smart home device
smart home device at Spoot: Spotted Early is a file of 28 stories. The newest of them: “Apple's first smart home collection is real and shipping in December”, “Bose finally sneezes a discount on its Sonos-killer speaker”, and “Retailers are already blinking first: here come the early Black Friday deals”. Apple's smart home collection is real, it's shipping in December, and the first preorders are already live on the company's online store. $50 off a Bose speaker that launched this year? Spoot: Spotted Early New things, caught while they're still new and a little weird. Spoot finds fresh gadgets, clever inventions, crowdfunding campaigns,… The list below is every smart home device story on Spoot: Spotted Early, newest first.
Apple's first smart home collection is real and shipping in December
Apple's smart home collection is real, it's shipping in December, and the first preorders are already live on the company's online store. Right now, that mostly means LG accessories, including a $299.95 Outdoor Cam, but the whole thing hinges on the new Siri-powered HomeView smart display, which dropped today. Apple co-developed these devices with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, which is the kind of cross-brand collaboration that makes you wonder who actually controls the software updates. I'm curious what the HomeView feels like from a kitchen counter or a bedside table, the same question that drives our colleague Jen Tuohy's hands-on look at the device. Spoot wants to know if the hardware lives up to the promise, or if this is another case where the press release ran faster than the product.
Bose finally sneezes a discount on its Sonos-killer speaker
$50 off a Bose speaker that launched this year? That's not a sale, that's a sneeze, and I'm already reaching for a tissue. Bose finally dropped the price on its Sonos Era 100 rival, the speaker that arrived earlier in 2024 with a job description that basically reads "out-punch the competition." It's a rare moment of discount from a company that usually holds prices tighter than a clam at low tide. And if you're piecing together a smart home right now, you might also want to circle back to our piece on Apple's first smart home collection, which is real and shipping in December. Two ecosystems, two approaches, one very good week for people who like their audio cheap and their lights connected.
Retailers are already blinking first: here come the early Black Friday deals
Retailers are already blinking first. Black Friday isn't until November 27th, but the early deals are tumbling out, and we've been poking through the pile. A discount isn't automatically a historic low, especially with prices climbing everywhere, but there's worthwhile gear here if you want to skip the holiday rush. The Ember Mug 3 finally lets you adjust heat on the mug itself and toss it in the dishwasher, two details the first version should have had. The Hisense CanvasTV hides a 144Hz gaming panel behind matte wall-art glass, which is the kind of split personality we love. We're keeping a tab open on this guide as prices shift. If you prefer your tools to scan a screw before you pick a bit, see our piece on the Arrowspace S1 Screwdriver Kit.
This wearable heat patch wraps cramps in warmth that actually listens to your body
BODYLUV's heat patch doesn't just sit there radiating warmth like a stubborn rice sock from 2012. It listens. That's the part that made me stop scrolling. This wearable patch wraps cramps in heat that actually responds to your body, adjusting temperature based on what you're feeling rather than forcing a single setting on everyone. I love seeing tech aimed at real physical relief instead of just another smart toaster. Menstrual cramps and muscle pain deserve better than guesswork. It's a narrow, clever detail, the kind Spoot circles back to. The patch treats your body like an active participant, not a passive surface. If you're curious about how other new things communicate without screens, our piece on the glowing polycarbonate cube that talks to you without a single screen follows a similar thread of thoughtful design.
This glowing polycarbonate cube talks to you without a single screen
A six-sided polycarbonate cube that glows, rotates, and talks to you, no screen in sight. That's Glyph, a conceptual AI companion from a designer who looked at the black mirrors in our pockets and decided there had to be another way. The transparent housing reveals an LED matrix inside, and instead of tapping glass, you communicate through rotational gestures. It's not a phone. Not a smart speaker. It's something weirder: a presence. The inspiration came from nothing tech, no brand, no ecosystem, just the idea that an object could feel alive without a display. Of course it's a concept. But concepts like this one ask the right question: what if our AI companions didn't demand our eyes?
The Google Home Speaker finally got a price that matches its clean design
The Google Home Speaker finally got a price that matches its clean design. At $79, it's $20 off and the best deal we've seen since it launched in June. That matters because this is Google's first smart speaker in years, and it's smaller than the old Nest Audio but somehow louder and sharper, David Pierce said it even beats the Echo Dot Max for clarity. It also packs a Thread border router, supports Matter, and can double as an audio output for the Google TV Streamer. Gemini handles multiple smart home commands at once, which is honestly the kind of conversational glue a living room needs. Just note some features want a $10 monthly subscription. If you're curious about weird AI companions, our piece on the conceptual Glyph cube is worth a detour.
Infinix Opens Bali Flagship Where You Can Sip Coffee and Test Phones
Beachwalk Shopping Center now holds Infinix's first global flagship store, and it comes with coffee. That's the pitch: sip something, test phones, maybe let a little creativity happen between the two. Bali's a dream destination for travelers, and now it's a stop for people who want to handle a handset before buying it. I like the move. A flagship store should feel like somewhere you'd actually linger, and a coffee bar is a smarter hook than another wall of glowing screens. It's a retail experiment worth watching, though the coffee won't tell you whether the phones are any good. For a different kind of curious launch, Voxel's mustard-yellow chassis wants your mess, not your compliments. Two strange debuts, one island. Stay spooty.
The Vizio Mini LED that ditches the smart TV nonsense and just lights up
The Vizio Mini LED Quantum TV hits 936 nits and costs $358 for the 65-inch at Walmart, which is the kind of spec-to-price ratio that makes you stop scrolling. But here's the razor clam: you can skip the smart TV entirely. Push past the setup warnings about "missing out," disable Vizio's operating system, and suddenly it's just a giant, bright panel waiting for your own Roku or Apple TV. No data agreements, no firmware nagging. The black levels are shallow and the IPS panel blurs a little during fast motion, so gamers might wince. But for someone who wants a cheap, luminous screen and nothing else, who already has a streaming stick and trusts it more than a TV manufacturer, this is the quiet, feral deal hiding under Walmart's discount sticker.
This Nest Thermostat drop is $60 off and ready to learn your drafty rooms
The Nest Learning Thermostat is $60 off right now, which means it's matching its best price of the year and creeping within $10 of its all-time low. That matters because this fourth-gen model is the one that finally includes a remote temperature sensor in the box, so it can actually learn which rooms are drafty and which ones turn into saunas by 3 PM. It adjusts when you're away, suggests schedule changes, and shows you the outdoor air quality when you walk close enough. It also works with more HVAC systems than before and doesn't demand a C-wire in most homes. If you've been meaning to stop heating the whole neighborhood, this is the nudge.
Amazon hid a camera in your speaker and stuffed Alexa in a frame
Amazon hid a camera in your speaker and stuffed Alexa in a photo frame. The new Echo Show finally admits what we all knew: smart speakers are surveillance devices with good PR. This one puts a camera right there, in the room, watching. Meanwhile, Alexa gets a frame, a digital picture frame that listens. It's a curious pair. One wants to see you, the other wants to be seen. Amazon is betting you'll trade privacy for convenience, and honestly, they're probably right. But the frame is the more interesting play here. It hides the tech in something familiar, something you'd hang on a wall anyway. If you're into gadgets that disappear into your life, we also looked at a disposable camera made from mycelium, it decomposes before your photos ever do.
Ikea's Varmblixt smart lamp takes a $20 bite out of its price tag
The Ikea Varmblixt donut lamp just got $20 cheaper, dropping to $79.99 through November 11th. That's a solid bite out of a price tag that already made this thing my colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy's new favorite smart light back in April. It sits on a table or hangs from a screw on the wall, nothing fancy, just practical. At 180 lumens, it's not trying to light up a room. This is bedside mood lighting, and it cycles through 12 preset colors now instead of just orange. The wireless remote works without an app or hub, which is refreshing. But if you want the full smart home treatment, it supports Matter and works with Apple Home, Google Home, and Alexa through Ikea's Dirigera hub.
Amazon's Echo duo gets a smarter home and a bigger ear
Amazon's new Echo speakers have a bigger ear for your smart home, and that's exactly where the company's focus should be. The Echo duo arrives with enhanced smart home capabilities baked in, which means less fumbling with the Alexa app and more actually talking to your lights. It's not a reinvention of the speaker, it's a refinement that knows what you're actually using the thing for. The bigger ear isn't just for show; it's about hearing you over the blender, the vacuum, the chaos. That's the razor clam here: Amazon finally understands that a smart speaker's job isn't to sound great playing music, it's to listen better than you do.
Apple put the M6 in the same iMac and called it a day
Apple put the M6 in the same iMac and called it a day. That's the whole move. Faster chip, same chassis, same colors, same everything else. It's not a redesign. It's not a rethink. It's a processor swap dressed up as a launch, and honestly? That's fine, if you were waiting for a speed bump. But if you were hoping Apple might finally give the all-in-one a modern screen or a slimmer waistline, you'll be disappointed. The M6 is genuinely quick. The iMac is still the iMac. Meanwhile, Apple's October home makeover keeps rolling with HomeView, a $299 smart display for the kitchen that looks a lot more like a new idea. If tiny homes are more your speed, *The Helena* hides two bedrooms behind ordinary doors, no loft ladders, no compromises.
Aura Smart Bird Feeder takes a $140 dive, and Spoot is watching from the couch
The Aura Smart Bird Feeder is $140 off, and I'm not sure I've ever watched birds from my couch this seriously. Coolfly and Birdfy are both slashing prices on their camera-equipped feeders right now, so if you've been curious about the trend, this is the moment to burrow in. The Aura drops to $149.90, and its side-mounted camera captures a wider, more natural view than most, 2.5K video, full-color night vision, and AI that identifies over 10,000 species without a subscription. Birdfy's feeder costs less upfront, but solar charging and lifetime AI cost extra unless you bundle. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy called the Aura an impressive package, and I trust her on battery life and that giant seed hopper.
October's best office gear that doesn't scream cubicle at dinner
A laptop stand can be useful all day and still feel like an unwelcome guest at dinner. That's the problem with building a home office in a room that's also where you eat, sleep, or exist as a person. The five upgrades here solve that tension. They work hard, adjustable, cable-hiding, ergonomic, and then they vanish into the room like they always belonged there. One of them is a wooden monitor riser that looks more like a butcher block than a tool, and another is a desk lamp with the warmth of a reading nook that just happens to charge your phone. If you're the type who wants a home office that doesn't advertise itself, this is the list.
Apple HomeView has the hardware for apps but only runs CarPlay
Apple's HomeView has the guts to run apps, a proper chip, always-on power, a screen that begs for widgets, but it only runs CarPlay. That's weird, right? The Vergecast crew is asking the same thing: why build a home hub with real computing muscle and then refuse to let it be its own app platform? It's a deliberately closed door, and the speculation is that Apple wants control over the experience rather than a free-for-all of third-party interfaces. But it raises the obvious question: if your smart display can't run smart home apps natively, what exactly is it for? Our related piece, *"Apple's HomeView is a chimera of nostalgia, and that's exactly the point"*, digs into the design philosophy behind that choice.
Apple's HomeView Finally Gives Your Smart Bulbs a Room With a View
Apple finally put a screen on its smart home hub, and it looks like the iMac G4's younger, wall-mountable cousin. The HomeView comes in two flavors: a tabletop model with a screen perched on a speaker base, and a flat, mountable panel for when you want your home controls to disappear into the wall. It handles Matter and Thread, so your smart bulbs and locks can finally talk to each other without a translator. That polish is pure Apple, but the real question is whether this arrives as a finished product or another concept that keeps slipping. It's a smart display, sure, but it's also a communication console and an entertainment screen. If you want to dig into why it feels like a nostalgic chimera, our piece on that angle is worth circling back to.
Apple's seven-inch HomeView screen turns every wall into a command center
Apple finally put a seven-inch screen on your wall and called it HomeView. It consolidates every smart-home control, every app, every home-management toggle into one glossy dashboard that hangs there like a quiet command center. Two versions exist, which is classic Apple, give people a choice and watch them argue about which one is right. The idea is simple: stop digging through your phone for the lights, the thermostat, the door lock. Put it all on a wall where you can see it. We wrote about this in "Apple's HomeView Finally Gives Your Smart Bulbs a Room With a View," and the comparison holds. A room with a view indeed. Now the question is whether HomeView actually becomes the brain of the house or just another screen competing for your attention.
Apple's HomeView is a chimera of nostalgia, and that's exactly the point
The iMac G4's floating display was always the best thing Apple ever put on a desk, and HomeView finally brings that energy to the wall. A 7-inch smart display that borrows the iPad's touchscreen, the Apple Watch's familiar faces, and a HomePod's speaker base? That's a chimera worth taking seriously. It's nostalgic, sure, but nostalgia isn't a flaw when the original design was this good. The real question is whether it earns its spot as the center of the connected home, or just becomes another screen demanding attention. I'm gently skeptical, but also already checking where it fits. If you want the full picture of Apple's smart home push, our piece on how John Ternus is making Apple weird again pairs nicely with this one. Stay spooty.
Apple finally built a smart home hub, and it brought some friends
Apple finally built a smart home hub, and it brought some friends. The HomeView is Apple's first smart display, and it arrives with a 7-inch squircle design that looks like a gargantuan smart speaker grew a face. It costs $299 and preorders are open, which is nice because Apple has been threatening to make a smart display for years and years without ever actually doing it. The HomePod Mini 2 also finally exists after nearly six years, coming in at $149 with preorders open and a Friday launch date. Spoot already has a tab open on that one. The whole "Welcome Home" event dropped a slate of new smart home and security accessories too, built with trusted third-party manufacturers. It is the most serious hardware push Apple Home has seen in a long time.
Apple's smart home finally gets a front door, and we're already inside
Apple's smart home finally gets a front door, and we're already inside. October 13th, 9AM ET, New York. "Welcome Home" is the name, and it's doing exactly what Apple event names usually only promise: giving the company's scattered home gadgets an actual address. We're expecting refreshed Apple TV and HomePod Mini boxes, a brand new smart home hub, and possibly the debut of homeOS, a platform that sounds suspiciously like the thing Apple should have built five years ago. LG partner devices could show up too. What we probably won't see is the touchscreen MacBook, which Mark Gurman says is waiting until later this month. That's fine. A proper hub matters more than a laptop you can poke.
BirdVue Beams Feeder Feeds Straight to Your Phone, No Wi-Fi Required
The BirdVue Beams feeder doesn't care where you live. It just needs a 4G signal, and suddenly your phone is a window into whatever branch, hedge, or remote corner of the garden the birds actually picked. That's the whole trick: no Wi-Fi, no hub, no wrestling with your router settings. You slap a SIM in, hang it up, and the feeder starts sending photos straight to your pocket. That's genuinely the razor clam here. Most smart feeders assume your backyard is a tech ecosystem. BirdVue assumes you just want to see the birds. It's a concept that feels obvious once you hear it, which is the best kind of concept. And it pairs nicely with the Await camera's 24-shot discipline: both gadgets make you look closer at what's already around you.
The AI assistant is the product, the gadget is just its cage
The AI assistant is the product, and the gadget is just its cage. That's the takeaway from this week's Vergecast, where David and Nilay tear through Microsoft's high-end laptop, Amazon's fancy Android tablet, and Apple's headfirst dive into the smart home. The hardware is shiny, sure, but every single launch is really just a vessel for the same idea: the AI should run the computer. Whether that's even the right idea is the question worth asking. It's gadget season, and the spec sheets are full of clever hinges and long battery claims, but the actual strategy is suspiciously uniform. If you want a deeper cut on the weirdness, the Apple robot arm piece is worth a read. Spoot's take? The cages are getting prettier. The thing inside still hasn't proven it can fly.
This $175 smart paddle drags pickleball off the court and onto your couch
The $175 smart paddle doesn't care about your living room ceiling. It's a Wii-style controller disguised as a paddle, and it wants to turn your TV into a pickleball court, which means the fastest-growing sport in America has finally found its way to your couch. That's the pitch, and honestly, it's a good one: no net, no wind, no missing the kitchen line because you're barefoot and holding a snack. It's clever, and it knows it. But Spoot's gently skeptical here, because "smart paddle" can mean a lot of things, and "turns your TV into a court" usually means a lot of lag and a broken remote. The real question isn't whether it's fun. It's whether it's worth $175 when you could just buy a real paddle and a friend.