The invention of Matter was a grand kumbaya moment for the smart home. Built on the foundations of almost every concept smart home companies had dreamed up — from Apple’s HomeKit to Google’s Thread — the idea was to create a new technology on top of existing ones. One common standard to make it easier for manufacturers to build smart home devices and easier for people to use them, no matter which smart home platform they use.
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Z-Wave is remaking itself to find a new place in your smart home
But one protocol was left out of the party: Z-Wave, which is widely used in home security systems and embraced by the smart home enthusiast community. It was the latest example of Z-Wave getting left behind as the consumer smart home world explodes in popularity — and the latest reason to question whether the once-thriving standard still has a future.
Conceived in the late 1990s, Z-Wave is one of the original solutions for connecting IoT devices. It’s a local, RF-based wireless communications technology that relies on a central hub or gateway to talk to the cloud and other protocols. But that reliance on a hub is part of why it’s fallen out of fashion. You rarely see Z-Wave in mass-market smart home devices because other standards can connect straight to the internet. It was also a closed protocol, limited to one chip manufacturer, which could have driven up prices.
But in the five years since Matter launched, Z-Wave has been quietly reinventing itself. The once closed protocol is now open source. There’s a new version — Z-Wave Long Range (ZWLR) — that addresses a common limitation of the smart home by extending the range of devices like locks, lights, and sensors. Perhaps more importantly, the Z-Wave Alliance is now working on the structure and framework needed to bridge Z-Wave devices into Matter.
Today, Z-Wave is at a critical turning point. Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and Google are all-in on Matter, and Z-Wave isn’t present in any of those companies’ flagship products. If the standard is going to survive, its creators need to show it has a purpose that other protocols simply can’t match.
What is Z-Wave, and why should I care about long range?
Even if you’ve never heard of Z-Wave, it might be in your home. A mesh-based protocol focused on interoperability, reliability, privacy, and security, Z-Wave radios are found in most home security systems, including Amazon’s Ring, and smart home hubs from companies like Home Assistant, Aeotec, Hubitat, and Homey.
Z-Wave was embraced early on by the home security industry, including ADT, Vivint, Alarm.com, and others, which saw its security, baked-in interoperability, and backward compatibility as a way to allow customers to integrate smart home devices with their company’s proprietary security systems. It’s also the only UL-listed smart home protocol, a requirement for devices integrated into a security system.
”Everybody puts a Z-Wave chip in their security panel.”
“Every residential security system in the US, except one, uses Z-Wave,” says Avi Rosenthal, chair of the Z-Wave Alliance board of directors. “From your big Honeywells, ADTs, and Rings, all the way down to your little Alulas, everybody puts a Z-Wave chip in their security panel. The only exception is SimpliSafe.” Rosenthal says that by some estimates, Z-Wave is in 40 million homes in the US; there are also over 100 million Z-Wave devices in the wild worldwide.
Despite its sizable footprint, Z-Wave remains a niche protocol. Its reliance on a hub makes it less accessible to casual users accustomed to plug-and-play Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices. And as a mesh network, multiple devices or repeaters are needed to ensure a stable connection, which can be an issue if you just want to install one door lock or light switch.
Z-Wave Long Range addresses some of these limitations. Introduced in 2020, and now beginning to appear in products, ZWLR extends range up to 1.5 miles line of sight — four times standard Z-Wave — and replaces mesh with the ability for all devices to connect directly to the hub, not to each other.
This should reduce failures caused by weak mesh networks or limited range. And, as all Z-Wave devices have to be backwards compatible, ZWLR can exist alongside Z-Wave mesh devices on a hub, as long as it supports both.
For smart home manufacturer Zooz, ZWLR has been a game changer. “Now we have ultra-reliable connectivity with unparalleled range,” says Agnes Lorenz, a VP at Zooz. Its direct hub-to-device communication means no need for repeaters, making existing devices more reliable and expanding the possibilities around outdoor devices, like motion sensors, leak detectors in the attic, and garage automation. “Now we can more easily automate things that are hard to access,” she says
Adoption is starting to ramp up, with over one hundred ZWLR-certified devices now on the market. Zooz transitioned its entire lineup to ZWLR, Shelly is also using the protocol, and the Z-Wave Alliance is working on expanding it to Europe. Just last month, Kwikset introduced two new long-range smart locks.
“This is one of the most compelling Z-Wave updates,” says Joshua Hodgson, product marketing manager at Kwikset. “Over a mile range versus 300 feet for standard mesh means connectivity challenges are no longer an issue.”
But does Z-Wave Matter anymore?
Even as the tech improves, Z-Wave’s biggest problem is that relatively few direct-to-consumer companies are implementing it in their devices.
While manufacturers such as Kwikset, who have used the protocol for years, still see Z-Wave as vital despite Matter’s rise, the fact is that there are very few “fun” Z-Wave gadgets out there. Much of what does exist are simple, utilitarian devices like sensors, lights, switches, and locks. There hasn’t been a splashy new Z-Wave product in years, and if you are looking to start a smart home with Amazon, Apple, or Google hardware, Z-Wave is just not part of the equation. That doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.
However, there is a hope for Z-Wave’s future in a Matter world. While Z-Wave’s reliance on a hub has arguably been its biggest barrier to adoption, Matter’s initial promise of a hub-free world hasn’t materialized. Matter controllers are essentially hubs, as are Thread border routers — both are necessary to use Matter devices. The smart home has come back around to the idea that you need a small computer somewhere in your home to run your devices. If these hubs must exist, why not include Z-Wave?
“Ultimately, it’s all about consumer choice,” says Jeff Sandoval of Kwikset. With Matter sparking renewed interest in smart homes, the idea of a universal hub to unify devices is gaining traction (again). Many advanced smart home hubs — including Homey, Home Assistant, and Hubitat — support both Z-Wave and Matter, but they remain niche. To survive, Z-Wave needs to co-exist with Matter and find its way into mainstream consumer products like smart speakers.
One strategy is to bridge Z-Wave devices into Matter ecosystems like Apple Home, Home Assistant, and Amazon Alexa, similar to how Philips Hue, Ikea, and Aqara are bridging devices to Matter. While bridging has been part of the spec since Matter launched, Rosenthal says it’s not been possible to certify a Matter Z-Wave bridge.
“There are plenty of silicon solutions available today, but nothing has been ‘blessed’ by both alliances,” says Mariusz Malkowski of Trident IoT, the newest Z-Wave chipmaker, which also manufactures chips for Matter, Thread, and Zigbee. “We want to simplify the process for manufacturers to make a commercial product to support both Z-Wave, Zigbee, Thread, and Matter.”
While some Z-Wave-compatible hub manufacturers have found ways to connect Z-Wave and Matter devices in their ecosystems, there’s no official way to integrate them, meaning there’s no simple, straightforward way to use Z-Wave devices in mainstream Matter ecosystems.
“Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.”
The Connectivity Standards Alliance tells The Verge that it welcomes the Z-Wave Alliance’s efforts here. “We are happy to see efforts to make the adoption of Matter easier for manufacturers and consumers, including simpler ways to bridge devices to Matter,” says the CSA’s Daniel Moneta. Rosenthal says the Z-Wave Alliance is actively working on certification parameters and rules to define a standard Z-Wave to Matter bridge for its members.
Once this standard is released, adding Z-Wave devices to Matter ecosystems will become simpler. Manufacturers will just need to add a software stack to their hubs that, as long as it contains a Z-Wave radio, could bridge Z-Wave devices connected to the hub to any Matter platform, including Apple Home and Google Home.
The benefit is that if Z-Wave devices integrate with Matter, it will help bring Matter’s ambition of “one smart home standard to rule them all” closer to reality. That would both strengthen Matter’s position in the industry and give Z-Wave a compelling reason to stick around. “So that, to the consumer, everything magically works,” says Malkowski.
Z-Wave isn’t a threat to Matter. With the majority of the smart home industry behind it, Matter still has plenty of momentum despite some early stumbles. However, without support from Matter, Z-Wave could become obsolete. Maybe not anytime soon, but the possibility exists. Bringing Z-Wave into Matter would be better for everyone — manufacturers and smart home users alike.
In the meantime, Z-Wave is pushing forward with its reinvention, hoping to find its role in this brave new world. Its new long-range capabilities, shift to an open-sourced standard, and finally having more than one silicon vendor make this a much easier path. As Rosenthal puts it, “Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.”
Nothing’s next budget phone is the latest victim of RAMageddon. As 9to5Google reports, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis announced in a post on X that a follow-up to the CMF Phone 2 Pro won’t be coming this year:
We were working on a successor but with memory prices where they are right now, we can’t build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF. As a result, we’ve decided not to launch a new CMF phone this year.
Last week, Nothing CEO and co-founder Carl Pei also said the RAM shortage has impacted the cost of the company’s mid-range phone, stating, “For Phone 4A, memory costs doubled between when we decided to build the device and when it launched. They’ve doubled again since.” According to Pei, “memory is now the most expensive component in a smartphone.” Nothing is far from the only company facing RAM pricing challenges — earlier this week, Tim Cook announced Apple will be raising prices, saying “the situation has become unsustainable.”
While there won’t be a new CMF phone this year, Evangelidis added in his post that CMF still has “several new products launching as well as some entirely new categories.” He also hinted that “the smartphone launch season at Nothing isn’t over yet.”
China approves world’s first commercial brain chip
Apple unveils new child safety tools, enabling parents to manage kid accounts, media access, communication, apps, and browsing. Tech companies like Meta, Roblox, YouTube and TikTok enhance safety with age verification, content moderation and time limits. China approves the world’s first commercial brain chip, raising privacy concerns.
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A coin-sized brain chip in China could help people with paralysis control devices using their thoughts. China has approved a brain-computer interface called NEO for commercial medical use in certain patients with paralysis caused by spinal cord injuries. That moves brain-chip technology out of research trials and closer to real-world medical care.
Developed by researchers at Tsinghua University and Shanghai-based Neuracle Technology, NEO sits under the skull but rests on the brain’s protective outer layer rather than piercing deep into brain tissue. That design could make it less invasive than some competing implants.
For patients who have lost movement, this kind of technology could be life-changing. It could help restore a level of independence that once felt out of reach. But here’s where we need to slow down a bit. If a brain chip can turn your brain signals into digital commands, we need to ask who controls that data and how well it is protected.
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China’s NEO brain implant could help some paralysis patients control devices, like prosthetic hands, with their thoughts while raising concerns over brain data privacy. (Tsinghua University)
What is China’s NEO brain chip?
NEO is a brain-computer interface, often called a BCI. These systems read brain activity and translate it into commands for an external device. In this case, the implant uses sensors placed near the brain’s motor-control area. Those signals can help a patient operate equipment such as a robotic glove or computer interface.
What makes NEO especially notable is its placement. Brain-computer interfaces can be designed in different ways, and some go deeper into the brain than others. The company most people know in this space is Neuralink, the brain-chip startup co-founded by Elon Musk. Its implant uses tiny threads that enter the brain’s cortex. NEO takes a less invasive approach by placing electrodes on the dura mater, which is the protective membrane around the brain.
That design matters because every brain implant carries medical risk. Surgery can cause bleeding, swelling, infection or tissue damage. Even a small complication in the wrong part of the brain can affect speech or movement.
China’s approval does not mean brain chips are suddenly available for anyone who wants one. This remains a medical device for a narrow group of patients. Right now, the focus centers on helping people with severe paralysis regain some digital or assisted movement control.
Why China’s brain chip breakthrough matters
The medical upside here is hard to deny. More than three billion people worldwide live with neurological conditions, according to the World Health Organization. That includes people dealing with stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and other serious conditions.
For someone who has spent years unable to move freely or communicate easily, even a small amount of restored control could feel enormous. That is why brain-computer interfaces are getting so much attention. They could give some patients a new way to interact with the world around them.
Neuralink has already shown what that can look like in real life. Audrey Crews, a Neuralink trial participant who has been paralyzed for years, publicly shared that she wrote her name using the implant by controlling her computer.
ELON MUSK SHARES PLAN TO MASS-PRODUCE BRAIN IMPLANTS FOR PARALYSIS, NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE
How China’s brain chip compares with Neuralink
Elon Musk’s Neuralink has attracted most of the public attention in the U.S. brain-chip race. Musk has talked openly about restoring movement, helping people communicate and one day addressing vision loss.
Neuralink received approval to begin human trials, and more than 20 people have reportedly received its implant through testing. However, it has not received broad FDA approval for general commercial use.
China’s NEO approval puts a different kind of pressure on the field. It shows that China wants to move brain-computer interface technology into its health system and build a major industry around it.
This also fits a larger pattern. China has made BCI development part of its strategic technology push. The country wants breakthroughs by 2027 and a globally competitive brain-computer interface industry by 2030.
The coin-sized NEO brain chip rests on the brain’s protective outer layer, making it less invasive than implants that pierce brain tissue. (Tsinghua University)
Why brain chip privacy is such a big concern
We already worry about phones listening, apps tracking location and smart TVs collecting viewing habits. Brain-computer interfaces take that concern to another level.
A BCI collects signals from the nervous system. Today, that may mean decoding movement intent, such as whether a patient wants to move a cursor left or right. But as the technology improves, the data could become more sensitive.
That raises some big questions. Who owns the brain data? Can it be sold, shared or used to train AI systems? Could an insurer, employer or government ever demand access? What happens if a company changes its privacy policy after the implant becomes part of someone’s daily life?
Those questions sound dramatic until you remember how many connected devices began as conveniences and turned into data pipelines.
A brain chip designed for medical help should not become another ad platform, another surveillance tool or another database waiting to be breached.
YOUR HEALTH DATA IS BEING SOLD WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT
Could hackers target brain-computer interfaces?
This is where the whole brain-chip conversation gets very serious. Any device that connects to a computer raises security questions. A brain-computer interface raises even bigger ones because it deals with signals from your body and, in some cases, the devices that help you move or communicate.
The concern here is someone getting access to neural data, device settings or the commands moving between the implant and outside equipment. Think about that for a second. If a brain chip helps someone control a robotic hand, a wheelchair or a communication device, a security failure could affect far more than privacy. It could affect that person’s independence and safety. That to me is scary.
Companies building these devices need to treat cybersecurity like part of the surgery, not some software update they figure out later. Encryption, strict access controls, medical-grade testing and clear update policies should be baked in from day one.
And because a brain implant may stay inside a person’s body for years, long-term support has to be part of the deal. No one should end up with an outdated implant in their head because a company moved on to the next big product launch.
What China’s brain chip means to you
For now, this technology is geared toward patients with serious medical needs. So, no, most of us are not lining up for a brain chip anytime soon. But this should still get your attention.
We already give up a lot of personal data through our phones, watches, cars and smart home devices. A brain implant takes that to a whole different level because the data comes from inside the body. That is about as personal as it gets.
Before this technology moves beyond hospitals and medical trials, patients need plain answers before they agree to anything. They should know who can access the data, how long it gets stored, whether it can be shared and whether it can help train AI systems.
The medical potential here is incredible. Helping someone regain control or communicate again could change a life. But the privacy protections need to be just as strong as the technology itself.
NEURALINK BRAIN IMPLANT HELPS ARIZONA MAN REGAIN CONTROL OF HIS LIFE
Brain-computer interfaces, like Neuralink, pictured here, could restore independence for some patients, but experts say neural data needs strong privacy and cybersecurity protections. (Neuralink)
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Kurt’s key takeaways
China’s NEO brain chip could be a huge step forward for people living with paralysis. If this technology helps someone regain control or communicate again, that is powerful. But I also think we need to be very careful here. Once a device connects your brain signals to outside technology, the privacy stakes change fast. We are talking about data tied to your nervous system. That to me is the line we need to watch closely. Brain chips could do incredible good. But companies and governments need clear limits before this technology moves any further into everyday life. The promise is real. So are the risks. And when the data comes from inside your own head, “trust us” will never be enough.
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Would you ever consider a brain implant if it could restore movement or communication, or does the privacy risk feel too personal to accept? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
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Relativity Space, the rocket company led by former Google executive Eric Schmidt, was picked to launch NASA’s Aeolus payload to Mars in 2028, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. Under a new public-private partnership, Relativity Space will provide the “spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations” to fly Aeolus to Mars, where the payload will “provide the first integrated, daily, global view of Martian winds, temperatures, dust, and clouds.”
The Aeolus payload will have four instruments on board for studying the Martian atmosphere, which NASA says will “directly inform entry, descent, and landing systems and support safer, more predictable mission planning for astronauts.”
Schmidt, who served as CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, became Relativity Space’s CEO in 2025, a couple of years after it launched the “world’s first 3D-printed rocket,” Terran 1, which failed shortly after launch. Relativity Space’s larger Terran R rocket isn’t scheduled to have its first launch until later this year.
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