Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Senior Reviewer, Smart Home

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (aka Jen) writes about all things smart home, home automation, and connected tech for The Verge. A journalist for three decades, she has covered the smart home since 2013, writing for The New York Times: Wirecutter, Dwell, Wired, The Ambient, BBC Science Focus, and US News & World Report, among others. She joined The Verge in 2021, and now tests everything from robot vacuums, video doorbells, and smart locks to connected chicken coops and smart ovens. She’s an expert on the Matter smart home standard and is passionate about the connected kitchen and home energy management. She started her career on London’s Fleet Street with The Daily Telegraph newspaper before moving to Sun Valley, Idaho, where she worked in local news for ten years. She now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, two children, a dog, two cats, a rabbit, and several chickens.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy6:41 PM UTC

Apple’s smart display could finally arrive next month.

According to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, the long-rumored Apple home hub with a screen is now being positioned as an AI hub for the home, working in tandem with your personal AI hub, the iPhone. He writes:

“It will bring together all of your connected-device controls, video calls, intercom capabilities and media, while giving you access to Apple services and apps. It also will feature a new operating system built around Siri AI.”

I shared my ideas for what I want to see Apple do with a truly “intelligent home hub” in this piece, but in the meantime I’ll make do with Apple just shipping something here.

After the “intelligent personal hub,” Apple needs to build the intelligent home hub.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Sep 11

Jennifer Pattison TuohySep 18

ICYMI: Apple is charging up to $60 a month for Apple Intelligence features on HomeKit cameras.

You’ll have to pay at least $9.99 a month for Apple Home’s new AI-powered features, including video summaries, for just one camera. If you want access on up to five cameras, it’s $59.99 (included in the 12TB iCloud Plus plan). Is this a sign of more subscription fees on the horizon for Apple’s smart home?

Apple Intelligence can provide written summaries of activity captured by your HomeKit Secure Video-compatible cameras. But it will cost you.

Screenshot by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Jennifer Pattison TuohySep 17

If this week wasn’t dominated by headlines about how AI will kill us all, I’d be quite excited about this.

Google Home just announced MCP integration. Read about how this could help your smart home — assuming we’re not all living in a post-apocalyptic battery farm — in my explainer.

Google Home is unlocking the agentic smart home — which is great, right?

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Sep 16

Google will now let any AI agent run your smart home

Jennifer Pattison TuohySep 16

Jennifer Pattison TuohySep 15

SwitchBot adds a roller mop to its pint-sized robovac.

I saw the upcoming S30 Mini at IFA last week, and my bathroom floors are excited. SwitchBot’s line of mini robot vacuums is great for smaller spaces like apartments, home offices, or bedrooms, but none have full mopping capabilities — until now. The S30 Mini adds a roller mop to the 11-inch-wide vacuum, and it looks like a good solution for small bathrooms. There’s no price or release date yet.

<em>An upgrade to its excellent K series, SwitchBot’s S30 Mini comes with a compact self-cleaning/refilling/auto-empty dock, and the option of</em> <em>a battery-powered auto-refill, auto-drain dock you can plumb into your home’s water system.</em>

<em>The robot vacuum has a self-cleaning, extending roller mop with an automatic cover that deploys when it detects carpet, along with 15,000 Pa suction and AI collision avoidance.</em>

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An upgrade to its excellent K series, SwitchBot’s S30 Mini comes with a compact self-cleaning/refilling/auto-empty dock, and the option of a battery-powered auto-refill, auto-drain dock you can plumb into your home’s water system.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

This doorbell camera lets a human security guard watch your front door

Jennifer Pattison TuohySep 15

Jennifer Pattison TuohySep 14

Roborock finally brings a roller mop to its flagship robovac.

The company’s Saros 20 Flow goes on sale today for $1,499.99 (down from $1,699.99). At 3.53 inches tall, it’s one of the slimmest roller mop models, and with 36,000 Pa suction, camera-based obstacle recognition, and the ability to climb multi-layer thresholds, this robot should be able to get the job done. I got a first look at IFA last week and plan to test it soon.

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