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Review: Yale’s Matter-enabled smart lock can’t replace Nest x Yale due to Matter’s limitations

The Nest x Yale lock first made its debut in 2018 and, five years later, it’s effectively been ignored for a while in Google’s updated smart home ecosystem. Without a proper sequel on the horizon, we’ve been looking at Yale’s new Matter-enabled smart lock which should be a good stand-in for Google’s overdue sequel, but instead, shows Matter’s limits yet again.

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Matter’s new 1.1 update simplifies the process for new devices, hits 1,135 certified products

Matter 1.1 update

As successful as the release of Matter was and how large the wave of products seeing certification with the new standard is, there’s always room to grow. In Matter’s 1.1 update, newly released devices are easier to onboard, testing is expanding, and the standard hits a big milestone in the number of compatible devices.

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Review: SmartThings Station is a wireless charger that controls your home with a single button

samsung smartthings station

The smart home is going through a sort of reinvention with the arrival of Matter, and that’s given the market a chance to improve on old ideas and try out new ones too. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to use one of those new ideas in Samsung’s SmartThings Station, a Matter hub that can wirelessly charge your phone and control smart home devices with the push of a button.

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Hands on: SwitchBot Hub 2 adds temperature and SwitchBot gear to Google Home thanks to Matter

SwitchBot Hub 2

SwitchBot’s plethora of devices has made for some really simple and effective smart home tech, although much of it has been slightly problematic when connecting to Google Home or other ecosystems. With the newest Matter device – the Hub 2 from SwitchBot – the company’s Bluetooth devices are now able to slide into any ecosystem with ease, thanks to Matter.

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What is Matter, and why are so many smart home companies supporting it?

what is matter smart home

Setting up and pairing smart home tech has always been a little limiting. If you find yourself using devices from different ecosystems, there is a good chance that the thing you thought would make things easier actually makes it more difficult. Matter is set to change that. This guide will explain what the Matter standard is and why it’s so important to the smart home user.

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eve smart home light switch

Eve will bring its Apple-only smart home products to Android, thanks to Matter [U]

Matter is set to unify large parts of the smart home ecosystem, and one side effect of that will be the ability for products that once worked with just one assistant or device can expand to new customers. That’s what Eve had to share at IFA 2022, where it revealed that its Apple-only lineup of smart home products would be coming to Android, and at CES 2023, we’re getting a better idea of when that might happen.

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‘Works with Google Home’ branding arrives with Govee’s first Matter-enabled light strip

govee light strip

The smart home is being reinvented right now with the arrival of Matter, and going into 2023, we’re about to see a lot of changes. One of those is the new “Works with Google Home” banner on Matter products, with Govee among the first to adopt the branding with its first Matter-enabled light strip.

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