“Apple is getting close to rolling out its smart home plans in a big way,” Aaron Tilley reports for Forbes. “The company [last week] pushed out a little noticed update to its set-top box, Apple TV, to make it support HomeKit, according to a person with knowledge of the program. HomeKit is Apple’s protocol for allowing connected home gadgets to connect safely and easily in iOS.”
“The update means that Apple TV could be the hub that unifies the fragmented smart home industry, allowing you to turn on your lights or unlock your door from an iPhone remotely using Apple TV as a bridge device,” Tilley reports. “Apple TV has both Bluetooth low energy and Wi-Fi wireless technologies, both of which Apple has made clear are the primary technologies that connected devices will communicate in the iOS environment. Apple TV is a device that is always on in your home, making it ideal as a hub to communicate with smart devices.”
Tilley reports, “Anyone with a third generation Apple TV and with the latest 7.0 software update will now likely have a HomeKit-enabled central hub, whether they know it or not.”
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