Episode 584 - First, They Came for the Robot Vacuums

On this week's show: the FCC’s robot ban turns out to include future robot vacuums and mowers, which may make the next robovac harder to buy without making it much safer; Roku decides budget streamers are a premium experience now; Apple’s smart home hub and Siri refresh are reportedly getting closer; Sonos is teasing some kind of AI move for September; UniFi adds a Thread border router and beefs up Protect; plus new gear from Zooz, Aqara, Xiaomi, Homey, SmartThings, and Home Assistant, a pick of the week, project updates, and so much more!
• HomeTech Headlines• The US is banning foreign robots (theverge.com/tech/972259/us-foreign-robots-pow…)
• The US government just banned Roombas (theverge.com/policy/972312/us-robot-ban-sweep-…)
• Robot vacuums are included in US robot ban (9to5google.com/2026/07/29/robot-vacuum-us-gove…)
• The ban on robot vacuums won’t make them safer. But it may make your next one worse (theverge.com/tech/973738/robot-vacuum-ban-fewe…)
• The US Just Banned New Chinese Robot Vacuums and Mowers: Canada Could Be Next | iPhone in Canada (iphoneincanada.ca/2026/07/30/the-us-just-banne…)
• Roku raises streaming stick prices by up to 60 percent (arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/roku-raises-st…)
• Zooz 800 Series Z-Wave Long Range Motion Dimmer ZEN12 800LR (thesmartesthouse.com/products/zooz-800-series-…)
• Xiaomi’s smart washing machines are finally going global (the-ambient.com/news/xiaomis-smart-washing-mac…)
• Sonos Is Reportedly Planning Something Big for AI in September (cepro.com/news/sonos-is-reportedly-planning-so…)
• Apple’s long-awaited smart home Siri AI refresh is achingly close to reality (the-ambient.com/news/apples-long-awaited-smart…)
• Apple Could Start New Smart Home Push as Early as October (cepro.com/news/apple-could-start-new-smart-hom…)
• Ubiquiti’s new SuperLink Gateway HA brings professional Thread hardware to UniFi (matteralpha.com/news/ubiquiti-superlink-gatewa…)
• UniFi Gets Its Own Thread Border Router (matter-smarthome.de/en/products/unifi-gets-its…)
• Introducing UniFi Protect 7.2 (blog.ui.com/article/welcome-to-protect-7-2)
• Homey is a rare smart home platform that is Matter 1.5 certified (the-ambient.com/news/homey-is-a-rare-smart-hom…)
• SmartThings quietly brings Matter 1.6 to beta hub firmware (matteralpha.com/industry-news/smartthings-quie…)
• Finally: Aqara launches dual-protocol Matter and Thread smart plugs in the UK and EU (matteralpha.com/news/aqara-power-plug-h2-launc…)

• Home Assistant 2026.8 beta adds Matter doorbell events and simpler setup (matteralpha.com/news/home-assistant-2026-8-bet…)
• FireAvert joins Works with Home Assistant (home-assistant.io/blog/2026/07/28/fireavert-jo…)
• Building the device database together: Public preview now live – Open Home Foundation (openhomefoundation.org/blog/building-the-devic…)
• GitHub - GuiPoM/ha-sentinel: HA Sentinel — proactive health monitoring for Home Assistant integrations and apps (github.com/GuiPoM/ha-sentinel)
• ESPHome Starter Kit (apolloautomation.com/products/esk-1-esphome-st…)
• Maslow4 Large Format CNC (maslowcnc.com)