News
Nanoleaf Sense+ Control Lighting Handles Automation By Itself
The smart light switches connect to a Thread Border Router known as the Nala Learning Bridge, which features an onboard assistant.
Smart devices such as light bulbs and switches have been around for a long time. These products allow you to turn lights on and off remotely, adjust colors and brightness, plus set up automatic schedules.
There is, however, a slight catch.
Until now, the scheduling part of the equation is something you’ve mostly had to handle yourself, and depending on the app in question, the experience can often be frustrating and time-consuming.
Nanoleaf aims to fix those scheduling issues with its newly announced Sense+ Control family of products. The smart device lineup consists of the Sense+ Smart Light Switch, Sense+ Wireless Light Switch, and Nala Learning Bridge. All three products are Matter and Thread enabled and feature built-in motion and ambient light detection. The Nala Learning Bridge functions as a Thread Border Router and acts as the smart home network’s hub while featuring its own ambient lighting.

As well as a router, Nala is also the name of the Nanoleaf Automations Learning Assistant. The inbuilt technology uses complex machine learning algorithms to predict a user’s routines and adjust lighting accordingly. The company claims that, “Over time, users will be able to have a truly intelligent and hands-free experience with the smart lighting in their home.”
Nanoleaf 4D

Also announced at this year’s CES 2023 was the Nanoleaf 4D, a system that synchronizes Nanoleaf lights with your TV. The system will ship with the Nanoleaf Screen Mirror Camera and a light strip featuring 50 customizable LED zones.
Using Nonoleaf’s Sync+ technology, the Nanoleaf 4D can mimic your screen’s colors and lighting patterns across all of the other Nanoleaf lights in the room, and supports pre-made scenes, including sunrises.
Nanoleaf Skylight

Nanoleaf already offers modular wall panels in its lineup, but soon, the company will add a set of square RGBW LED panels that can be arranged in different patterns on ceilings.
Named Skylight, this new product includes Nanoleaf’s screen mirroring technology, a music visualizer, and supports group scenes. Like the Nala Learning Bridge, Skylight can also be used as a Thread Board Router.
Finally, the company will also update its Essentials line to make them Matter compatible and release software updates to ensure everything works harmoniously. The Sense+ Control line, Nanoleaf 4D, and Skylight should all arrive in stores by the second half of 2023, with pricing yet to be announced.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
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