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Tech News
Google has rolled out a Google Home app update that lets Gemini for Home handle voice requests that mix media playback and smart device controls in a single command, such as turning off lights while stopping music. The update also fixes previously reported bugs with setting alarms and adding items to Google Keep, and it now alphabetizes automation options while enforcing privacy settings on third-party routines.
Google has fixed a bug in its Home app that was preventing owners of older Chromecast and Chromecast Audio devices from setting them up. The company confirmed the fix in a Reddit thread and advised affected users to update to Google Home app version 4.26 or later and retry setup. Those still experiencing issues are encouraged to contact Google support.
Tado has unveiled its Smart Thermostat X, a 17.8mm-thick device priced at £159.99-£199.99 depending on wired or battery-powered versions. The company says Google's decision to shut down servers for older Nest thermostats has already driven a surge in sales, and it's betting more Nest owners will switch as support for older generations lapses.
The Commodore 64 debuted around September 1, 1982, offering 64 kilobytes of memory at a price under $600, undercutting every rival with similar capacity. Early manufacturing was based in Santa Clara before quality issues pushed Commodore to outsource production to Japan's Kentron, which was mass-producing units by January 1983. Within six months the machine had sold half a million units, and it went on to sell roughly 10.6 to 12.3 million units total, making it the best-selling computer model in history.
Anthom, maker of the Homey smart home platform, has unveiled the Homey Portal, a €249 wall- or desk-mounted controller featuring a 2.8-inch round touchscreen and a stainless-steel rotary dial. Each unit is tied to a specific room and lets anyone present adjust lights, music, temperature and existing Homey Flows without opening an app. Pre-orders are open now, with shipping expected before year-end.
Athom-owned Homey has unveiled the Homey Portal, a 2.8-inch round touchscreen device with a stainless steel dial that lets users tap and twist to control lights, speakers, thermostats, and shades. Preorders start today at $249/€249, with shipping planned for December, and the device supports over 70,000 products from 2,000+ brands via Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Thread.
Modern smart thermostats, including the Ecobee Premium and Google Nest models, now include built-in humidity sensors that continuously track moisture levels inside a home. Users can check these readings remotely through apps like Google Home and Alexa, and some devices let owners set custom alerts that trigger when humidity crosses a set threshold.
IFA, Europe's largest tech trade show, returns to Berlin from September 4th to 8th, drawing more than 200,000 attendees. Major manufacturers will present new products spanning appliances, smartphones, and smart home devices, with most significant announcements expected to surface in the days leading up to the official opening.
Homebuilders in several booming Southern housing markets have ramped up construction so aggressively that newly built homes are now priced at or below comparable existing homes. This reverses the usual pattern where new construction commands a premium over older housing stock.
A developer has resumed work on DNet, a self-built network stack originally created while studying computer networking, after leaving it dormant for four years. The project handles TAP device creation, Ethernet frame parsing, ARP, ICMPv4, and UDP, and now includes a basic DNS server used as the authoritative resolver for the author's DN42 domain 42420167.xyz.
Vijay Pande, who built Andreessen Horowitz's biotech investing practice into a nearly $4 billion operation, has departed to co-found a much smaller firm called VZVC with longtime investor Zach Werner. The new fund makes only a handful of concentrated investments each year instead of dozens, forgoes associates, and leans heavily on AI tools to run its operations.
A Harvard Business School survey found that about half of U.S. workers favor working from home, with 40% willing to accept a pay cut of at least 5% for the option to telecommute. The trend is fueling interest in launching home-based startups, with several viable small-business ideas requiring no traditional office space.