Malcolm Owen for AppleInsider:
A future version of HomeKit could provide the ability to control items at a socket level depending on where the user is, with Apple investigating the possibility of making electrical outlets that can provide granular control of power to devices, as well as knowing the location of nearby smartphones, tablets, and other items.
HomeKit relies on all of the devices connecting to a central network, but while it does provide some level of geolocational awareness in its settings, it isn’t granular enough to function on a per-room basis. Being able to determine a finer position of the user within a building could enable more advanced features, such as turning on lights or fans in a room when the user enters it.
In a patent application published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday titled “Modular Wall Unit System,” Apple seemingly intends to do just that, by taking advantage of the outlets, fixtures, and fittings within a home or building.
MacDailyNews Take: There is an opportunity here to increase efficiency by only drawing power exactly when and where it’s needed that Apple is uniquely positioned to deliver!
If Apple either manufactures or recommends / offers such outlets and light switches then I’ll buy about 10 of them.
assuming they aren’t $100 each
New airport mesh network that plays into new AR system. Maybe new type of tv show through AppleTV+ that let’s you wander through your own home and participate in the story. I’m in!
What does it matter when Apple insists on f-cking up the Home App? I have a Logitech camera set up to watch a disabled relative, in iOS13 the “Live” indicator disappears unless I open up settings, scroll to the bottom of settings, wait for the other buttons to disappear from the screen and then quit settings! They also moved “Live” from the top corner of the screen to the bottom so it’s further out of your field of vision, absolutely moronic design. If Apple can’t keep themselves from wrecking a perfectly functional system, why would we expect them to maintain an even more complicated one?
I sympathize with your predicament; especially with caring for a disabled relative. Unfortunately, this is the way modern technology. Just when you have a system working, someone introduces something new to F it up. Look how many millions of computers continued super-old Windows OSs through the years because they had legacy applications that wouldn’t run with the changes MS made. I have no solutions, just want to commiserate. At 65 myself, I can tell you I no longer relish the march of tech like I once did. It can be exhausting.
I agree. In the Home app on my WATCH Series 3 it was displaying multiple indicators for my Ecobee 3 Smart Thermostat to tell me the temperature in the room where my remote sensor is plus the occupancy of it. Now it only says in one indicator for that room “2 Sensors”. Totally useless now where before it was quite useful.