CSA let them continue operating the blog with a few tradermark notices so it’s clear there is no affiliation with CSA.
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Awesome! Thanks for the update! That seems like a good decision all around. 
I do still like the product reviews at HomeKitnews as well, if you like deep dive hands on equipment reviews.
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WELOVE releases the first Matter-enabled air purifier - article from April
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From an engineering standpoint, that is a seriously bad article. Egregiously bad. It’s describing matter as though it were a transport layer, which it is not. And it gets a lot of things wrong. For one thing, the author appears to have no understanding that matter does not define the UI in any way. Also, they misunderstand the difference between a thread border router and a matter controller. You only need one thread border router, but you need one controller for each platform that you want to use.
So in this case, a non-engineer has oversimplified the situation to the point where it’s no longer true. Annoying. 
(I was asked for a specific example…)
This, for example, is completely not the right analogy.
Think of Matter as the USB connector for smart home devices.
Instead, let’s use the typical post office analogy. The transport protocols like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, thread, are the system of trucks responsible for delivering Messages based on their address. They have no idea what’s inside the packages and envelopes they are delivering and they don’t care. They just want to know where to deliver it and if it meets their specifications for size and weight and all that.
Matter is like a set of checklist forms that go inside the envelopes. They make it easier for the recipient to understand what the sender wants, because the request has been standardized. So they make sure that whichever Home Automation platform you are using, a request telling a lightbulb to dim to 50% always has the same information whether you are using Apple Home or SmartThings or Google home or whatever.
Matter should make it simpler for the end customer not because anything about the hardware or the systems delivering the messages has changed. But rather because the The format for the message content has been standardized. The stuff that goes inside the envelopes.
Matter has nothing to do with how many delivery trucks there are or how often they go or what kind of terrain they can cross.
Messages are still physically delivered the same way they always were. Nothing has changed in that. All that’s changed Is the format for the content of the message, again, what’s inside the envelopes.
I think pretty much everybody can understand that, whether they have strong technical skills or not. If you’re going to introduce a whole new analogy, it should at least be one that’s accurate about what’s going on.
IMHO, of course.
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This includes more robust air quality monitoring, power management, and water valves. There appear to be references to CO, CO2, formaldehyde, PM10, PM2.5, PM1, and radon monitoring in the code strings.
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There are other references as well, including to robotic vacuum cleaners. Those were part of the Matter 1.2 update.
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That said, we can’t conclusively say this will finally be support in iOS 17.6.
Interesting. They’re guessing based on what they see in the public code repositories. There’s a big jump from there to saying they will actually be supported in a specific release.
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I don’t own any Apple devices so don’t pay close attention but I don’t recall this being mentioned here yet,
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Yeah, we’ve discussed it briefly a couple of times along with the fact that one of the iPhone pro models also has a thread radio.
Industry supposition has been that Apple wants to eventually use these instead of Bluetooth for onboarding. Not that it’ll actually be a thread border router, but we will see.
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Woo hoo!
Moes is one of the companies That builds on the tuya platform, but they are often available at Amazon and they often add features and device classes that some of the other rebranders don’t. And they generally have better English language descriptions. All good.
And now… they have released their version of the Tuya “matter bridge” and it includes support for the Moes Versions of the Tuya Zigbee smart plug and Fingerbot. The smart plugs in particular can end up being nice proxies. But the fingerbot is also helpful for those who use them.
This is exactly what I hoped matter would be. An easy way to provide integration to platforms like Tuya, which has proprietary features that make the devices difficult to add directly to SmartThings. While still giving you a local integration that doesn’t require any custom code.
ZemiSmart likes to be first to market with new rebranded Tuya items, But personally, I find it often worth it to wait for the Moes versions.
(Did I mention the Moes matter bridge includes temperature/humidity sensors? And their Zigbee mmWave human presence sensor?)
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I actually ordered a Moe’s Matter bridge a few days ago on AliExpress on sale for about $23.50 US. It should show up late next week. For that price I have to get it and see how it works. I will post what I find out.
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I am 99% sure, that the Matter GW labeled Moes, Zemismart M1 or any other unknown ’brands’ are one and the same thing, have one and the same firmware inside and receive one and the same updates. They all bridge (or not!) the same sub-set of Tuya Zigbee devices.
Tuya Matter Gateways are all designed and supported by Tuya, the only difference is the plastic box and the Matter productName and nodeLabel identifiers. Tuya doesn’t bother updating the softvareVersionString Id - it stays always 2.0.0.
My advice is to simply choose the cheapest one.
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I’ll take the 1% bet.
Almost all Tuya rebrands have at least some minor firmware differences: it’s why they show up with different fingerprints.
And definitely Moes and zemismart offer a different set of devices at the current time for bridging.
This is common with Tuya. For example, for years, the Yagusmart versions of the multi gang switches had somewhat different firmware, which is why they were prone to runaway loop conditions when other rebrands of the same model were not.
If you want to shop only on price, you certainly can, but I do think there are some differences. 
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The funny part here is that neither Zemismart nor Moes knows which of ‘their’ Zigbee devices are exposed via the Tuya Matter Bridge and which are not. I have asked both companies, and both failed to give particular answers. I will not even mention the other ‘brands’ selling the Tuya Matter GW under their white labels, which support has no idea what a Matter GW is, other than ‘it works with Smart Life’ 
Anyway, these Tuya Matter bridges are something very good and and hopefully will become even better as the Matter protocol matures with time.
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I have a Moes Matter Hub linked to smartthings and it doesn’t show any of the devices that are currently in the Tuya app paired to the Hub:
- a fingerbot plus
- Dual clamp energy meter
- Moes IR remote
It is true that it shows version 2.0.0
To add it to smartthings I had to press the hub reset for 5 seconds and it paired perfectly, but all the devices in the Moes HUB were deleted.
I had to pair it again in the tuya App, which recovers Hub again with all the devices and automations marked to rebuid, similar to how they are marked in smartthings.
Then I paired the fingerbot in tuya app and it didn’t appear in smartthings either.
We’ll have to keep trying
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What brand is the fingerbot? The Moes product description specifically says that only Moes brand devices will work.
Hub only accepts to control MOES zigbee devices, not all zigbee devices can work with our hub. This matter gateway aims to allow users with MOES Zigbee smart devices to experience the Matter ecosystem.
It’s not Moes, but it is identical, including the packaging seen in their store and the images of the app
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