Microsoft may have given up on smart speakers for the consumer, but the technology giant hasn’t given up on letting others build intelligent devices based on its own technologies and hardware. To get started, Microsoft unveiled Azure Percept Vision, a smart camera; plus Azure Percept Audio, an intelligent audio system at its virtual Microsoft Ignite conference. They can connect to the Azure IoT Hub.

Smart homes are witnessing a rise in long-range, low-power technology to ensure devices stay connected inside and outside the home. This extends the smart home outside of the home spilling into the backyard in the form of smart gardening, and even into our vehicles for a more connected life.

Ikea’s new Shortcut Buttons and existing Motion Sensors recently gained HomeKit support to the delight of many Apple device owners. Importantly, the addition is cumulative for the most part, allowing the Ikea devices to function with the best features of Ikea Home Smart while layering on the best of Apple.

If you recently purchased a smart home display like Amazon’s Echo Show or the Google Home Hub, you likely heard all the rave reviews about — how it would simplify your life and you’d never know how you lived without it. But what exactly can a smart display do?

Back in June 2020, SmartThings revealed that major changes were coming for its platform both on the hardware and software front, and now we’ve got a date for when the biggest hardware impact will hit: 30 June 2021. On that day, the original SmartThings Hub – the one that first went on sale in 2013 – will stop working. It’ll become a dead slab of plastic and silicone.

With Alexa smart speakers already being deployed as voice control points around so many homes, their low cost and improved audio quality now make them a viable whole-house audio system option.

Home security can become more secure from people with nefarious intentions. For instance, the new radar technology will determine the number of people in a room using more accurate information than just motion. While a camera can only capture someone’s face, the radar tech will be able to detect someone out of the ordinary with certainty.