HomePods, Wyze Cams, and a Home Break-In

Hello, and welcome to the inaugural issue of Signals, my newsletter dedicated to everything smart home! I’m Dan, and I’ll be your guide to the latest news, products announcements, business deals, and more happening at the intersection of the home and the Internet of Things.

To get future issues of Signals delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe here!

With CES fully behind us, I thought the rest of January would be relatively quiet for smart home news, but then Apple dropped a new HomePod on us. Let’s get into it!

A New HomePod, New HomePod Mini Features, and More

I know this news has been well covered, but I can’t ignore the elephant in the room. Apple surprised us with a new, second-gen HomePod. It looks very similar to the discontinued original model, but it packs a ton of new features. The list includes a bigger backlit touch pad, Thread networking for Matter and HomeKit devices, Ultra Wideband for audio handoff from an iPhone, intelligent sound recognition for smoke/CO alarms, and built-in temperature and humidity sensors for automations.

While Apple is bringing a lot of new functionality to the HomePod, I think it should have been more aggressive on price. The new HomePod costs $299, which is the same price as the first-gen HomePod when it was discontinued. The original speaker launched at $349, but it didn’t sell well, even with the eventual price cut. I was hoping Apple would aim for a price closer to $250, but we’ll have to see how popular the new model is when it goes on sale on Feb. 3rd.

Many of the HomePod’s new features are borrowed from the $99 HomePod Mini, but it’s getting some of its younger sibling’s features, too. With the release this week of HomePod software version 16.3, the Mini had its dormant temp and humidity sensors turned on. It will also get the new sound recognition feature in an update “later this spring.”

Finally, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman confirms that Apple is still working on a combination HomePod and Apple TV device with a camera, plus a more affordable, home-oriented iPad for controlling smart home devices and making FaceTime calls. I found the latter interesting since Gurman had referred to it as the combination of "an iPad with a HomePod speaker” in the past. I wonder if Apple is making it more of a tablet than a smart display a la the Echo Show or Nest Hub product lines.

Wyze Overhauls Its Budget Camera Lineup

Over the last two weeks, Wyze has dropped three new security cameras: the Wyze Cam Pan V3, Wyze Cam OG, and Wyze Cam OG Telephoto. All three have similar features to the Wyze Cam V3, such as starlight sensors for color night vision, HD video, and two-way audio. The new Cam Pan V3 adds weatherproofing, while the Cam OG and Cam OG Telephoto can pair together with a special picture-in-picture view in the Wyze app. The Cam OG (not Telephoto) also adds a spotlight to the mix.

But Wyze isn’t done yet. The company’s founders have proclaimed 2023 to be “the year of the CAMERA” and they have more in store. Thanks to the expert sleuthing of Dave Zatz at ZatzNotFunny!, we now know that Wyze is working on new “Pro” level cameras, specifically a new wireless outdoor camera (without a base station) and a new floodlight camera. Both will feature 2K video resolution, a first for the budget camera maker.

Facebook Portal Almost Had a Second Life

BuzzFeed’s Katie Notopoulos reports that the Facebook Portal’s software, which supports video calling via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, was almost ported to Amazon Echo Show smart displays back in 2020. The deal was “maybe two days away” from being signed, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg killed it, hoping the pandemic would continue to boost Portal sales instead. Obviously, we all know that didn’t last.

Personally, I wish Meta would revisit this deal. Echo Show displays only support video calling via Alexa (either the app or other Echo Shows), Skype, and Zoom. While many people use Zoom, it would be great to have more options.

What a Surprise: Consumers Still Don’t Care for Smart Appliances

The Wall Street Journal published a report detailing how LG and Whirlpool continue to struggle to get their customers to use their smart appliances. According to the story, less than half of LG smart appliances in consumers’ homes actually stay connected to the internet, while the number if “more than half” for Whirlpool smart appliances.

Appliance makers are desperate to make smart appliances go mainstream, with Whirlpool going as far as requiring WiFi connectivity to use its ovens’ convection roast mode. But to be frank, smart appliances still aren’t that smart. Sure, you can download custom wash cycles and get notifications when your dishwasher is done, but you still have to load the appliances and start them yourself.

Even my LG smart refrigerator, which tracks how many times the doors open and close, can’t alert me when my toddler leaves the fridge door open. These companies simply must do more to make smart appliances more worthwhile. (Okay, end rant.)

What It’s Like When Your Smart Lock… Locks You Out of Your House

You know what’s the best way to start a Monday? Get yourself locked out of your house! That’s exactly what happened to me when my review unit of a keyless Yale Assure Lock 2 decided to completely fail on me. I ended up having to find an unlocked window and climb through it to get inside. It turns out the lock’s batteries weren’t dead, the lock just went completely dumb. I rebooted it (yes, I rebooted a door lock) and now it works fine.

I reviewed this lock back in September, and while it wasn’t flawless, I did think it worked well overall. I still stand by that review, but you might want to go with one of the keyed versions of the lock just to be safe. It’s also worth noting that Yale was quite apologetic and is now looking into the issue. Hopefully, they’ll figure it out and patch it so no other users find themselves locked out.

That’s a Wrap!

Thank you so much for reading the first issue of Signals! My goal is to make this a weekly newsletter, but I am new at this, plus I have a full-time gig, a toddler, and another baby on the way, so please bear with me! If I succeed at making this a routine newsletter, I’ll probably monetize it in some way, but it will be free for now.

If you have ideas, thoughts, or feedback on how I can improve the newsletter, please reach out on Twitter or via email. I’m open to changing just about anything, even the name! Finally, if you want to connect with me on my other social channels or see what I’m working on, click here. See you next time!