Ben Patterson

I’ve been covering smart home and security products for years, and I’ve written about and reviewed scores of smart devices. Yet I can count on one hand (plus an extra finger or two) the number of smart devices that my […]

Has your Google smart speaker been giving you the silent treatment lately? Join the club.  Over the past several days, owners of Google’s Nest and Nest Hub devices have been reporting that Google Assistant has stopped responding to basic commands

Barely more than a year ago, the idea of an AI-powered smart security camera that could describe what it was seeing truly blew our minds. Now, it’s becoming par for the home security course.  Just as it has in the

After years of giving the cold shoulder to Apple’s HomeKit platform, Anker’s Eufy has surprisingly announced its second new HomeKit security camera in just a few months. On sale now for $69.99, the Eufy Indoor Cam E30 is an indoor

In a world where ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are making one breakthrough after another as they chase the holy grail of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), Amazon’s Alexa is looking decidedly quaint, if not antiquated.  So the world took notice in

Google is stepping up its Gemini AI rollout for smart home users, delivering access to a new Gemini-powered feature in the Google Home app.  Android users enrolled in Google Home’s Public Preview can now help test “Help me create,” a

Shopping for a smart thermostat that works with the new Matter standard? There aren’t many to choose from, but now you’ve got one more option.  Smart home manufacturer Meross has just unleashed its first thermostat to support Matter, the 2-year-old

After years of waiting, smart home manufacturer Eve Systems has finally given its Android customers what they really wanted: an app.  More than two years in the making, the Eve app for Android promises to unlock smart features that were