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Google has acknowledged a bug causing Nest Doorbell units abroad to unexpectedly revert their voice announcements from local accents to an American one. A Google representative responded in a Reddit thread this week, confirming the company is aware of the issue and working on a resolution, though no fix has shipped yet.
Nest Doorbell owners in France and the UK report that visitor announcements have suddenly switched to a US English accent, even though every other Google Home device in their homes still speaks in their local language and accent. The glitch appears isolated to doorbell announcements within Gemini for Home, which otherwise supports ten languages and multiple accent options. One affected user says support staff suggested temporarily adding US English as a secondary language, then deleting it, as a workaround.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports Apple is testing a smart home display, internally coded J490/J491, in employee homes ahead of a possible launch as soon as next month. The device reportedly combines elements of iOS, tvOS, and watchOS, with its own home screen, widgets, and clock faces, and leans heavily on an upgraded Siri to handle tasks across apps like Notes and Reminders.
Google has launched early access to a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Google Home, enabling AI agents such as Claude, ChatGPT, Hermes, OpenClaw and Google Antigravity to interact with connected smart home devices. Through natural language, users can review camera summaries, monitor activity, control devices, and build custom dashboards, after linking their agent via a Google Cloud project and granting permissions.
Some iOS users reported that Nest camera and doorbell alerts stopped appearing on their iPhones over the past several days, even though the app still logged the events when opened manually. Google has confirmed it identified the cause and deployed a fix, apologizing for the delayed communication about the issue.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is developing a privacy-focused home security camera and automation device paired with a new monitoring service, expected to launch next year. The camera would reportedly rely on AI analysis rather than raw video footage to track home activity, and it's positioned as part of a broader wave of device launches Apple has planned over the coming years.
UGreen has introduced three smart home hubs — the HomeAgent HA100, HomeAgent HA100 Pro, and MasterAgent MA100 — that handle voice commands, camera monitoring, and Matter device control entirely on-device rather than through cloud servers. Each unit combines a two-bay NAS with dedicated video storage and varying levels of onboard AI horsepower, including NVIDIA hardware in higher-end models, with the base HA100 offering 16GB of RAM and 26 TOPS of AI performance.
Ornithologist Péter Palatitz has spent 20 years studying the red-footed falcon, a colonial raptor that depends on abandoned rook nests to breed. After rook persecution in the 1980s and '90s destroyed those nesting sites and cut falcon numbers to a quarter of their former size, Palatitz began installing thousands of artificial nest boxes across Hungary in 2006, and the falcon population doubled within ten years. Satellite tracking of 28 birds also revealed they fly nonstop across the Mediterranean and Sahara for five days, covering 6,000 miles to winter in southern Africa.
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.
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.
Google has hiked the U.S. price of its TV Streamer 4K from $99.99 to $149.99, citing rising component costs, with the change already reflected on the Google Store and Best Buy. Certain Nest Cam and doorbell models are also getting price increases effective August 31, though the new Google Home Speaker is unaffected for now. Amazon and Walmart are still selling remaining stock at the older $99.99 price, but supplies are limited.
Google confirmed via its Nest Community account that it has resolved a bug causing Google Home devices to play unrelated songs, albums, or playlists instead of the ones users requested. The issue had been reported by multiple users on Reddit's r/googlehome, with some saying it persisted for months across services like Spotify. Google has not detailed the cause of the bug or what specifically was changed to fix it.