All the smart home news, reviews, and gadgets you need to know about

Lights that turn on when you walk into a room and turn off when you leave are one of the most desirable smart home features. But you need to buy additional hardware like motion sensors to make this “magic” happen. A new ambient sensing technology called Sensify could make this easier by turning your light bulbs into motion sensors. And it might be landing on a Philips Hue bridge near you very soon.

Sensify is a wireless network sensing (WNS) technology developed by Ivani that can turn mains-powered Zigbee devices into motion sensors for controlling your lights with just a firmware update — no additional hardware needed. The best part is that it can work on devices already in most homes. “There are tens of millions of devices with the base firmware already out there; we’re just working on the final touches to light up the full experience,” Ivani cofounder Justin McKinney tells The Verge.

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Will the last device leaving the Nest app please turn out the lights? The day finally arrived; Google has announced it’s transitioning the Nest Protect smoke and CO alarm to the Google Home app. This means you’ll be able to get alerts and notifications for your alarm directly through Google Home, as well as hush alarms, according to a blog post from Google. This means you no longer need the Nest app for any device, but you can still use it — for now, at least.

The Nest Protect was the last device that could only be accessed and controlled from the Nest app, following Google’s efforts over the last couple of years to fully port its Nest cameras and other devices to the Home app. With this move, Google will finally be able to sunset the Nest app, although the company has said it will keep it in maintenance mode indefinitely.

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There were a slew of innovations in robot vacuums on the CES show floor this year, from arms and legs to extendable mops, movable towers, and new navigation systems.

As the industry races ahead in its quest to find the best way to clean our floors, it can be hard to see the function through all the hype. I spent the last week in Las Vegas hanging with our robot friends to find out just how much better they’re getting. Here’s a look at all the new tech that came out and how it could help keep your floors sparklingly clean.

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I’ll see your arm and raise you an arm and two legs. It was the battle of the bots on the CES show floor as robot vacuum manufacturers Dreame and Roborock each added limbs to their rival robovacs.

Dreame launched its X50 Ultra at the show earlier this week, debuting the first robovac that can use its legs to navigate steps and room transitions up to 6cm high. But elsewhere at the show, competitor Roborock was showing off its latest flagship, the Saros Z70, which has an arm that can pick up items like socks.

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A smart lock is an easy solution to some common problems. Locked yourself out? Need to let a friend in to water the plants? Your latchkey kid lost their key? Hands are full, and it’s raining cats and dogs? A smart lock solves all of these problems and more.

One of the best smart home upgrades you can make, a smart lock gives you remote control over access to your house from anywhere, plus easy, key-free ways to unlock and lock your door. Smart locks also remember everything that happened, so they can tell you when and sometimes who unlocked your door.

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Today’s robot vacuums are becoming a bit like cars: with all the features, upgrades, and fancy trimmings available these days, it’s easy to forget that they can just be simple machines that get us from point A to point B. Yes, some bots blow hot air on their bums (mop pads) and deftly navigate dog poop, but there are plenty of basic budget robot vacuums that just do a decent job of cleaning your floor autonomously — as long as you tidy up first.

While higher-priced, higher-powered robot vacuums clean better, budget bots do a perfectly good job, especially if you run them regularly. The biggest downside of cheaper models is they get stuck on cables, socks, shoelaces, and other paraphernalia you leave lying around. If you’re home and can untangle it, great, but if you’re not, then it will just sit there stuck until its battery dies, and you have to charge it up again before it will clean your floors.

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What if your cat tower could weigh your furry friend, monitor its health, and help keep their pesky dander spores out of your air? That’s the idea behind LG’s new AeroCatTower, an air purifier with a cat-friendly dome-shaped seat on top for your feline to curl up in.

The company showcased the gadget at its CES 2025 booth this week, complete with some rather creepy-looking fake cats.

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Narwal, the company behind our favorite mopping robot, just announced a new flagship robovac called the Flow that’s capable of cleaning closer to walls and corners. The Flow comes with a track-driven mop pad that extends to reach the edge of walls, while also using dual water tanks to keep the mop clean and remove dirty water.

It sounds similar to the extending, self-cleaning roller mop we saw on Ecovacs’ Deebot X8 Omni Pro robovac. The Flow comes with an anti-tangle side brush that extends to reach corners and a brush cover that sits closer to the ground and automatically increases suction up to 20,000Pa on surfaces like carpet.

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Most robot vacuum mops can tackle mopping your floors and maybe scrub up a dried-on stain, but let them trundle through a puddle of spilled milk or juice, and they’re likely to smear the liquid around. If they do suck any up, it could seriously damage the robot’s internals — robot vacuums are not wet / dry vacs.

Robot vacuum manufacturer Eureka claims to have solved this problem with its new J15 Max Ultra ($1,299). According to the company, this robot vacuum and mop, debuting at CES 2025, can accurately spot liquids and automatically rotate its body to tackle wet spills with its mopping pads.

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Eufy is making it easier to splurge on a robot vacuum with a new model that can clean more than just your floors. The Eufy 3-in-1 E20 has a unique design that transforms from an autonomous robovac to a manual stick or handheld vacuum by removing a unit containing the motor, dust bin, and battery and then attaching other cleaning accessories.

The E20 is available for preorder starting today for $499.99 through Eufy’s website with a $50 discount. It will officially be available starting on February 10th through additional retailers, including Amazon and Best Buy, for its full price of $549.99.

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First, they sprouted arms; now, robot vacuums are getting legs. The latest bot from Dreame has two small legs that can push it up and over a step as high as 6cm (about 2.5 inches).

The Dreame X50 Ultra robot vacuum uses a system called ProLeap, which the company first demoed at the IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany, last year. Dreame calls the device’s appendage a “motorized swing arm” that “enables step navigation up to 6 cm in height.” But they’re clearly legs.

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Smart lighting brand Lifx is introducing its first smart lamp at CES 2025: the Lifx Luna. It uses Matter over Wi-Fi, so it’ll integrate with an existing smart home setup easily — or it’s a low-stakes way to add some smarts to your non-smart home.

The Lifx Luna Smart Lamp includes 26 controllable color zones and offers up to 1,000 lumens of brightness. There are four built-in buttons that can control not just the lamp but also other Matter-connected Lifx lights or smart devices. It’s designed to sit on a tabletop or attach to a wall with an optional mount. It’ll launch in March 2025 and cost $69.99 exclusively from The Home Depot — either in-store or online.

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The Pawport might be the most elaborate way to let your dog enter and exit your home. The smart dog door connects to a Bluetooth tag that straps to your dog’s collar. When your dog approaches, its double doors swing open to let your pet in or out of the house. Naturally, there’s also a glowing LED strip underneath the doors, for no purpose other than to add some more RGB lighting to your home. You can customize it to whatever color you want.

Pawport has been working on its titular smart pet door for a few years now, with the product launching on Kickstarter back in 2021. But the device is back at CES this year, and the company says it’s finally going to start shipping. The door will be available starting at $499. The company is also announcing a new weatherproof model that goes outside your house and pairs with the indoor version. That model starts at $399 but must be paired with an indoor unit.

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We’re swimming in smart lock options, but we haven’t seen anything quite as cool as the $700 Lockly Styla, an all-in-one smart deadbolt lock and video doorbell being shown off at CES 2025.

It’s a tall, cylindrical handle that’s visually comparable to something you’d find on the door of a brick-and-mortar business but with enough gadgetry to make Bruce Wayne blush.

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