Arlo’s Essential Wired Video Doorbell offers a high-res camera and a wide field of view. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge It’s unfortunate, but many video doorbells require you to lock yourself into one platform’s smart home ecosystem to really make the most of them. Thankfully, there’s at least one video doorbell that works well with any smart home platform: the Arlo Essential Wired Doorbell. And right now, it’s on sale in white for $59.49 (about $91 off) at Amazon. If you prefer another retailer (or color), you can also buy it in black at Verizon for $64.99. Not only is Arlo’s video doorbell compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and even Apple Home, but…

In the past few months of using the , my mind has been doing a lot of thinking about the role of hardware in the future of the smart home. Sure, software (even voice) is great for interacting with devices, but there’s something I’ve found magical about Home Key. My smartphone is hardware device that interacts with my hardware lock through software. The software is invisible. It’s been so wonderful just tapping my iPhone on the lock and having it open. It’s also led me to believe that Apple should continue pulling at that string going forward. Of course, all this will apply to the recently released Aqara smart lock with Home Key support. more… The post HomeKit Weekly: Home…

Apple’s redesigned Home app makes it easier to control all your smart home accessories — on all your Apple devices. It’s secure and protects your personal data. And with HomePod or Apple TV set up as the ultimate home hub, the new Home app unlocks the full potential of your smart home. Apple’s Home app In iOS 17, coming this fall, the Home app adds the ability for users to view up to 30 days of activity history across door locks, garage doors, alarm systems, and contact sensors. Additionally, two popular HomeKit lock features — tap to unlock and PIN codes — are now available for Matter-compatible locks, providing even more ways to connect the home. Wes Davis for The…

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge My smart home journey began, like so many others, with a poorly placed light switch. My partner and I had just bought our first house, and the switch that illuminated the kitchen was in the laundry room all the way on the other side, meaning we had to wander through darkness to get to it. I hated that light switch. So what to do? Well, I could spend a bunch of money I didn’t have to hire someone to move it, try to do it myself and accidentally burn my house down with a bad wiring job, or take the plunge on a smart home. I took the path of least resistance (that’s…

One of the big changes in iOS 17 is support for interactive widgets, a major improvement compared to the initial version of widgets that debuted with iOS 14. In line with this, Apple has also added dedicated widgets for the Home app, letting you control your favorite HomeKit accessories right from your iPhone’s Home Screen. more… The post Hands-on: iOS 17 adds interactive widgets for the Home app appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Eve Systems, the maker of numerous smart home devices that support HomeKit, has been acquired by automation and electrification firm ABB.Eve MotionConfirmed by ABB on Monday, the purchase of the German Eve Systems brings the company under the ownership of the Swedish-Swiss ABB, based in Switzerland. Read more...