Apple “reported that it sold more than $1 billion Apple TVs in 2013 and has around 20 million units out in the world,” Aaron Tilley reports for Forbes. “And Apple TV seems to be becoming more important to the company’s play in the connected home.”
“As I first reported last month, Apple quietly brought HomeKit functionality to the Apple TV in the recent iOS 8 update. HomeKit is Apple’s wireless protocol for how connected home devices talk securely to the iOS,” Tilley reports. “But now, Apple is starting to add new features like remote access control to the Apple TV, based on iOS 8.1 beta 2 developer notes and iOS developer testing. The new remote access feature was first reported several days ago by AppleInsider.”
“This beta release allows the developer to push instructions outside of the home to, say, turn off a light in the HomeKit simulator provided to iOS developers. It works by sending the instruction from an iPhone to Apple’s iCloud that then gets sent down to the Apple TV. The instruction on the Apple TV gets dumped onto the home network and the HomeKit simulator picks it up,” Tilley reports. “We should expect to start seeing HomeKit-certified devices start trickling out in the upcoming year”
Read more in the full article here.
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Apple TV gets HomeKit support, now armed and ready to be the hub for the smart home – September 22, 2014