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New HomeKit devices, Matter improves, plus more smart home news

HomeKit Insider

Matter gets upgraded with bug fixes, more new smart home devices are announced, and we test the new Eve Flare on this week's Homekit Insider podcast.

It was an unusually busy week in the smart home space with several new products aiming to hit the market before WWDC announcements take over the news cycle. That also includes the release of an improved version of Matter, the platform that will allow users to mix and match devices between HomeKit and other smart home platforms.

The new Matter 1.1 has been released to manufacturers and fixes a number of known bugs, but contains no new user-facing features. It's still a good time to go into our current experience with Matter, look at how it is working — and what may be coming next.

Speaking of Matter, the Yale Assure SL smart lock now supports it. The lock can be purchased with a Matter-enabled module to allow universal smart home control.

Yeelight now supports Matter, too. Although its "pro" line has been updated first, and its consumer one is yet to follow.

Meanwhile, Meross has a new smart socket thermostat for European users, and Aqara has new switches and curtain controllers.

After the news, we discuss our impressions of Final Cut Pro for iPad, some personal projects, and why Max had a terrible launch.

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