Sick of third-party skill integration with Alexa and your smart home devices? Connect to them directly with the Zigbee protocol. To migrate your Hue bulbs (and smart plugs) to Amazon Alexa’s native Zigbee, you’ll want to open up the Hue app and remove your bulbs and other devices from the app.

While people didn’t buy more, they appear to have had some very focused concerns. Lighting was one such concern, likely due to all the time people have been spending on notoriously unflattering Zoom calls along with all the time kids have been spending doing schoolwork. A survey from John Burns Real Estate Consulting points to smart lighting as a relatively new demand in smart homes, along with a newer focus on touchless faucets, toilets, and other infrastructure.

“Times have changed,” added Terry McGowan, director of engineering at the American Lighting Association, another sponsor. “A growing segment of our customers want increased functionality that comes with lighting products that are not just smart, they’re connected.”

Google maintains a fairly extensive list of the different types of devices that the Assistant can interact with, as part of their developer documentation. Just recently, Google updated the list to reflect that developers can now create a smart doorbell that uses the Assistant API.

Perhaps more surprising than the demise of the HomePod, however, is that this does not actually mark the end of Apple’s smart speaker ambitions. The three-year-old HomePod is survived by its smaller and less-costly sibling, the HomePod mini, introduced last fall.

Most reviews of Facebook Portal cite privacy concerns around putting a camera in your house, especially given the company’s terrible track record when it comes to privacy. Thankfully, there are plenty of alternatives to both the Facebook Portal and Portal TV.

The global IoT market is projected to hit $1.46 trillion by 2027. If you’re interested in tapping into the rapidly growing Internet of Things, these stocks to buy will get you in the game.