I wonder how many signatures we could get for an EU initiative that would require manufacturers to sell same quality "dumb" counterparts to their regular "smart" offerings of appliances and electronics, at the same or lower price.
Dumb TVs, washing machines, coffee makers, toothbrushes, etc. that would not require apps, wifi, bluetooth, phoning home, ads, etc.
Remove anything extra that is not required for the core use case of the product.
What's new in Home Assistant?
2025.7 was filled with so many good things we're bringing you 3 feature highlight videos this month! 
Here's Chapter 1 - Assist asks the questions!
Find the blueprint and what else is new this release on our blog 
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2025/07/02/release-20257/
We have another addition to our Works with Home Assistant program to share - Zooz!
They bring an awesome selection of device types and certified the first Z-Wave devices in the program this year. 
Learn more about what devices they certified in the latest blog 
#HomeAssistant #SmartHome #HomeAutomation
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2025/07/15/zooz-joins-works-with-home-assistant/
OK, so I got some preliminary results. I used this video heatmap tool.
My video was pretty crappy. The camera wasn't well placed. But it's kinda neat for a first attempt.
There's a couple hot areas at the top left and bottom right. The top left is a spillway in the pool that has water constantly moving. And I think the bottom right is just grass/bushes blowing in the wind.
I took the video and compressed it down quite a bit, so it's an hour's worth of motion in 20 seconds. Pretty neat.
It did confirm my suspicions that the robot gets stuck in the corners a lot and doesn't do a lot of longitudinal runs. This is only the first hour out of 3, though, so it's possible it did more later.
#video #swimmingpool #homeautomation
Ok. Here's a 10-second sample of what I got. 3 things went wrong.
Still, I have enough video to experiment with. I also need to see whether the wide-angle lens is necessary, or whether I can get it with linear focus instead.
I'm curious how much it gets stuck in the corners. Unlike a lot of pools, there isn't a straight line in my pool. It's a curvy, asymmetric shape. Some of the curvature is obviously the fishbowl effect from the lens. But there really aren't any straight lines.
The #homeautomation protocol is named #Thread, perhaps that is a typo as #Threat is more apt and accurate. If you roll your own device you might very well experience the full force of their blood thirsty lawyers.
What the actual F.
In 2025.7, we made improvements to the Areas dashboard.
The dashboards the community has shared helped shape this design 
and we would love to see how it works for you. Even if you already have the perfect dashboard, try it out!
Share your thoughts here 
https://forms.clickup.com/2533032/f/2d9n8-32191/NK2MUOVKXQVH2L0NHI
Second round, this time the #HomeAssistant on my #RaspberryPi4 - I still had a 32-bit install and it was time to migrate. Support ends this year and #ESPHome already couldn't be updated any more.
It was relatively easy - create a #backup on old system, boot a new install and select #restore on the setup page.
It took a while to restore everything, and I got impatient, but after around 30 minutes it was finished and everything like before.
#RaspberryPi #HomeAutomation
iOS Companion App version 2025.6 is now available! This release includes:
The option to open the "more-info" dialog from Control Center Ability to reorder servers in app settings A fixed missing unit of measurement in CarPlay sensor states
...and more! Update or download today
#HomeAssistant #Release #HomeAutomation
https://apps.apple.com/app/home-assistant/id1099568401
Android Companion App version 2025.6.6 is now available! This release includes:
Invitation flow - send a link from app to your server Faster loading from redirect links Using the app as a launcher
...along with bug fixing! Download the latest version today
#HomeAssistant #Release #HomeAutomation
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.homeassistant.companion.android
Controlling my smart home with a D20! Text-to-speech generated on a local GPU plays on a smart speaker in the room. Decorative lighting turns on or off depending on the roll. @homeassistant #smarthome #homeassistant #homeautomation #tabletop #gamewithpixels
Self-Host Weekly (4 July 2025)
#Tailscale updates, software launches, a spotlight on #ZenNotes, #community content, and more in this week's self-hosted #newsletter recap!
We're kicking off July with another addition to the WWHA program - Nuki!
They bring three different smart lock types to the program certified for use with our Matter integration. Read on for more about Nuki's origin story and the devices certified
#SmartHome #HomeAutomation #HomeAssistant
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2025/07/03/nuki-joins-works-with-home-assistant/
June was an especially energizing month - we came together in person for the first Open Home Foundation Summit in Dublin.
This month's newsletter covers highlights from the summit, stats from Community Day, new voice features, Apple following our lead, and more! Read on
#Newsletter #HomeAutomation #SmartHome #HomeAssistant
https://newsletter.openhomefoundation.org/getting-out-of-the-home/
We're thrilled to announce that SwitchBot is our latest addition to the WWHA program!
They are bringing the first certified cleaning robots and air purifiers to the program, along with a long list of Bluetooth and Matter connective devices! Read on for more
#SmartHome #HomeAutomation
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2025/06/26/switchbot-joins-works-with-home-assistant/
A month ago, we held a world wide Community Day - a first for us! This was a great success but we also learned a ton that we plan on implementing next year. 
Check out what's next for meetups, read our humble appreciation, and see fun stats in the wrap up blog
#HADay2025 #HomeAssistant #HomeAutomation #SmartHome
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2025/06/24/community-day-2025-wrap-up/
Moving away from the constant upgrade cycle & moving closer to the ideals of #PermaComputing #MalleableSoftware
Design and setup a redundant system of old/used, cheap, low-power devices running ia: #Guix, #Linux, #FreeBSD, #macOS, #HaikuOS, #Plan9Front, #X11, #P9, #NFS, all working together
Become an expert on #MicroControllers #ESP32 #STM32 #RP2040 #MIPS #RiscV
DIY sensors which sing like birds to communicate their status
DIY robots "drones"
Move as much as possible of my computing needs to the #Terminal, #Emacs, #Rio #CLI #TUI #P9
Get an #3DPrinter and learn to use it
Design and build my own portable 8dot #braille terminal & try out if 3x3 or 3x4 dots is also workable.
Design and build my own low-power computers, their OS, and tools
Writing more of my own tools #DIY
#SmallTalk #ObjectPascal #Prolog #Scheme #Racket #CommonLisp #Haskell #Rust #Go #ObjectiveC #Swift
Deploy #LoRa #ReticullumNetwork #RNodes #MeshCore #Meshtastic
Start an #InternetResiliencyClub
Add #Tor, #I2P support by #WebProxy
#SolarPowered #SelfHost over #I2P, #OnionService #Blog #Wiki #Repositories #GopherHole #Darcs #Mercurial
#SelfHost my own #EmailServer, which will only accept email from #KnownServers #CommunityEmail #MutualEmailAcceptance
Share files via #BitTorrent over #I2P
DIY #HomeAutomation
DIY #GardeningAutomation
DIY #GreenHouse
Get a house cat, train the cat, use voice and gestures
Start asking money for advice & technology support
Build/program my own opportunistic and strange cryptocurrency miners #BTC, #XMR, #ZEC, etc #Art
#MakeMoreArt #LearnToDraw #Learn3DModeling #LearnGenerativeArt #LearnToComposeAmbientMusic
#ReCreateJottit #ReCreateInstikiWiki
#WriteMore #PublishMore #Letters, #Essays, #Missives, #Reports, #Treatise
…
@ernie, hate to cold @ you, but, are you following this #sengLED smart light bulb fiasco? No one seems to be writing about it. Not the tech publications that promote sengled... no one. It's been days and people can't get their lightbulbs to work, esp if they were dimmed at night when they stopped working.
After a bunch of complaints to their main seller, #Amazon, Amazon finally released a statement to people that have them linked to one of their appliances. I suspect Amazon just wants to stop fielding calls about them, although they are still selling products that can't work now or be setup. #GoogleHome #iot #Alexa #homeAutomation #google #home
https://www.reddit.com/r/smarthome/comments/1lezw4w/anyone_have_issues_with_sengled_lightbulbs_not
/r/SengledUS is covering it, also https://www.reddit.com/r/SengledUS
I wrote another thing about home automation and alarms and stuff.
This time I talk about planning a basic level of hardwired security into my apartment, and what prep work has been necessary.
