Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (aka Jen) writes about all things smart home, home automation, and connected tech for The Verge. A journalist for three decades, she has covered the smart home since 2013, writing for The New York Times: Wirecutter, Dwell, Wired, The Ambient, BBC Science Focus, and US News & World Report, among others. She joined The Verge in 2021, and now tests everything from robot vacuums, video doorbells, and smart locks to connected chicken coops and smart ovens. She’s an expert on the Matter smart home standard and is passionate about the connected kitchen and home energy management. She started her career on London’s Fleet Street with The Daily Telegraph newspaper before moving to Sun Valley, Idaho, where she worked in local news for ten years. She now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, two children, a dog, two cats, a rabbit, and several chickens.
Thread Group and the Broadband Forum are teaming up to help IoT devices and home internet work better together. The Broadband Forum — the organization that develops the standards ISPs use to manage gateways and routers — is adding support for connecting to Thread networks, giving ISPs visibility into both networks.
The group behind Matter has released the next version of its Product Security Certification Program, a cybersecurity standard designed to provide a single security label for consumer IoT devices.
The update extends certification beyond devices to include apps, gateways, and remote processes, allowing companies to certify entire ecosystems. It also adds independent validation through physical test labs and is now integrated into the Matter spec, with companies seeking Matter certification encouraged to complete the security certification as well.
Testing Govee’s over-the-top RGB lineup convinced me there might actually be room in my garden for a horse-race light show this summer.
The headline feature is the camera upgrades, but the smart home app is getting more new features, including energy monitoring.
As spotted by Matter Alpha, the first iOS 27 dev beta introduces a dedicated Power tab that displays the total energy consumption of compatible devices. There’s also an improved onboarding flow for new devices and support for Thread 1.4.
