Home Assistant Connect Aux-2 puts music gear at the center of home automation

Home Assistant’s Connect Aux-2 offers a simpler route to connecting household devices, with music equipment a particular focus, according to David Pierce’s November 14 edition of The Verge’s Installer newsletter.

Pierce describes the box as a way to add devices to a smart home and provide control over Bluetooth equipment and otherwise unconnected appliances. His recommendation centers on convenience: he presents it as an easier alternative to assembling a comparable setup yourself.

A convenience pitch with details still missing

The newsletter’s brief description does not specify compatible models, pricing or setup requirements. It also does not establish how broadly that appliance-control capability extends. Those omissions leave practical questions for anyone considering it for an existing collection of speakers or household equipment.

For hardware hobbyists, the interesting distinction is the amount of assembly involved. The Aux-2 is presented as a ready-made route to capabilities that Pierce says could also be built independently.

Programmable hardware also gets attention

Elsewhere in the same edition, Pierce highlights M5Stack developer kits while discussing a story he is working on about hardware hacking. He describes ESP32-based devices available with different interfaces, including an E Ink display or a round touchscreen.

Pierce says he plans to experiment with those devices using Claude Code and has been browsing the M5Stack subreddit for ideas. These are plans for exploration, rather than reported results from a completed project.

Together, the two recommendations illustrate different starting points for home technology projects: a box intended to simplify device integration, and programmable hardware that gives hobbyists something to build around. The newsletter does not provide comparative testing of either approach.