OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, the AI for newbies who don’t know better alternatives exist, is stepping into consumer hardware with its first device: a movable, screen-free smart speaker designed as an always-on AI companion for the home. According to a Bloomberg News report, the product — still in development — aims to control smart-home devices, play media, answer questions, handle messages, and leverage ChatGPT’s capabilities.

This sounds innovative on paper, especially with the promise of a more “humanlike” AI presence. But let’s be clear: Amazon, Google, and Apple pioneered this category years ago. OpenAI isn’t breaking new ground here — it’s trying to catch up to a market these giants have dominated for nearly a decade.

The Smart Speaker Revolution Started Long Before ChatGPT

Amazon lit the fuse in 2014 with the original Echo and Alexa. What began as a cylindrical speaker that could play music, set timers, and answer basic questions quickly evolved into a full ecosystem. Echo devices now control lights, thermostats, door locks, and more — exactly the smart-home hub role OpenAI envisions. Amazon iterated relentlessly with cheaper Dots, portable versions, and premium models, shipping hundreds of millions of units and embedding Alexa into countless third-party devices.

Google followed in 2016 with Google Home (later Nest Audio and similar), emphasizing superior search integration and natural language understanding powered by its vast data resources. These speakers became central to many households for information, entertainment, and automation. Apple entered the fray in 2018 with the HomePod, focusing on premium audio quality and tight integration with its ecosystem, later adding the more affordable HomePod mini.

By the time OpenAI is targeting a potential 2027 launch for its device, smart speakers will have been mainstream for over a dozen years. The core features OpenAI highlights — voice interaction, media playback, smart-home control, and AI assistance — are table stakes that consumers already expect.

What’s New (or Not So New) with OpenAI’s Approach?

The Bloomberg News description by Mark Gurman positions OpenAI’s speaker as a “new type of home computer for the AI era,” movable and screen-free for ambient use.

Earlier reports suggest possible camera integration for environmental awareness, object recognition, and even facial recognition for purchases — features that echo (pun intended) what existing devices already offer or are evolving toward. Many current smart speakers and displays already include cameras, microphones that listen continuously (with privacy toggles), and advanced AI for proactive suggestions.

OpenAI’s edge is presumably its cutting-edge language models, potentially enabling more conversational, context-aware interactions than today’s assistants. Yet even here, competitors aren’t standing still: Google has integrated Gemini, Amazon continues enhancing Alexa with generative AI, and Apple is finally significantly deepening Siri with on-device intelligence in its ecosystem.

Privacy Concerns Loom Large, Especially Versus Apple

One area where OpenAI’s entry raises fresh questions is privacy. An always-listening, camera-equipped AI companion that processes conversations, surroundings, and potentially personal interactions could amass intimate data about users’ daily lives. OpenAI has faced broader scrutiny over how it handles training data and user inputs with its models, and a device that lives in the home would amplify those risks — including potential data sharing, advertising uses, or breaches.

In contrast, Apple has long positioned itself as a privacy leader in the smart speaker space. HomePod devices prioritize on-device processing where possible, use randomized identifiers instead of linking data to user accounts, and offer straightforward controls to delete Siri history. Apple’s ecosystem design generally minimizes cloud transmission and avoids using customer data for ad targeting in the same way its competitors do. OpenAI, as a newer hardware player heavily reliant on cloud-based AI, will need to earn similar trust — something that could prove challenging given the always-on nature of the proposed companion.

Challenges Ahead for the Newcomer

OpenAI enters a crowded, mature market where hardware margins are thin, privacy concerns run high, and user loyalty to existing ecosystems (Amazon for shopping, Google for search, Apple for seamless device handoff) is strong. Building reliable hardware at scale, managing always-listening microphones and potential cameras responsibly, and competing on price (rumored $200–$300 range) won’t be trivial.

History shows that smart speakers succeeded because they solved simple, everyday problems affordably and reliably — not because they promised revolutionary AI companionship. OpenAI’s version may feel more “alive” thanks to advanced models, but it risks being perceived as a me-too product unless it delivers truly standout experiences that justify switching or adding yet another device to the home.
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MacDailyNews Take: In the smart speaker space, OpenAI following well-trodden footsteps laid by Amazon, Google, and Apple. The real test will be whether ChatGPT can make the familiar feel fresh enough to stand out — while addressing privacy headwinds that Apple has long navigated more cautiously.

Our prediction is that it won’t.

OpenAI has always been skeevy, from eschewing its open source roots to Sam Altman to desperately overpaying for a washed Jony Ive. Just plain skeevy.

If ever a Skynet would arise, we expect it would spring from the diseased loins of OpenAI. – MacDailyNews, July 13, 2026

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Hands-free unlocking is the future of smart locks. The best smart home tech removes friction, and having your door unlock for you as you walk up is as frictionless as it gets - no passcodes to remember, no need to have a free hand to wave, press, or poke at the lock. One way to achieve this nirvana is through facial recognition. You already unlock your phone with your face; why not your home?

Hands-free unlocking using geofencing has been around for a while, but it can be slow and unreliable, and requires an app running in the background on your phone. Newer innovations - facial recognition and unlocking using an ultrawideband (UWB) radio - …

Read the full story at The Verge.

If you prefer not to have cameras in and around your home, try one of these more private, WIRED-tested security devices.

If you prefer not to have cameras in and around your home, try one of these more private, WIRED-tested security devices.

Balmuda has engineered a remarkably pleasant breeze with its new NatureWind Studio, but is it worth hundreds more than its competition?

Balmuda has engineered a remarkably pleasant breeze with its new NatureWind Studio, but is it worth hundreds more than its competition?

We consulted preparedness experts and WIRED’s team of testers for the essential gear to keep on hand in case of wildfires, earthquakes, and lord knows what else.

We consulted preparedness experts and WIRED’s team of testers for the essential gear to keep on hand in case of wildfires, earthquakes, and lord knows what else.

Looking to add a smart speaker to your house? Here’s which to choose, whether you’re an Alexa, Siri, or Gemini fan.

Looking to add a smart speaker to your house? Here’s which to choose, whether you’re an Alexa, Siri, or Gemini fan.

The Japanese Microwave measures food temperature directly, and stops cooking when food’s hot. It’s kinda terrific.

As wildfire smoke threatens air quality and safety for millions, here’s your playbook to keep your family safe from the damaging effects of smoke.

I had a simple task that involved Apple Home. If you use Apple Home, you know what happened next. Tears, frustration, the arrival of batteries, paperclips pushed into hard-to-reach holes, many online searches, and—if you are lucky, as I was—success.

Siri, am I lazy?

My goal was straightforward: can I know if the garage door is open without going to look? Early in the pandemic, we occasionally forgot to close it. While there was a locked door between the garage and the house, it still felt like we were playing with fire, as someone could steal a bike or other lesser goodies from the garage.¹ The garage is on our basement floor (ground level on one half of the house), and the last thing I enjoy doing at night is walking downstairs before bed to check the door.²

I purchased an Eve Door & Window Contact Sensor to have this capability reported by Apple Home, joining a growing set of HomeKit devices, including our front-door deadbolt. Because of our old-style single-piece swing-up garage door, I had a heck of a time finding the right place and right adhesive to stick the sensor where it was close enough for the two components to register.

I spent enough time on the vagaries of physics and materials that I was probably more frustrated than I needed to be when I tried to make a workflow with the danged thing. An Automation wouldn’t work because I wanted an alert, not for the sensor to trigger other Home devices. A Shortcut should have worked, but after many hours of trying over weeks, I was unable to get anything reliable to happen. The Automation was quite simple: at 9 p.m., check the state of the sensor, and send me a message if the sensor shows Open rather than Closed. I left it in place and walked away for literally years.

After recently installing a back-driveway camera, I was determined to get this sensor online.³ First, I replaced the battery, which had died during my period of disinterest. The Eve sensor uses a weird, tiny battery: a 3.6V 1/2 AA (ER14250). After that arrived, using some better adhesive—thin-film 3M 468MP—I positioned the sensor pieces in a better location and more securely.

Now it should work! Except that after adding it, I saw Characteristic in red text on a pink background in Shortcuts. Some online research led me to reset the sensor by inserting a paperclip into a hole I hadn’t noticed. After re-pairing the sensor, I was in business! Or was I?! The sensor wasn’t responding, despite recent status updates.

Threading the sensor through the house needle

This led me to the next culprit: the garage is too far away (one floor and the other end of the house) from my Apple TV, which acts as a Matter controller, while the Eve sensor relies on Thread as its communication protocol. What’s a Matter controller?⁴ And what’s Thread?

Matter is an overarching standard, painstakingly developed even as low-power sensing devices and other equipment proliferated in silos. Matter enables Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings devices to communicate across a network, regardless of the network transport medium (Ethernet, Thread, or Wi-Fi). This prevents you from needing ecosystem-specific hubs and lets manufacturers build to a common standard.

Thread fits into this mix as a low-power, wireless networking standard for sensors, allowing them to communicate their status without rapidly draining their batteries, as would happen with Wi-Fi.⁵ Apple initially supported Thread with a proprietary standard, HomeKit-over-Thread, and later added direct Matter support. The Eve sensor was just old enough that it was running on the older standard, but the Eve app allowed me to apply a firmware upgrade. I could then migrate the sensor to Matter, which seems to be more reliable.

Apple made things a little confusing here, too. The 1st-generation Apple TV 4K supports Matter, but lacks a Thread radio, so it can’t work with Thread-based devices. The 2nd generation added that radio, so you can do Matter over Thread. But then, with the 3rd generation, Apple bifurcated Thread hardware support: the 64 GB Wi-Fi only model lacks a Thread radio; you have to spend the now-whopping $249 for a 128 GB Wi-Fi + Ethernet version if you want to use Thread.

Failing an Apple TV 4K with Thread, you can use a Thread border router (TBR), which sometimes comes with sensor kits. This plugs into your network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet and bridges to the Thread network, allowing the Apple TV’s Matter controller to work with the Home app on your devices for automations, notifications, and so forth.

It’s that easy, folks. Sigh.

I do own a 3rd-generation Apple TV 4K with Wi-Fi + Ethernet, because I am a fancy man and a big spender, but I really wanted the reliability of plugging it into my Ethernet network. Yet, I couldn’t get the Eve sensor’s Thread radio to reach across my house to talk to the Apple TV. I bought a TBR, thinking it would solve the problem.

By the time the TBR was delivered, however, the garage door sensor magically connected via Thread to the Apple TV and has been rock solid. The TBR that arrived, on the other hand, I was unable to pair and get working, so back it goes for a refund.

Now my nightly Shortcut works! The only fly in that ointment is that the sensor status reports as Closed or Open in iOS and iPadOS, but as 0 (closed) or 1 (open) in the macOS Home app, in both macOS 26 and the beta of 27. I can live with running the Shortcut from my phone.

[Got a question for the column? You can email glenn@sixcolors.com or use /glenn in our subscriber-only Discord community.]

Descubra como o HomePod AI vai transformar sua casa com inteligência, privacidade e automação avançada.

O post HomePod AI: a revolução da Apple na inteligência para casa inteligente apareceu primeiro em Blog do Edivaldo - Informações e Notícias sobre Linux.

Protect your home against dust, pets, allergens, and more with the best air purifiers, tested firsthand.

Protect your home against dust, pets, allergens, and more with the best air purifiers, tested firsthand.

There’s now only one worth buying—but you can still access new features on older models you might already own.

A firmware update is behind recent reports that some Hue Bridge Pro smart hubs are no longer working, Ars Technica has confirmed.

In late June, there were reports of some Hue Bridge Pro devices not working properly after installing a firmware update. Philips released firmware version 2071353020 in early June, saying that it included “several small changes” to make Hue Bridge Pros work “better.” But some customers had a different experience: Their devices stopped responding and displayed a red LED.

A Reddit user going by the name statelymachine is one of the people online who reported that the update “bricked” their device.

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