Will you be hit with IKEA Thread issues?

Jenniffer Pattison Tuohy at The Verge wrote an article about her frustration with IKEA’s new Matter over Thread smart home products and how similar stories are surfacing elsewhere including Reddit. I have had issues where sensors need to be reset before pairing, but they always pair correctly with Apple Home and work fine. I continue to use my IKEA smart buttons the most and they work reliably. As Jen mentions, IKEA acknowledges the problems, and they are working to fix them. I hope this isn’t a tipping point to mark Matter over Thread as a failure, given the scale of IKEA and this global launch. If IKEA can recover from this with fixes, I doubt we will remember it in a year.

Sonos Super Bowl Sale

I wrote about the Sonos Super Bowl sale earlier this week and talked about it on my livestream. The real highlights are $100 off Era 300 speakers and $200 off Sonos Arc Ultra. These sales span Amazon, Best Buy, and Sonos’ website. Beyond these sales, keep in mind that by logging into your account on Sonos website, you can get a discount on new speakers by “trading in” your old Sonos speakers through their Upgrade Program. The key detail is they don’t actually want you to send in your old speakers. You can keep using them or dispose as you see fit.

HomePod 2 is over 3 years old!

It’s crazy to me that it has been three years since the HomePod 2 was released by Apple. Since then, Apple has added software features, like support for Matter accessories like robot vacuums, HomeKey Ultra-Wideband, and Adaptive Temperature. But they haven’t made any hardware changes. Hopefully, this drought of new hardware from Apple will end soon.

The Schedule

This week I did not have a YouTube video to post as I was catching up on all kinds of other parts of my YouTube Channel and the rest of my life. We did have a live stream on Thursday night, which was fun as ever.

Yesterday I bought my first electric vehicle, a 2022 Volkswagen ID.4. So far, I love it, but I’ve barely had it enough time to come to any conclusions. The Matter compatible EV accessories list is pretty slim right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some integrations into my smart home with vehicles in the coming years.

I hope you have a great rest of your Sunday,

Eric