Reviewer, Smart Home
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is The Verge’s Smart Home Reviewer, meaning her family lives in misery, so yours doesn’t have to. She covers all areas of home automation and connected gadgets, from robot vacuums and video doorbells to smart lighting and locks. She joined The Verge in 2021 and is a leading expert on the smart home standard Matter.
A journalist for three decades, she’s covered the smart home since 2013, writing for publications including The New York Times, Wirecutter, Dwell, Wired, The Ambient, BBC Science Focus, and US News & World Report.
She received her training on London’s Fleet Street with The Daily Telegraph newspaper before moving to Sun Valley, Idaho, where she worked in local news for ten years. She now lives in South Carolina with her husband, two children, a dog, a cat, a rabbit, and seven chickens.
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Every smart home device that works with Matter
All the Matter-compatible devices you can buy, plus the latest on the Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung-backed smart home standard.
The update reportedly brings Thanos snap mode (aka Distraction Control), improvements to the Photos app redesign, and other UI tweaks. I can’t wait to snap away some Cookies!
Anyone can download and install the public betas for iPad and iPhone, but pro tip: carry a battery pack with you — betas are brutal on your percentage.
Google’s design chief, Ivy Ross, says, “I think it took a lot of courage to reimagine its design because when it launched, it was really the start of a new era where smart home devices weren’t just functional but beautiful, too.”
The Nest was no headphone jack, though. While the original brought beauty to home tech, precious few companies followed suit. Maybe this “courageous” new version will be the trendsetter.
The $50 FP1E is a wired sensor that can detect presence through movements as minimal as breathing, so your lights don’t shut off just because you’re sitting still.
It's a streamlined version of the $70 Aqara FP2, lacking features like zone positioning but still offering the precision of mmWave motion detection. The FP1E communicates over Zigbee, so requires an Aqara hub.
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Level, Chamberlain, Moen, Aqara, and Lutron are just some of the manufacturers the publication reports lack a dedicated way for security researchers to flag vulnerabilities — meaning a malicious hacker could potentially take advantage of a flaw before the company knows about it.
Check out the full report to see who’s on the naughty list — and who made the nice list.
[Innovation at Consumer Reports]
The MS600 uses a combination of the super-precise radar tech, PIR, and light sensors to detect small movements, such as breathing, as well as general motion and light levels.
The sizeable sensor works over Wi-Fi and is powered via USB-C. It’s Matter-compatible, so works with Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, and more. It’s available for preorder now at meross.com.
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