“The ‘smart home’ has not yet distinguished itself. Sure, you might dim your lights with an app; you might even talk to your large appliances. But despite years of promised ubiquity, the connected home has yet to cleave with mainstream reality,” Brian Barrett writes for Wired. “It’s too expensive, too futzy, too filled with interoperability landmines. You know who can fix that? Ikea. In fact, it’s already started to.”
“Ikea’s current smart home lineup is limited to a handful of lighting products. Nothing so special about that. But the way Ikea has so far approached its Trådfri LEDs illustrates exactly how the furniture behemoth can light a path toward a generation of products that finally fulfill the smart home’s potential. They’re cheap,” Barrett writes. “They’re easy. And most importantly, they’ll soon speak HomeKit, Alexa, and Google Assistant with equal fluency.”
“If the smart home in general has a chance of mass appeal, it needs as much interoperability as possible,” Barrett writes. “And that’s exactly what Ikea’s selling.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: HomeKit serves as a software framework. Alexa and Google Assistant are personal assistants (Siri knockoffs without privacy protections).
If it’s not HomeKit compatible, do not buy it. It’s very likely insecure and you don’t want that integrated into your home’s locks, HVAC systems, garage doors, lighting, appliances, etc.
For home automation, smart people go the secure HomeKit route.
SEE ALSO:
Here are all the devices that are compatible with Apple’s HomeKit – May 31, 2017
Wishlist for Apple’s Siri Speaker: Hi-Fi audio, multi-user control, HomeKit, and more – May 8, 2017
How to configure your 4th-gen Apple TV as a HomeKit hub – January 10, 2017
The best products for building a smart home with Apple’s HomeKit – November 10, 2016
DDoS attack: Apple’s HomeKit for a safer smarthome – October 24, 2016
Honeywell unveils Apple HomeKit-compatible Lyric T5 Wi-Fi thermostat – September 27, 2016
Google’s flaky Nest thermostat shakes users’ trust in the Internet of Things – January 19, 2016
Google’s Nest thermostat bug leaves users cold, angry – January 14, 2016
Honeywell announces ‘Lyric Round’ smart thermostat with Apple HomeKit integration – January 5, 2016
Apple HomeKit-compatible thermostat Ecobee closes in on Google’s Nest – September 28, 2015
Apple pulls Google’s Nest thermostat from stores with launch of HomeKit-compatible Ecobee 3 – July 23, 2015
First Apple-certified HomeKit-compliant devices launch – June 2, 2015
Google engineer trashes Tony Fadell’s precious Nest smoke alarm – February 19, 2015
With HomeKit and Honeywell’s Lyric, a Nest acquisition by Apple would have been foolish – June 18, 2014
Will Apple’s Internet of Things vision hurt a beautiful idea? With HomeKit, Apple promises easy home automation – June 6, 2014
Smart thermostat war heats up as Apple-partner Honeywell takes aim at Google’s Nest – June 13, 2014
Honeywell takes dead aim at Google’s Nest with new iPhone-compatible Lyric smart thermostat – June 10, 2014
Google to SEC: We could serve ads on thermostats, refrigerators, car dashboards, and more – May 21, 2014
Dead to me: Apple’s Schiller ‘unfollows’ Tony Fadell and Nest after Google acquisition – January 18, 2014
The IOT is a vector for crime and misuse if not fully secured. Too many of these home automation companies are selling unsuspecting customers a “bag of hurt”. Buyers need to put security at the top of their shopping lists when considering what automation to bring into the home and share on the internet.
This is great. Turning lights on and opening the door with a key is ‘too hard’.
It’s not too hard, but having the door open with your voice and not having to carry keys is very convenient. I have keyless entry on my car and Kevo on my front door. I just carry my car fob phone and wallet. Next is to get rid of car fob, then it’s just my phone and wallet.
There’s no real value added to simply flip a switch or lock a door. What is needed is a map of programmable lighting and appliance requirements depending on the day of week, time of day, guest and event lighting. It really means your whole house needs to be connected for this to become truly useful.
If I end up with a networked bathroom scale telling my networked kitchen refrigerator to shut me out, there’s going to be trouble.
Homekit is an Apple hobby and their implementation proves that. Apple will at some point abandon it, just like they do with many of their hobbies. No matter how good the tech is.
So my lights are not safe, well no one has hacked my light switch and turned it on and off yet. So I’m really not worried about hackers.
But when my wife gets home and the kitchen lights come on when she comes she opens the garage door is priceless and at a reasonable price .
Most companies are not supporting Homekit and will not. Limiting your selection of smart home devices.
Part of the problem of the ongoing catastrophic security of IoT (Internet of Trash) devices is that if they are connected to your home network (LAN), they can spread malware they easily contract into the rest of your computing devices.
As such, it is critical (not just recommended) to ISOLATE IoT devices from the rest of your network. This is done via special routers that separate devices off into their own network. And example is the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X.
Meanwhile, I have yet to hear of Apple HomeKit run IoT (Internet of Things) devices succumbing to malware. That doesn’t mean they’re going to stay that way. It simply indicates that Apple has, at least, provided security (versus the vast majority of IoT device coders).
… AN example is…
Well I guess that my whole house is ubiquiti products. Explain to me how my light switch is going to get mailware?
Malware.
Do a search on your Ubiquiti IoT items. Even Ubiquiti isn’t malware-proof. Example (aka doing your homework for you):
https://securityintelligence.com/news/ubiquiti-routers-attacked-by-worm/
And here’s a nightmare scenario concerning another brand of IoT light switch. Be sure to read it as this story is very common:
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2016/03/the-absolute-horror-of-wifi-light-switches/
I use the Iris by Lowes suite of products. Have close to 40 devices. It works fairly well.