This Sunday marks a major milestone in my life and career: 30 years at Adobe. When I started back in July 1996, I never could have imagined where this path would lead. From a kid growing up on the East Side of Detroit fascinated by tech and sci-fi, to running my own desktop publishing business, serving in the Army National Guard, and ultimately stepping onto global stages as an Adobe Evangelist—it has been the ride of a lifetime. Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of helping launch iconic tools like InDesign 1.0, traveling the world, and even being challenged into becoming a professional photographer during an early Lightroom demo. Above all, I’m grateful for the incredible community of creators, mentors, and friends who have been part of this story.
My hobby which has also become my part-time job is building out and managing my smart home. I’ve become obsessed with automations. Back when I started this journey in 2016 I was primarily focused on Apple HomeKit (now called Apple Home) and while Apple Home has served me well for most of those years, to be honest I kinda outgrew its limitations. But even before I moved over to Home Assistant, when buying a smart home device I had to make sure that it supported Apple Home/HomeKit. This limited my choices. I have moved 99% of my smart home over to the open source platform Home Assistant where the sky is the limit in terms of integrations and automation capabilities. While Home Assistant does have a steeper learning curve, once you get the hang of it, it’s a blast to use.
Home Assistant can run on just about any always on computer and for a while I ran it in a container on my Synology NAS. Then I decided to get the Home Assistant Green which is a dedicated device with Home Assistant pre-installed. This is the EASIEST way to get started.
Although Home Assistant allows you to integrate just about any smart device with either native integrations or ones built by the community, there are times where you’ll bring a device in via the new standard, Matter.
What is Matter (the short definition)?
Matter is an open-source, IP-based connectivity standard developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). It is designed to act as a universal “common language” for smart home hardware, allowing devices from different manufacturers to communicate locally over existing Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Thread networks. Its core promise is to eliminate proprietary hubs and ensure that any Matter-certified device works seamlessly across major smart home platforms like Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Homey, and Home Assistant.
The promise of Matter was that instead you going to buy a smart home peripheral like a light bulb, thermostat, smart lock, etc and having to worry if it’s compatible with your smart home ecosystem of choice, Alexa, Google, Apple Home, SmartThings, etc., if it was Matter compatible it would work!
This also meant that the makers of these devices would have less hoops to jump through to bring their products to market. Instead of having to get each company to certify their products, they would just need it to be Matter certified and then they’d be good to go!
A Brief History: From Hype to Hesitation
• The Genesis (2019): Matter began its life in December 2019 under the project name CHIP (Connected Home over IP). It was backed by an unprecedented alliance of tech rivals—Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung—alongside Zigbee Alliance members, aiming to solve the fragmented “walled garden” smart home crisis.
• The Launch & Delays (2022): After multiple delays, the Zigbee Alliance rebranded as the CSA, and Matter 1.0 officially launched in October 2022. The initial release was heavily criticized for being rushed, buggy, and limited to a tiny handful of basic device types (like smart plugs and light bulbs).
• The Iteration Years (2023–2025): The CSA moved to a bi-annual release schedule to patch holes. Matter 1.2 added robot vacuums and refrigerators; Matter 1.3/1.4 focused heavily on energy management (solar, EV chargers, heat pumps); and Matter 1.5 finally introduced security camera infrastructure.
• Where It Stands Today (2026): While the standard is technically mature on paper (flirting with version 1.6), the real-world consumer experience remains incredibly fragmented.
Ok, this sounds promising! Why does Matter still suck in 2026?
If my last post about Ring’s “Search Party” controversy didn’t make it clear, I have been walking away from Ring. I ditched my Ring cameras long ago and replaced the one floodlight that I had left with a Reolink. I was even willing to put up with them doubling the annual cost of my professional monitoring service from $99/year to $198/year as this newer price is more inline with everyone else out there.
My Ring Alarm System disconnected and boxed up!
However, I figured that I’d keep using the alarm since it didn’t really mean much in terms of their new privacy controversies. That just came to an end because the absolute final straw wasn’t just a creepy Super Bowl ad—it was a hardware “upgrade” that felt like a downgrade for power users. Ring’s new 3rd Gen sensors have officially ditched the local Z-Wave hub connection in favor of Amazon Sidewalk.
While Amazon pitches this as “effortless connectivity,” it really means your home’s security heartbeat is now dependent on a neighborhood-wide mesh network rather than the base station sitting twenty feet away. I’m not interested in my door, window and gate sensors “phoning home” every time I open a door, via my neighbor’s Echo speaker, so I finally pulled the trigger and moved everything over to Abode (btw that’s Abode not Adobe). It’s been a breath of fresh air to have a system that actually plays nice with HomeKit out of the box and has a great Home Assistant integration, keeps things local, and doesn’t treat my privacy like a community resource.
Apple recently released their lowest-priced MacBook ever—the MacBook Neo. At $699 with only 8GB of RAM, this machine is definitively not marketed to creative professionals. But I know many of you are wondering: can it actually handle Lightroom and Photoshop in a pinch? Could it serve as a reliable, ultra-portable travel backup?
Speed Tested!
To find out, I put it through a real-world gauntlet. I ran 12 side-by-side speed tests, pitting the fanless 8GB Neo directly against my 14″ M4 MacBook Pro.
We look at everything from AI Denoise and Generative Fill to building massive 1:1 preview catalogs. (Spoiler alert: one task took under 4 minutes on the Pro and nearly 45 minutes on the Neo!).
I also break down the hardware quirks you absolutely need to know about before buying, including a sneaky USB speed trap and the strict one-external-display limit.
Watch the full review and speed test below to see exactly where the 8GB memory wall hits, and how you can use the web versions of Adobe apps to bypass those limits.
Drop a comment and let me know—would you pick one of these up for travel, or is the 8GB wall an absolute dealbreaker for you?
Hey I know that we’re only in month three of 2026 and there are new products being introduced all the time. However, Aqara came out with a banger of a smart lock, the Aqara U400 that has now raised the bar.
It actually dethroned my previous favorite smart lock of all time, the Lockly Visage Zeno on one of my doors.
Why is the Aqara U400 so cool?
The Aqara 400 is the first available smart lock to support UWB (Ultra Wide-Band) here in the U.S. This technology enables you to unlock your door just by approaching it with your phone in your pocket or Apple Watch on your wrist. I’m not talking about waving your phone or watch in front of the lock (that’s Apple Home Key technology which this lock supports too), no I mean just having a compatible device on you.
I let this one slip by, but don’t worry I recorded a video that you can review the latest updates to the Lightroom Ecosystem. This includes Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Lightroom on mobile.
If you followed that original video, you might have noticed that newer accessories (like Govee Matter lights) pair successfully but then inevitably throw a dreaded “No Response” error in the Apple Home app a few minutes later.
After diving deep into the latest UniFi OS updates and the strict networking requirements of the Matter protocol, I’ve completely overhauled my UniFi configuration. We are ditching the tedious port-specific firewall rules and fixing the multicast settings that are silently breaking your smart home.
This is important: While I initially visualized this setup around a UDM-Pro, UniFi’s form factors have diversified. But whether you have a cylindrical Dream Machine or Dream Router, or a rack-mount Dream Machine Pro, Pro Max, or next-gen Gateway, they all run the exact same UniFi OS, and this guide is the definitive update for all of them.
Here is the bulletproof way to configure your modern UniFi gateway for Apple Home, Home Assistant, Homey Pro, and Matter.
1. Ditch the Port Rules for “Stateful” Firewall Rules
In my original video, I had you create a Network Object for specific ports (80, 443, and 5353 for mDNS) and build rules around them. Delete those rules.
I had one Ring camera left and this was the wakeup call I needed to dump it!
It’s been a while, but if there was ever a time to talk about ditching the blue ring, it’s right now. Honestly, the honeymoon phase with Ring didn’t just end—it hit a wall during this year’s Super Bowl. What was supposed to be a “heartwarming” ad about using AI-powered cameras to find a lost puppy (the “Search Party” feature) actually ended up creepier than intended.
For a lot of people, seeing a neighborhood-wide surveillance net tracking a golden retriever felt like a one-step jump away from tracking them. Toss in the leaked internal emails about “zeroing out” crime, the constant subscription price hikes, and that messy (and now-cancelled) partnership with the license-plate-trackers at Flock Safety, and it’s easy to see why so many of us are over it. If you’re tired of “surveillance-as-a-service” and want your privacy back, it’s time to look at some better ways to keep an eye on your front porch.
My first recommendation is to move to a camera system with local storage and no subscriptions!
Adobe has officially launched Photoshop on iPhone, bringing the power of Photoshop to your pocket! This all-new app is designed to make professional-grade image editing more accessible and intuitive for mobile users. Whether you’re a photographer, designer, or content creator, you can now edit, retouch, and composite with precision—all from your iPhone.
Key Features of Photoshop on iPhone
Familiar Photoshop Tools, Optimized for Touch
• Work with layers, selections, masking, and adjustments just like you would on the desktop.
• The interface is reimagined for a seamless mobile-first experience.
Hey everyone, especially those in the US. Happy Thanksgiving and, of course, Happy Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There are some really good deals this year, and I thought I would take a moment to share a few of my favorites. As usual, these are gear deals that I use and would recommend. Some links may be affiliate links that help the page but don’t cost you any extra. So, let’s get to the savings:
