing We’ve Ever Seen

Apple’s Got a Fresh Plan to Make HomeKit Actually Useful

How to Choose the Right Platform to Run Your Smart Home

Here’s What You Should Know About the Upcoming Nest/Google Account Migration

Amazon’s Oil Addiction, Black Holes, and Tiny Ancient Humans: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

This Simple Tool Will Reveal the Secret Life of Your Smart Home

This Cheap Robot Vacuum Isn’t Super Flashy, But It Gets the Job Done

Artemis 2 Crew Become First Humans to Travel Beyond Earth Orbit Since the 1970s

Artemis 2 Day 2: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

Labubus Might Be Labu-Bust After Pop Mart Posts Record Share Loss

Cursor’s New Tool Lets Users Delegate to a Team of Coding Agents

Nvidia Needs to Remind Itself What PC Gamers Actually Want

Iran Says It Hit Oracle Facilities in UAE

‘Invincible’ Season 4 Is Doing Right By Debbie

New Theory Says We’ve Been Overcomplicating the Big Bang

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

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DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

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