Independent reporting and reviews on the consumer technology people actually use.
SMART HOME VERTICAL
Reporting on the connected home: Matter, Thread, voice assistants, security cameras, smart locks, energy monitoring, and the privacy implications of an always-on house.
DAVIS · MAY 8
The Connectivity Standards Alliance on Thursday published the Matter 1.5 working draft for member-company review, adding robot-vacuum, motorized window-covering, and air-quality device classes, with a target ratification date in the third quarter.
CUPERTINO · APR 21
Apple on Tuesday introduced HomeKit Secure Routes, an automation feature that lets HomeKit-paired cameras and doorbells trigger location-aware automations without exposing camera streams to third-party services.
DAVIS · MAR 11
The Connectivity Standards Alliance on Tuesday published Matter 1.4, the smart-home interoperability standard's largest update in over a year, adding energy-management device classes and long-pending camera-and-doorbell categories.
SEATTLE · JAN 28
Amazon on Wednesday released Alexa+, a $19.99-per-month subscription that replaces the legacy Alexa assistant with a generative-AI version, the company said in its first significant rearchitecture of the assistant since the original Echo launched in 2014.
SANTA MONICA · JAN 7
Ring on Wednesday said end-to-end video encryption will be enabled by default for all new customer signups, ending a multi-year period in which the feature was opt-in and disabled by default — a shift that follows years of pressure from privacy regulators.
REVIEW · BOSTON · APR 2
Consumer Tech Wire's 2026 ranking of consumer smart doorbells, scored on video quality, motion detection, privacy posture, smart-home integration, and total cost of ownership. Six doorbells installed and tested over 90 days.
ANALYSIS · SEATTLE · FEB 20
The Matter 1.4 specification shipped in February with the device-type expansions the standard has needed since 2022. The specification is now competitive. The implementation, across the four major ecosystems, is not yet.
GUIDE · SEATTLE · JAN 18
A buyer's and setup guide for building a smart home in 2026 that actually maintains a defensible security posture, organized around the decisions that matter most and the ones consumers most often get wrong.