11 posts tagged "Matter"
The three big smart home ecosystems openly diverged in 2026. We compare Apple Home, Gemini-powered Google Home, and Alexa+ on price, latency, smart features, and Matter reality.
Matter shipped three point releases since 1.4. We cut through the marketing and tell you what actually changed for smart bulbs, switches, and Hue vs Govee households in 2026.
Six real smart home trends defining 2026: Matter 1.5, Thread 1.4 mesh unification, energy-aware automation, local vs cloud, outdoor lighting, multipurpose hubs.
Three protocols, three very different promises. We break down when Matter actually beats Zigbee, when Wi-Fi smart lights are fine, and when neither is the right answer.
A no-fluff Matter setup walkthrough for 2026: prerequisites, controller choice, the 6 steps most tutorials skip, and the 3 failures that bite everyone.
Matter is the protocol, but you still need a controller to orchestrate it. Here's every 2026 hub option, what counts as a Thread border router, and how to pick.
Smart bulbs going offline at random in 2026? We diagnose the real causes (Wi-Fi congestion, mesh handoff, Thread border router gaps) and give fixes that work.
Smart plugs are the cheapest way into a smart home, but most of them are junk. Here are the 7 we'd actually buy in 2026, and the ones to skip.
Forget 40-device buying guides. Here are the 5 smart home devices to buy first in 2026, in order, under $400 total. Plus what to skip for now.
We sort the Matter-actually-works picks from the Matter-ready marketing. Eight categories, real requirements, and the firmware traps to dodge in 2026.
The IoT dev boards worth buying in 2026, with built-in Wi-Fi, BLE, Thread, or Matter. ESP32, Arduino, Pico, Adafruit Feather, and M5Stack picks compared.
