I built a local voice assistant that doesn't need the internet, and it actually understands me
…Scatter a few cheap ESP32 mic satellites around your home and claim absolute local sovereignty over your infrastructure.
Search
Top stories
The smartest thing I did for my over-automated house was rip out half the automations I was most proud of
Jasmine Mannan Jul 6, 2026, 3:30 PM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming…
Your new home's network is already broken — here are the 3 fixes that actually work
Jasmine Mannan Apr 27, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming…
Sony's digital purge just made NAS ownership a necessity, not a luxury
Jasmine Mannan Jul 15, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming…
Your Zigbee mesh is drowning in cheap repeaters, and here's how to save it
…Clean up your smart home infrastructure before it starts drowning. The first thing to do is audit your network topology visualization app. Open your Zigbee 2MQTT or ZHA dashboard and check the…
I connected my dumb appliances to Home Assistant, and it felt like upgrading my whole house
…By converting raw electrical energy monitoring into an active logical state, you can completely modernize your home infrastructure entirely offline. Related 4 reasons you should build your own Home Assistant smart display…
Your Wi-Fi antennas are pointing the wrong way
Jasmine Mannan May 26, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming…
I ditched my Ring doorbell for a $50 camera with local AI, and I'm saving $180 a year
…You can also get the advantage of a prosumer infrastructure with an option like Unifi Protect. This dedicated local console hardware can offer seamless mobile applications, zero subscription, AI detection, and localized…
Your home network probably has a hidden bottleneck, and Wi-Fi 7 won't fix it
…to manage this problem is to invest in the infrastructure. It's not the perfect solution for everyone, but rewiring your home with Cat6 cables and ensuring that you've invested in…
I replaced Uptime Kuma with this powerful tool, and it monitors my Proxmox, Docker, and TrueNAS systems like a pro
…Sign in to your XDA account As someone who fell down the home lab rabbit hole just to self-host FOSS, I have to admit that running containerized services is a lot…