Dan Wroclawski
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smarthomeguy.bsky.social
Dan Wroclawski
@smarthomeguy.bsky.social
Gadget geek covering smart home and more for
Consumer Reports. All views mine. DM for Signal/email.
Amazon quietly released its first Matter smart plug! It’s cheap but only uses 2.4GHz WiFi…
www.amazon.com/Amazon-Basic...
#smarthome
November 12, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Products built for Google Home now have their own dedicated “Preferred Product” badge #smarthome #googlehome
July 2, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Belkin sold Phyn to an investor group led by the Property Brothers’ Jonathan Scott for $24.9 million
May 23, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Later this year, Google will end support for its oldest Nest thermostats. You can still use them as a thermostat, but they won't connect to the Nest app, Google Home app, or Google Assistant, and features that require connectivity like Home/Away Assist won't work. More here: tinyurl.com/58wcym7v
April 25, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Aqara also announced a custom feature called Advanced Matter Bridging that will add Aqara triggers and scenes as virtual occupancy sensors and plugs (respectively) to third-party Matter platforms. This allows you to use them in automations on those platforms.
April 9, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Aqara is becoming a full fledged Matter platform with support through version 1.4 coming this month. That means it’s further along than Apple, Amazon, and Google.
April 9, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Switchbot just announced official integrations with Home Assistant! There are three to choose from: Bluetooth, Matter, and the cloud. More details on supported devices here:
https://us.switch-bot.com/pages/home-assistant
March 21, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Does anyone know of a no-neutral smart switch or dimmer that is compact enough to fit inside old, no-longer-to-code metal switch boxes? I’ve tried Leviton and Lutron but both are too big for the box 😤
March 16, 2025 at 8:35 PM
“Smart home has transformed with Alexa+” says Panos. This is the new smart home widget for Echo Show
February 26, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Panos Panay says the rearchitecture of Alexa is now complete
February 26, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Jassy just said the new Alexa is very “remarkable” 😉
February 26, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is leading the event, which he says will be 70 minutes of AI news
February 26, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Let’s see if “Remarkable Alexa” is finally ready!
February 26, 2025 at 2:45 PM
I would find a Pico remote in my backpack while at CES…
January 8, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Finally made it to Vegas! Time to check out all the cool new smart home gear #CES2025
January 6, 2025 at 11:35 PM
It may be the holidays, but I'm already busy prepping for CES. If you're going to the show and want to meet up, let me know!

And here's a throwback to my Reviewed days when we had our trailer with a giant checkmark on the roof. RIP Reviewed
December 13, 2024 at 5:30 PM
My toxic trait is I buy smart home stuff and then never get around to installing it 😅
December 6, 2024 at 2:17 PM
I think my six year old Ring Floodlight Cam is starting to die…
December 5, 2024 at 3:18 PM
The Echo Show 15 isn’t dead! Amazon just announced new 15-inch and 21-inch versions that now act as Matter, Thread, and ZigBee smart home hubs with WiFi 6E! New Show 15 costs $300, Show 21 costs $400, and both are available now.
November 20, 2024 at 3:53 PM
This is really dumb and anti-consumer. Level is only giving Lock+ owners 60 days to upgrade their locks with the Matter firmware. If you miss that window, you’re out of luck.
https://level.co/matter-update/
#smarthome
November 15, 2024 at 2:17 PM
Level Lock+ is now Matter over Thread enabled! The company didn’t say whether older Level locks will get the update, though ☹️
https://level.co/matter-update/
November 14, 2024 at 11:49 PM
Spending the afternoon evaluating smart water leak detectors! Stay tuned for the results 😎
August 18, 2023 at 7:44 PM