Three bizarre home devices and a couple good things at CES 2025

And yet, this week, in a CES-adjacent announcement, Google reminded me that Matter can really, uh, matter. All of Google Home’s hub devices—Nest screens and speakers, Chromecasts, Google TV devices running at least Android 14, and a few other gadgets—can interoperate with Matter devices locally, with no cloud required.

That means people with a Google Home setup can switch devices, adjust volumes, and otherwise control devices, faster, with Internet outages or latency no longer an issue. Local, no-cloud-required control of devices across brands is one of Matter’s key promises, and seeing it happen inside one major home brand is encouraging.

More we’ll-see-what-happens news is the unveiling of the public Home APIs, which promise to make it easier for third-party devices to be set up, integrated, and automated in a Google Home setup. Even if you’re skeptical of Google’s long-term support for APIs, the company is also working with the Matter group to improve the Matter certification process for all devices. Device makers should then have Matter to fall back onto, failing enthusiasm for Google Home APIs.

This cat tower is also an air purifier; it is also good

There are a lot of phones out there that need charging and a bunch of gamers who, for some reason, need even more controllers and screens to play on. But there is another, eternally underserved market getting some attention at CES: cats wanting to sit.

LG, which primarily concerned itself with stuffing generative AI interfaces into every other device at CES 2025, crafted something that feels like a real old-time trade show gimmick. There is no guarantee that your cat or cat will use the AeroCat Tower; some cats will sit inside the cardboard box it came in seemingly out of spite. But should they deign to luxuriate on it, the AeroCat will provide gentle heat beneath them, weigh them, and give you a record of their sleep habits. Also, it purifies the air in that room.

There is no pricing or availability information yet. But if you like your cats, you want to combine the function of a cat tower and air purifier, or you just want to consider something even just a little bit fun about the march of technology, look out for this one.