Trane and American Standard, the two residential heating and cooling brands of Trane Technologies, launched the HVAC Performance Monitoring Kit on 30 October 2026. It is a retrofit add-on for existing systems: the company says it fits virtually any 24 V non-communicating HVAC system, whatever the brand or age. That covers the common single-stage, t
NXP presented two new wireless microcontrollers on 27 October 2026: the MCX W70 for industrial and IoT products and the KW43 for cars. Both support Bluetooth Channel Sounding, the Bluetooth 6.0 feature that measures the distance between two devices. The MCX W70 is the one smart home makers will look at, because its radio also runs Zigbee, Thread fo
Banana Pi has released the BPI-RT2, a bare router board for home networks, wireless access points and small office routers. CNX Software reported it on 30 October 2026. It sells for $26 in the official Banana Pi store and $25.20 plus shipping on AliExpress. That puts it among the cheapest ways to get a Wi-Fi 6 board with Gigabit Ethernet for a home
Apple's HomePod mini 2 reaches stores today, 30 October 2026. Apple announced it on 13 October and opened preorders the same day in the US and more than 23 other countries and regions. It costs $149 in the US and comes in pink, green, blue, white and midnight. The speaker ships with HomePod software 27.2, which Apple released for existing models on
Renesas announced the RL78/G21 on 28 October 2026, a new 16-bit microcontroller aimed at the control boards inside air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and microwave ovens. It is not a wireless chip. It is the part that runs the motor, compressor and sensor logic, sitting next to whatever Wi-Fi or Thread module makes the appliance "sma
Anker's eufy brand has put the SoloCam E50 on sale in the US. The outdoor camera was first shown in late September, and MacSources reported its official launch on 29 October 2026. eufy's store sells it as the "S340 Next-Gen" for $229.99, and positions it as the outer perimeter layer of the company's Edge 5.0 security system: a camera meant to watch
Dutch startup Ona has launched a €165 kit that turns an ordinary split air conditioner into a price-aware heater. The idea, described by IO+ on 29 October 2026, is simple: run the air conditioner in the afternoon when electricity is cheap, let the concrete walls, floors and ceilings soak up the heat, and coast through the expensive evening hours on
BrainChip launched the AKD1500 Raspberry Pi 5 Development Kit on 29 October 2026. It puts the company's Akida AKD1500 chip on an M.2 card attached to a Raspberry Pi 5, so developers can try event-based, always-on AI on a board they probably already know. The kit is on sale now in BrainChip's online shop for $1,295, excluding tax.
NearMeter Technologies has put NINASENSE nRF on Crowd Supply as an upcoming campaign. It is a small open hardware board for battery-powered sensors, with Bluetooth LE for short range and LoRa for long range. Hackster.io wrote about it on 29 October 2026.
