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Tech News
WIRED's year-long testing of indoor garden systems found the Gardyn Home 4.0 the simplest to set up and the most productive, successfully growing everything from herbs to a full cauliflower. The system uses proprietary seed pods called yCubes, sold in curated flavor sets, and pairs with an optional AI-powered subscription app called Kelby that automates watering and lighting.
A veteran smart-home tester outlines ten practical adjustments homeowners can make to limit data collection from cameras, speakers and displays, including physically closing camera shutters and muting microphones when not in use. The piece also cites cybersecurity attorney Laurie Selkowitz, who warns that many users fail to disable opt-in data-sharing settings on devices like Ring cameras.
Shelly has released the Flood S Gen4, a Matter-certified water leak sensor priced under $30 that works natively with Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings, and Home Assistant. The device uses three large stainless steel contact pads instead of small metal pins, allowing it to detect water faster and even sense low-conductivity liquids like AC condensate.
A Hacker News poster argues that AI-related submissions have come to dominate the site's feed over the past couple of months, crowding out other hacker-relevant stories. They cite two recent examples—a Lenovo solid-state cooling laptop and Brax Industries' open-source smart home devices—that received little engagement despite being technically interesting. The poster suggests YC could curate underexposed posts or add tagging so users can filter content by topic.
A veteran smart-home reviewer argues that Apple's next major hardware push should be a dedicated home computer that processes data locally rather than another cloud-connected screen. She notes that new CEO John Ternus described the iPhone using language—an 'intelligent personal hub' focused on local processing and privacy—that better fits a smart home hub than a phone. The piece also points to Anker's Eufy MindBase, shown at IFA Berlin, as an early example of this 'super hub' category supporting Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Thread, Zigbee and Matter.
A hobbyist blogger purchased a WiFi-enabled Lidl Smart Kettle and began probing its network behavior after setting it up through the companion Lidl Smart Home App. Using nmap and netcat, they found the kettle opens a single TCP port (6668) that responds to connections but returns no identifiable banner or HTTP response, leaving its underlying protocol a mystery for further investigation.
Luxury housing prices have declined for 29 consecutive months across every high-end price tier, according to new market data. Despite the extended price slide, luxury homes are now selling faster than they did a year ago, suggesting buyer demand remains resilient even as sellers accept lower prices.
Google is developing a new toggle within Google Photos that would let users display all photos and videos in their home feed at a consistent, identical thumbnail size. The feature appears to still be in development and has not yet rolled out broadly to users.
Apple's fall event centered on the new foldable iPhone Duo and expanded Siri AI features but included no mention of a long-rumored standalone smart home display. Insiders had suggested Apple would finally launch an Echo Show-style device with facial recognition and flexible mounting options, but the Apple Home app received no stage time at all. Instead, the $1,999 iPhone Duo can be propped up to mimic some display functions, though it lacks the size, speakers, and dedicated purpose of true smart displays.
A tech newsletter writer used an uncensored AI model from startup Abliteration AI to autonomously probe his home network, devices, and personal coding projects for security flaws. Over several days the agent uncovered vulnerabilities in household gadgets, broke into a PC, and flagged bugs in vibe-coded software, all while operating with guardrails stripped away.
A new ranking of college towns identifies five markets where median asking home prices remain below $120,000, far under the roughly $400,000 national median. Most of these affordable areas are located in regions with harsh winters or extreme summer heat, which appears to keep demand—and prices—lower.
Apple's iOS 27 update overhauls the Home app with Apple Intelligence features, letting it summarize alerts from doorbells and smoke detectors instead of flooding the lock screen with notifications. Cameras gain improved AI-based detection of faces and animals, can stitch together footage of a person moving through multiple rooms, and now record in 4K with AI-generated video descriptions and searchable events. The update also lets users update all Apple TVs at once from the Home app and improves overall app reliability.