Late last week, the makers of the Wink smart home hub sent its customers the tech product equivalent of a ransom note.

Citing "long term costs and recent economic events," Wink said it would begin requiring a $5 per month subscription on May 13. Those who didn't pay up would lose remote control over any lights, outlets, light switches, sensors, locks, and other appliances connected to their hubs. The Wink app, and all its associated automations, would stop working.

Although Wink pitched the subscription as a way to support "development and continued growth," the announcement read more like the last gurgle of a company that's long been circling the drain. Even if Wink retains enough subscribers to keep the lights on, it's hard to see how the company will attract new ones, especially when so many other smart home ecosystems have no ongoing fees.

This whole saga got me thinking about something broader than just Wink, though. It got me wondering whether smart home hubs, as a whole, have outlived their usefulness. For all but a handful of specific uses, I think they have.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. Back in 2016, I interviewed Nathan Smith, Wink's founder and then-CTO, and he argued that hubs were ready to go mainstream. People were getting interested in home automation, but too many smart home devices relied on wireless protocols that phones and tablets couldn't understand, such as ZigBee and Z-Wave. Wink's hub would provide the necessary radios to connect with those devices, then bring all their controls together under one app. Walmart was even going to promote the product line in its stores.

We now know what happened next: Amazon invaded the smart home market with Alexa, followed in short order by Google Home and Apple HomeKit. What home automation really needed to go mainstream wasn't a better hub, but an entirely new interaction model. As the smart home business rebuilt itself around voice control, Wink became just a supporting player. A tech company owned by recording artist will.i.am acquired Wink in 2017, and Smith took a job at Amazon, directing Alexa products. Wink has been languishing ever since.

Wink isn't the only smart home hub in existence. A lot of customers are now hopping over to SmartThings, which is owned by Samsung, supports most of the same devices, and has an active enthusiast community. (Some members even wrote an extensive migration guide.)

But again, is this even worth considering anymore? These days, controlling all your smart home through a single interface is easily accomplished via Alexa, Google Home, or HomeKit. Support for these platforms is table stakes among smart home devices (though HomeKit lags a bit behind the others), so they're better at unification than smart home hubs ever were.

Meanwhile, we're seeing more devices cut hubs out of the connectivity equation entirely, either by using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (as with GE's Google Assistant-compatible light bulbs) or through proprietary systems (as with Wyze's cheap Sense kit and the Ring Alarm, which is becoming its own hub of sorts). And of course, there are still bridges for controlling devices from a single vendor, such as Philips Hue. Those too can be tied into the platforms I mentioned above.

Smart home hubs still excel in a handful of cases:

• They're the most cost-effective way to handle a lot of smart lights. ZigBee bulbs from vendors like Sylvania and Sengled can all work with a single hub, and they're cheaper than bulbs for proprietary systems such as Hue.
• Hubs are are great for complex automation routines based on sensors, switches, or other hardware triggers. You'd still need a hub for ZigBee or Z-Wave sensors, which have longer range than Bluetooth sensors and better battery life than Wi-Fi ones.
• Some hubs, such as Hubitat or DIY Home Assistant setups, are designed to work offline, so they're faster and more reliable.

I might be missing a reason or two, in which case, enlighten me via email, but I also expect the ones above to diminish over time. Google's Nest Hub recently gained offline control for some smart home devices, and Google, Alexa, and HomeKit have all been getting more complex automation support. Meanwhile, TP-Link's Kasa Wi-Fi light switches are cheaper than any Z-Wave switch I've seen.

Six years ago, when Wink was still a spin-off from the now-defunct startup Quirky, a company executive proclaimed that the hub was just a stopgap, one that would only be necessary until our phones and other devices could control more smart home products directly. It's funny that Wink is now clinging to that hub as its last lifeline, while the rest of the smart home world has moved on.
 

Microsoft's new Surfaces: Last week, Microsoft released a big new batch of hardware under its Surface brand. There are new wireless headphones with better sound and longer battery life, some chunky earbuds that play for 8 hours on a charge, and some rather expensive desktop docking stations. But the bigger news, of course, is on the Windows PC side.

The Surface Book 3 is Microsoft's fanciest notebook yet, with a detachable 13- or 15-inch tablet screen, optional Nvidia graphics cards, and a starting price of $1600. The design hasn't changed from previous versions, but the processors are faster and the graphics cards are more powerful.

Meanwhile, the Surface Go 2 is Microsoft's answer to the iPad and its ever-expanding productivity chops. Compared to the original Surface Go, the new version has a larger 10.5-inch display, faster processors, dual microphones, and a sharper 5-megapixel front camera. It starts at $400, though the Type Cover keyboard costs an extra $100 and a Surface Pen stylus costs $80. Windows is still insufficient as a tablet operating system—the app ecosystem just isn't there—but the hardware is compelling, with the Surface Go 2 and Type Cover weighing less than two pounds together. I do like the idea of a compact, touch-friendly PC that doesn't cost a ton.

Side note: It's nice to see Microsoft basing battery life estimates on "typical device usage"—a mix of web browsing, Office use, and some idle time—rather than the looping video playback test most PC vendors use. Microsoft's promising 17.5 hours for the Surface Book 3 and 10 hours for the Surface Go 2, which may still be a stretch, but I suspect the results will be less wildly inflated than usual.

Office iPad optimizations: Speaking of Microsoft and iPads, The Verge reports that Office will play nice with the iPad's mouse and trackpad support by this fall. You can technically use Office for iPad with a mouse or trackpad today, but it basically just emulates your finger. Click-and-drag selection doesn't work and the cursor doesn't switch to an I-beam pointer over text.

We might take Microsoft's promises for granted now, but it was only seven years ago that the company was poo-pooing the iPad for its lack of keyboard and mouse support while prioritizing touch-friendly versions of Office for Windows. The direction of Microsoft as a company and the iPad as a product have changed so much since then.
 

A beloved email app returns: Until about a year ago, I was an enthusiastic user of an email app called Newton. Although I still use Gmail as my underlying email provider, Newton provided a much slicker experience. The Windows version in particular is faster and more responsive than any other email app I've used on the platform, and its minimalist compose window makes writing emails feel almost joyful. It also has some handy extra features, such as a bulk unsubscribe tool for junk mail and a "recap" that surfaces emails with action items.

Newton's ownership changed hands to the mobile phone startup Essential in early 2019—a last-ditch effort to keep the app alive after its developers were acquired by another company—and I gave it up a few months later for several reasons: Its privacy policy became creepier, its owner's CEO faced some disturbing sexual misconduct allegations, and development appeared to stop. When Essential announced its own shutdown in February, Newton was supposed to go down with it.

This week, however, Newton was spared yet again. The new acquirers are a pair of independent app developers with no motive other than a genuine love for Newton and desire to see it live on. They plan to squash bugs, fix the privacy policy, and eventually get back to adding new features, and they're promising to open-source the software if all else fails.

Newton costs $50 per year, which I think is reasonable for serious emailers, and the idea of supporting indie developers is immediately more appealing than paying Essential, which was already flush with venture capital. If the new owners establish a track record of regular updates and make good on their promises, I'll gladly help fund its snappier, cleaner email experience. For now, you can try Newton for 14 days with no credit card info required. Give it a shot, especially on Windows or Mac.
 

Capture your handwriting: Next time you want to digitize some handwriting or printed text, consider using the Google app for iOS or Android. The app's Lens feature lets you copy real-world writing to your phone's clipboard, and with a recent update, you can send the text straight to your computer's clipboard as well.

First, make sure you have the latest version of Chrome open on your computer, and that you're signed into the same Google account in both Chrome and the Google app. Now, open the Google app and tap the camera lens icon next to the microphone. When the camera screen pops up, tap the icon that looks like a few lines of text, point your camera at the handwriting or text you want to capture, then tap the text icon again.

Once you see the "Text found in image" pop-up, hit "Select all" directly underneath. You can then tap "Copy" to save the text to your phone's clipboard, or hit "Copy to computer" to transfer the text to your laptop or desktop, so you can paste it into any program.

Bing beautifies Android: A few weeks ago, I wrote about the new Bing Wallpaper app for Windows, which automatically updates your desktop background with nature photography. Now, it's available on Android as well, with some neat filters that even the desktop version lacks. In addition to getting daily images, you can sort by color, category, or country, and you can search the web (via Bing, of course) for additional images. Check it out.
 

• New Sonos gear: Subwoofer, standalone speaker, and fancy Dolby Atmos soundbar.
• Ring updates its $99 doorbell cam with continuous snapshots.
• Nest now requires two-factor authentication for its security cameras.
• Facebook's major redesign will soon become mandatory.
• It wasn't just you: A Facebook login issue took down several popular apps last week.
• Apple's reopening a small number of U.S. stores this week.

If you're in need of a new Windows laptop, the 14-inch Lenovo C740 Yoga is on sale for $700, which is $130 off the regular "instant savings" price on Lenovo's website. My PCWorld colleague Ben Patterson gave this laptop an editor's choice award, praising its bright display, long battery life, and three-pound aluminum frame, and it was a great value even at its regular price. The model with an i5-10210U processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage is the best deal, but you can also get an i7 processor for $80 more.

Some other notable deals:

• Newegg has Jabra's latest Elite 75t wireless earbuds in refurbished condition for $100, which is $80 less than buying them new.
• Amazon Prime subscribers can get a pair of USB-C to USB-A adapters for $3 from Woot.
• The Nest Cam Indoor wired security camera is down to just $127, which is $72 off the regular price.

Following last week's coverage, a shout-out is due to Fred H for pointing out an even faster way to unlock your iPhone with a mask on: After swiping up on the screen, just tap the words "Face ID" to bring up the passcode prompt—no waiting required. This will all become moot once iOS 13.5 arrives, as it will automatically bring up the prompt when it detects a mask, but in the meantime, thanks Fred!

It's been relatively quiet in the Advisorator Slack chat room, but I'm still holding it down if you'd like to come by and talk tech or ask me some questions. Use this link to join. Otherwise, just send me your questions, comments, and feedback over email.

Until next week,
Jared