One connected lock does not a smart home make. If you want to get serious with home automation, start with a smart home platform. When you first get started with home automation, you’ll quickly find that your smart gadgets do even more when they work together. Yes, it’s great that your smart lights can turn on automatically at sunset and your smart lock will lock itself, but what’s even better is saying “Good night” to a voice assistant and having the shades lower, the lights turn off, the door locks lock, and the alarm system arm. For this, you need a smart home platform. As a smart home reviewer, I am often asked which is the best platform to use.…

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge As connected becomes the default for every household appliance — from TVs and washing machines to ovens and vacuums — we break down exactly what makes a home ‘smart’ and help you decide if it’s the right fit for you. I find the simplest way to explain the concept of a smart home is that it’s a natural evolution of our homes. A smart home isn’t fundamentally different from a “regular” home — it’s just the improvement of one. In the same way that electricity made our homes better and more functional, so is connectivity improving the way we live in and use our homes. I’ve lived in a smart home for a…

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge As connected becomes the default for every household appliance — from TVs and washing machines to ovens and vacuums — we break down exactly what makes a home ‘smart’ and help you decide if it’s the right fit for you. I find the simplest way to explain the concept of a smart home is that it’s a natural evolution of our homes. A smart home isn’t fundamentally different from a “regular” home — it’s just the improvement of one. In the same way that electricity made our homes better and more functional, so is connectivity improving the way we live in and use our homes. I’ve lived in a smart home for a…

Smart home company – one of the leaders in HomeKit-compatible and now Matter-compatible devices – has been bought by the automation and electrification giant ABB. Eve will, with immediate effect, become part of the Building and Home Automation Solutions division of ABB. The two parties naturally hope the partnership will be good news, but some will be watching events with some degree of nervousness … more… The post Smart home company Eve bought by multibillion-dollar automation giant ABB appeared first on 9to5Mac.

iOS 17 might alleviate a little bit of the pain of cross-platform group chats. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A change to messaging in iOS 17 might be on the way to alleviate some of the pain involved in group chats between iPhone and Android owners. The folks at XDA Developers spotted some new messaging behaviors in the iOS 17 developer beta released yesterday that means iOS users will retain some of the benefits of iMessage chats even in mixed company. If the new features make it to the full iOS 17 release, it would be a win for iPhone owners — and a bit of a mixed bag for those on Android. Right now, a…

Andru Edwards and Kevin Nether join us on The MacRumors Show this week from the Apple Podcasts studio in Apple Park to discuss first impressions of the Vision Pro headset and the wave of other announcements the company made at WWDC this year. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos We talk through first-hand experience of what the Vision Pro headset is actually like, including comfort, control input, and mixed-reality experiences. We also touch on the Apple silicon Mac Pro, refreshed Mac Studio, and 15-inch MacBook Air, as well as some of our favorite new software features from iOS 17, iPadOS 17, tvOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS Sonoma. Listen to The MacRumors Show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify,…