“During Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference held in early June, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, introduced ‘HomeKit’ that’s behind a new Home Automation App coming to iOS 8 later this fall,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“The new app will be able to start controlling smart devices, such as garage door openers, lights, and security cameras,” Purcher reports. “According to Federighi, all you’ll have to do is speak into you iPhone and say the words ‘Get ready for bed”‘ and it’ll trigger Siri to go into action by dimming your home’s lights, lower the thermostat, lock your doors and make sure your garage door is closed – automatically and instantly.”
“Obviously the news of Apple’s HomeKit caught Microsoft off-guard once again. Microsoft’s developer conference, which was held back in April called ‘Build 2014,’ didn’t mention anything whatsoever about home automation,” Purcher reports. “Then after Apple’s announcement, Microsoft quickly launched a new startup accelerator in Redmond on June 18 focused on home automation and the Internet of Things, in partnership with American Family Insurance. Realizing their initiative wasn’t going to attract enough attention quick enough to compete with Apple’s HomeKit, Microsoft has now raced to join the Linux based AllSeen Alliance.”
Much more in the full article here.