Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event in Brooklyn earlier this week debuted seven new devices, from the Galaxy Z Fold7 to the Galaxy Watch8 series. But there weren't any surprises at the end, despite rumors that Samsung would unveil a trifold phone. Sensing disappointment, the company later confirmed that the phone is expected to land in 2025. "I expect we will be able to launch the trifold phone within this year," TM Roh, head of Samsung's mobile business, told The Korea Times. The trifold phone, rumored to be called the Galaxy G Fold, would have a normal screen on the front and two hinges that let you open it up as a tablet-sized screen.

An outdoor security camera that not only keeps watch over your backyard spaces, but also bathes them in Matter and Zigbee connectivity. That's the idea behind Aqara's Camera Hub G5 Pro, a weatherized 4MP security cam with a smart home hub that bridges Zigbee devices and acts a Thread border router for Matter products. Matter, of course, is the new hotness in smart home, promising to bridge the gaps between Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and the other big smart-home protocols. Thanks to Thread, Matter devices can create self-healing networks that can extend throughout the home, but reaching outside your house can still be a tricky task. A big selling point of the Camera Hub G5 Pro is that it can add a Matter hub (including Matter controller and Thread border router functionality) outside, perfect for boosting connectivity for outdoor Matter devices that might otherwise be straining the limits of your home Matter network.

There are a lot of fantastic smart home devices on the market now, but it's not always easy getting them to talk to one another and work in unison. That's where Matter comes in: It's a standardized set of rules for getting smart home kit gadgets to speak the same language. Every smart home device comes with its own apps--but what happens when you want to turn off your lights and heating with one voice command? Or want to use smart plugs from two different manufacturers? Matter aims to standardize all that.

Google is expanding its smart home integration at CES 2024. The company said Tuesday that, in the future, LG TVs and some Google TV (and other Android TV) products will work as Google Home hubs. Considering Google's support for the Matter smart home standard, the move could make it easier for customers to set up and control their smart homes without buying a Nest device. "In the future, LG TVs and select Google TV and other Android TV OS devices will act as hubs for Google Home," Google Android VP Sameer Samat wrote in today's announcement blog post. "So if you have a Nest Hub, Nest Mini or compatible TV, it's easy to add Matter devices to your home network and locally control them with the Google Home app."

Matter is finally taking off. The new smart standard has long promised to make it easier for smart home manufacturers to build devices that work across smart home ecosystems, while simultaneously making it easier for customers (like you) to find devices that work with their other devices, and are easy to set up. With Matter, compatible smart home devices will work with Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, and yes, Alexa. Amazon recently switched on Matter support for millions of Echo devices, as well as the ability for many of those Echo devices to work as Thread border routers--basically meaning that they'll integrate with a modern smart home's mesh network. With all this commotion around Matter and Alexa, you might be wondering how to connect Matter devices to your own Alexa-based smart home.

With the launch of new Nest devices, Google has updated its Home app with a raft of new features. The main takeaways are faster and easier pairing of smart devices with Matter, new customization and personalization options, improve interoperability between devices and a better Nest camera experience. The updated Home app takes advantage of Google's Matter smart home standard (launching later this year), particularly the Fast Pair feature. On an Android phone, it'll automatically detect a Matter device and let you set it up quickly, avoiding the current process that's often slow and clunky. Google is also updating its Nest speakers, displays and routers to control Matter devices.

Google announced a giant slew of updates to its various software products at its I/O developer conference this week, and in addition to Android, Wear, Assistant and a ton of other news, it's not forgetting about the smart home. At the show, the company shared a few updates around its Nest and Android products that focus on a commitment to the recently renamed Matter ecosystem. As a recap, Matter was formerly known as Project CHIP, or Connected Home over IP. It's a collaboration between industry giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung and more to standardize the historically fragmented smart home ecosystem. Matter will support a variety of protocols and assistants, including Siri, Alexa, the Google Assistant as well as Bluetooth, Ethernet, WiFi and Thread.