6 Months Later

As reported by The Verge, iRobot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is set to be acquired by its Chinese contract manufacturer, which also manufactures some other popular robotic vacuum cleaners. The last time we reviewed a Roomba on the channel was almost six years ago. Since that time, iRobot has been overtaken by others like Roborock, which offered more cutting-edge features like LiDAR navigation, and even robotic arms, like the one on the Saros Z70, which we have a review coming out next week and is on an incredible sale right now:

If you buy something from a link, 6 Months Later may earn a commission. See our ethics policy.

ⓘ

Roborock Saros Z70 Robotic Vacuum with Arm

$2,599.00 23%

$1,999.99

View on Amazon

More Stores

Affiliate Links. Product data updated: 2025-12-30 US price.

ⓘ

Roborock Saros 10R Robotic Vacuu,

$1,599.99

View on Amazon

More Stores

Affiliate Links. Product data updated: 2025-12-30 US price.

According to Digital Trends, this will only work for authors who opt into allowing readers to download their books in EPUB and PDF formats. It’s unclear just how many authors will do this, and this still isn’t quite the solution we called for in our review of the latest Kindle Paperwhite, but it is certainly a small step in the right direction.

As we discussed in our M4 Mac Mini review, Apple will likely refresh the Studio Display in 2026. According to MacWorld, new specs include ProMotion, HDR and more.

Wrist flick and pinch gestures, similar to those on the Apple Watch, plus better AI-powered smart replies (also coming to the Pixel Watch 3), are coming to the Pixel Watch 4 via an update.

Technology Connections continues their quest to steer the Christmas light industry away from god-awful blue-looking LEDs. Thankfully, you can find colored LED holiday lights that offer a superior traditional warm glow. We’ll let them explain how they did it:

Google recently announced new features, including forcing app icons to match your themes, new notification summaries (that don’t suck), and more. Here’s a video they released going over four new significant changes:

What?! This is insanely cool. As reported by The Verge, Google Pixel 10 users cannot send and receive files with Apple devices over AirDrop. Yes, you read that right. How long will this last? Who knows! But this is a pretty awesome move by Google to help make Apple’s walled garden feel a little less tall. Here’s the full blog post from Google about how they did it.

Each of these new sticks can plug directly into your Home Assistant Controller, like the excellent Home Assistant Green we reviewed. These new sticks are up to four times more powerful than the previous generation and built with the latest standards in mind. Click the product links to see their current price. And you can learn more about Home Assistant and these new devices here.

If you buy something from a link, 6 Months Later may earn a commission. See our ethics policy.

ⓘ

Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2 (Z-Wave)

$79.00

View on Amazon

More Stores

Affiliate Links. Product data updated: 2025-12-31 US price.

ⓘ

Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 (Zigbee and Thread)

$65.00

View on Amazon

More Stores

Affiliate Links. Product data updated: 2025-12-31 US price.

An absolutely killer headline from The Verge,  Google is just the latest company that seems to be running into issues combining LLM models with more rules-based systems, like the ones that powered smart assistants previously and were reliable when you asked them to turn on the lights. Whether or not any of these new assistants can do this reliably remains to be seen. We’ll continue to monitor the rollout of these new assistants that incorporate LLMs into the smart home space and have several videos planned around the smart home for early 2026, including one around smart appliances!

Similar to how you can integrate devices from Home Assistant into Apple Home, as we discussed in our Home Assistant Green video, Homey’s new Bridge app enables you to transfer devices from one platform to another, using Homey as the intermediary. It works with Google Home, Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, and Home Assistant. Read the full announcement here. Homey has been making quite a few updates to their app and functionality of the Homey Pro, but if you want a general breakdown of the device, check out our review of the Homey Pro (2023):