Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Today, to use more than 50 lights and accessories, you have to create a separate Hue account for a second bridge and switch between them in the app to control your lights. This is fiddly and annoying, so this fix is one Hue users have been waiting for.

One Reddit user found the Echo Hub at Best Buy last week, but the clerk sent him away hubless. Another recently saw a big marketing display at Lowe’s complete with an empty cage where an Echo Hub should be.

Amazon said the Hub would ship at the end of 2023. It’s February 2024 and we’re still waiting. But perhaps not for much longer ...

Previously, and with most other smart locks, this was only possible over WiFi, requiring a dedicated bridge or regularly replacing your lock’s batteries (Wi-Fi is very power-hungry).

Thread is designed to be more stable and more efficient than Wi-Fi for battery-powered devices. Nuki says Thread remote access works with Apple Home and Home Assistant at launch via a Thread-enabled Matter controller. The company plans to bring its retrofit locks to the US later this year.