This week on Smart Home Insider, Ann Olivo from the Thread Group joins to talk about the future of the wireless standard and how it's improving smart home networks.

Joining as this week's guest host is Ann Olivo. Olivo serves as the Corporate Campaigns Manager for Silicon Labs, as well as the VP of Marketing for the Thread Group.

The topic comes just a week after Unify, a public-facing conference put on by the Connectivity Standards Alliance. Thread, as many other groups and companies, had new announcements to share.

We get into those updates, as well as more about the future of Thread, in the latter half of the episode. As always, we start with the news.

Developers received the second beta of iOS 27 and the other corresponding updates in the last week. There weren't a ton of feature additions beyond getting more AI improvements to Apple Home and the ability to update Apple TV from the Home app.

There were also code references to Siri AI found in the tvOS 27 build. These hint at the rumored upcoming models with Apple Intelligence support.

In other news, Signify announced that later in 2026, select Hue bulbs will support both Matter-over-Thread and Zigbee simultaneously. This will allow bulbs to be connected directly to Matter networks, while also still benefiting from the features of the Hue Bridge.

Signify also announced a new light, though it lacks any smart controls. The new Philips Skylight is a ceiling-mounted light that replicates the light from the sun.

Google finally started shipping its new Gemini-powered smart speaker this past week. The $99 HomePod mini competitor has a similar round shape but taps into Google's AI features for a more capable speaker.

Lastly in the news, we get into Apple's new price increases. For smart home users, HomePod, HomePod mini, and Apple TV 4K all saw significant price increases due to AI demand.

As we wrap the episode, Ann Olivo talks about the latest with Thread. The Thread Group announced a new liaison with the Broadband forum to facilitate Thread in more devices and the beta release of a dedicated Thread network app.

Olivo also teases possible work on long-range Thread implementations to better compete with Z-Wave Long Range and an upcoming Thread Direct feature for easier control without a Thread Border Router.

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