In just a few short years, we've seen an incredible proliferation of devices that want to quantify, connect, and regulate your home. While the potential is huge, the actual results vary widely. Some products, like the Amazon Echo and Philips Hue light bulbs, are nailing the fundamentals, while others struggle with basic functionality. We tested 75 smart home products over hundreds of hours. In the end, we found eight stellar examples of how to do smart home right.

The company is touting the HomePod as a high-fidelity speaker programmed to learn people's tastes so it can become a digital disc jockey that can automatically play tunes that its listeners will like. The HomePod also will include Apple's voice-activated assistant Siri to respond to requests like the Echo and Google Home.

Plenty of companies offer chat support to troubleshoot problems with your phone. But do you really want to talk to another human for what could be a simple fix? You don't have to... if you have a Pixel 2. Android Police has discovered that you can ask Google Assistant for help with battery issues. Ask why your battery isn't charging properly and the AI companion will not only run a diagnostics check, but look for particularly power-hungry apps. It offers to connect you to Google's chat or phone support if it can't answer your questions in one shot, although problems in the AP test suggest this component isn't ready for prime time.

Apple said Friday that it's pushing back its plans for a Siri-powered smart speaker until sometime early next year. The HomePod speaker was announced in June, with an initial launch date set for December. Apple said that its smart speaker will be able to control home appliances and take basic orders. In June, some analysts questioned whether a December launch was already too late for Apple to compete with Amazon and Google for the connected home market. But Apple promised that the speaker would have all of Siri's smarts and stand out from the pack by offering superior sound quality.

I hugged a bot and I liked it. As a tech columnist, I've tested all sorts of helpful robots: the kind that vacuum floors, deliver packages or even make martinis. But two arriving in homes now break new ground. They want to be our friends. "Hey, Geoffrey, it's you!" says Jibo, a robot with one giant blinking eye, when it recognizes my face.

Apple Inc. said Friday that it's pushing back its plans for a Siri-powered smart speaker until sometime early next year. The HomePod speaker was announced in June, with an initial launch date set for December. Apple said that its smart speaker will be able to control home appliances and take basic orders. In June, some analysts questioned whether a December launch would be too late for Apple to compete with Amazon.com But Apple promised that the speaker would have all of Siri's smarts and stand out from the pack by offering superior sound quality.

Artificial intelligence is quickly advancing. In 1964 the first major AI, ELIZA, was built, and it could only hold a conversation from a script. Now, AIs like Apple's Siri, Windows' Cortana and Amazon's Alexa can interpret human dialogue to an amazing degree, and fulfill commands. It is benign now, but AI is something with which society needs to be cautious. AI has the possibility of creating a human society so advanced we cannot even imagine it, but it also has the capability of upheaving our societal system and upheaving us with it.

A number of serious security flaws discovered to affect Bluetooth devices earlier this year are now plaguing artificial intelligence-based, voice-activated speakers including Google Home and Amazon Echo. Security firm Armis--the same group that first disclosed the Bluetooth vulnerabilities, dubbed Blueborne, in September--has issued new warning that as many as 15 million Amazon Echo devices and five million Google Home speakers are currently at risk. According to researchers, the Amazon Echo is susceptible to two primary vulnerabilities related to Blueborne. The first is a remote code execution vulnerability that would allow an attacker to run arbitrary code on the device that could force it to perform malicious actions without the device owner's knowledge. In a demonstration video posted on YouTube Armis researchers, they show the attack in action.

Apple has delayed its $349 'HomePod' home speaker until early next year. The gadget will battle Amazon's Echo and Google Home for the lucrative smart speaker market, using Apple music and Siri to do everything from play music to give news and traffic updates. The firm today said it needed'a little more time before it's ready.' The new $349 smart'HomePod' home speaker will go on sale later this year, and use Siri to aplay music and answer questions. Apple also unveiled iOS 11 and new iPads at the event. Apple said: "We can't wait for people to experience HomePod, Apple's breakthrough wireless speaker for the home, but we need a little more time before it's ready for our customers.

OK, Google, and hey, Alexa, you won't have Siri to worry about in the living room for the holidays. Apple on Friday delayed the pending release of its high-end HomePod connected speaker until 2018, saying it wasn't ready for shipment. When the company announced HomePod in June as a higher-fidelity answer to Amazon's Echo and Google Home -- and its Siri personal digital assistant on board -- December had been its scheduled release. In a statement, Apple said "We can't wait for people to experience HomePod...but we need a little more time before it's ready for our customers." It also put off the release of its AirPods wireless earbuds in 2016 by two months.