Samsung is showcasing an AI ecosystem at IFA 2026 that connects TVs, appliances, Galaxy devices and wearables across the smart home.

The post Samsung’s IFA 2026 Pitch: Bringing AI Across TVs, Appliances and Galaxy Devices appeared first on TechRepublic.

For some years now, the idea of a smart home has been more than just science fiction. We’ve watched lights, thermostats, speakers, security systems, and countless other devices become “smarter.” One issue with these connected homes, though, is that most of their controls are app-based, meaning you always need your phone handy just to turn something on or off. That’s why a dedicated smart home hub is such a welcome idea: a control center that doesn’t live inside your phone.

The Homey Portal, created by Dutch company Athom, is a physical smart home controller with a tactile surface that helps you manage all your connected devices. It lets anyone in your household do things like turn the lights on or off, see who’s at the door, check how much energy you’re using, find out what’s playing on your speaker, and trigger various other smart functions you’ve set up.

Designer: Athom

Having a physical smart home controller can be more convenient than relying on a phone-based one, and Homey proves it with this newly launched device. It features a 2.8-inch round touchscreen wrapped in a stainless-steel rotary ring. You can tap the screen to select and toggle your smart devices on or off, then twist the rotary dial to adjust things like brightness, volume, and temperature.

There’s a lot you can do with this little hub. If you have smart lights, you can turn them on and off and then twist the dial to dim or brighten them. It can also show the real-time temperature and humidity of your room, and you can twist the dial to adjust the temperature accordingly. If you’re playing something on your smart speaker, the screen displays the artist, track, and even the album art. From there, you can twist the dial to adjust the volume or swipe on the touchscreen to skip to the next song or go back to the previous one.

You can also set up Flow-based alerts, like a reminder to water your plants or a snapshot from your doorbell camera showing who just rang the bell. If you pair the Portal with a Homey Energy Dongle or another supported energy tracker, you can even check real-time household wattage, solar yield, and the cheapest hours to run your appliances.

The device itself is small enough to mount on a wall or simply place on your desk, side table, or countertop, whichever works best for you and the people you live with. It’s designed to work with the more than 70,000 devices from 2,000-plus brands that Homey already supports, as well as the broader Homey ecosystem, including Homey Pro, Homey Pro Mini, and Homey Cloud. The Homey Portal is available for pre-order now at an introductory price of $249, with the regular price set to rise to $299 once the first batch sells out. Orders are expected to start shipping before the end of the year, and every unit comes with both a desk stand and a wall mount included in the box, so you won’t need to buy any extra accessories to set it up wherever you like.

At its core, the Homey Portal is trying to solve a problem most of us didn’t even realize we’d accepted: that “smart” homes had quietly made simple tasks more complicated. Turning on a light shouldn’t require unlocking a phone, opening an app, and tapping through menus, and the Portal brings back the simplicity of just walking up to a dial and giving it a twist.

It also solves a more personal problem, since not everyone in a household wants to install an app or learn a new system just to turn off a lamp. Because each Portal can be placed in a specific room and used by anyone who walks by, it turns the smart home into something the whole family can actually share, not just the one person who set it all up. Whether it ends up on a kitchen wall, a bedroom nightstand, or a home office desk, it’s a small device aiming to make an increasingly complicated corner of our homes feel simple again.

The post Finally, a Smart Home You Can Control Without Your Phone first appeared on Yanko Design.

Samsung plans to ban Smart TV apps containing residential proxy software after researchers found apps could route traffic through users’ home connections.

The post Samsung Will Ban Smart TV Apps Containing Residential Proxy Software appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple is reportedly preparing a 7-inch AI home hub, new Apple TV, and updated HomePod mini as Siri becomes central to its smart home strategy.

The post Apple Readies AI Home Hub, New Apple TV, and HomePod Mini appeared first on TechRepublic.

Google’s Gemini-powered Home Speaker brings conversational AI, 360-degree sound, smart home controls, and Premium features to homes starting June 25.

The post Google Launches $99 Gemini-Powered Home Speaker appeared first on TechRepublic.

J’adresse aujourd’hui mes félicitations à Samsung qui vient de disrupter le concept du “payer pour se faire emmerder” car selon Android Authority , l’entreprise coréenne lance un programme pilote pour afficher des publicités sur ses frigos connectés Family Hub. Oui, ces machins qui coûtent entre 1800 et 3500 dollars pour des options inutiles. Car oui, visiblement, dépenser le prix d’une bagnole d’occasion pour ranger ses légumes dans le bac à bière, c’est pas assez rentable pour les gens de Samsung.

Bref, vous venez de claquer 3000 balles dans un frigo qui a plus d’options qu’une Tesla, vous vous rendez en slip dans la cuisine à 3h du mat’ pour boire un verre d’eau et là, BOUM BADABOUM, une grosse publicité pour des somnifères ou de la camomille sur l’écran de votre frigo. Parce que oui, Samsung sait que si vous êtes debout à cette heure-là, c’est que vous dormez mal…

Samsung justifie cette merveille technologique en expliquant que, je cite, ça “renforce la valeur” pour les clients. Renforcer la valeur. Genre tu paies 3000€ et on te rajoute des pubs gratos pour que tu en aies plus pour ton argent. C’est comme si Ferrari te disait “on va mettre des stickers Carrefour sur ta voiture pour améliorer ton expérience de conduite”.

Le plus drôle, c’est qu’en avril dernier, The Verge rapporte que Jeong Seung Moon, le responsable R&D des appareils numériques chez Samsung, avait affirmé qu’ils n’avaient “aucun plan” pour mettre des pubs. Et nous voilà 5 mois plus tard avec Ô surprise, les pubs aqui rrivent. C’est ce qu’on appelle du marketing agile. Ou du foutage de gueule, selon votre religion.

Les pubs s’affichent uniquement quand l’écran est inactif (pour le moment) par contre, si vous mettez le mode Art ou vos photos de famille, y’aura pas de pub. Bien sûr, vous pouvez les fermer, mais vous ne pouvez pas les désactiver complètement. Snif…

Bref, aujourd’hui j’ai une petite pensée pour tous les pimpims qui ont acheté ces frigos en pensant impressionner leurs invités. “Regardez très cher, mon réfrigérateur new génération dispose d’un écran tactile de bonne facture !” “Cool, ça sert à quoi ?” “Hé bien, voyez-vous, c’est pour afficher de la réclame pour du dentifrice pendant que je cherche le beurre salé”

Ouais c’est la classe internationale, j’avoue.

Perso, je suis pas contre la pub sur le réfrigérateur mais seulement si la bouffe qui se trouve dedans est offerte en échange par Samsung. Là je serais OK. Mais si j’ai payé le matos, je vois pas pourquoi je me taperais ça. Après peut-être que Samsung a remarqué que Microsoft faisait la même sur Windows et que personne ne se plaignait. Allez savoir…

Bref, cette innovation Samsung, personne n’en voulait mais vous l’aurez quand même… et attendez un peu qu’il verrouille la porte vous obligeant à mater 3 pubs avant de vous donner l’accès au reste du rosbeef… Tout est possible…

Voilà, alors pour le moment, c’est un programme pilote qui durera plusieurs mois et si ça marche, ils étendront le système à toute la gamme… Donc brûlez votre frigo les gens, vous êtes notre dernier rempart !

Bon, moi je retourne à mon vieux frigo qui fait du bruit mais qui a l’immense avantage de ne pas essayer de me lobotomiser pour des trucs inutiles. Il garde mes bières au frais et ferme sa gueule, c’est tout ce que je lui demande !

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