Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How to Use Your iPhone With HomeKit-Enabled Devices
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
How is getting out a key to unlock a door quicker than getting out your phone? They're the exact same movement. It's definitely not quicker than using a watch.
(I can only even imagine that being slower if you have to launch a dedicated app. It needs to be integrated into the OS, of course. Apple Pay certainly makes it work.)
(lighting) For me its more about giving the appearance of being home when away. I do like automated lighting coming on at night. Its such a luxury
'I get to my front door and it opens automatically when it senses my phone is near (I can disable this remotely if I lose my phone)'.
You get to your front door pursued by a madman. You get inside and slam the door shut. But it's unlocked because you're close by. The madman enters after you...
After an exhausting day at work, you accidentally leave your phone near the front door. A burglar comes in and steals the phone, along with several of your possessions.
You're going away on holiday for two weeks. You leave the house. Better check the door's locked. Damn, you can't! Stupid phone keeps it unlocked until you walk away.
Your phone gets stolen or runs out of battery just before you get home. Darn it! I can't open my front door. Better get that locksmith.
The hot weather has warped the wood of your front door, and the lock won't turn. Better use a physical key. Bugger! I don't have one.
Someone hacks your phone and obtains the remote code to unlock your front door.
I prefer a metal key.
(lighting) For me its more about giving the appearance of being home when away. I do like automated lighting coming on at night. Its such a luxury
You can buy a £5 plug to do that.
I tried that **** and it is just that ****. Doesn't work. The light coming on turns the unit off cause it thinks its day again. go figure. haha worst design ever.
I think it will be substantial, but will be slow at best. Most of home automation has been around for decades and few actually invoke it. HomeKit makes it better, but it will be very slow. It also wont be cheap, a consideration for most.
Siri is another story. While it adds a new element to HA, Siri still works poorly at best. It tends to do better at a few words and way less well at actual sentences. Quality speech recognition has been 5 years away for the last 25 years...
I think he meant a timer plug.
How does that work with your light in the ceiling? In each room ? I've not seen those.
1) - Lol Ben, you often get pursued by madmen?!?
2) - The lock detects when it's on the inside, and doesn't open the door
3) - Why would you need to check, it locks as soon as you close the door, you tap it to open it, when you're near it
4/5) - The keyvo comes with, and also accepts a physical key, just in case, having said that, i've never used it
6) - Surely it's easier just to steal someones physical key
currently i trust my bank with all my money, so i trust my keyvo with my front door security.you really should try it, or research a bit better, this feels a little like a trolling post, rather than a constructive debate about whether app based door security is viable
Rob
It doesn't make sense to you because you're thinking about it in the context of the routine you're used to.
Sure, going up to a light switch is easy but how about turning on all your lights in a room in colours and brightness to suit a certain mood or situation? Do you go up to your ceiling light switch, turn that on then fiddle with the dimmer to get it to the perfect setting, then go to the floor lamp and turn that on, then go turn off the kitchen and dining room lights? ... or do you tell Siri: "Hey Siri, set my lights to the relax and unwind scene"?
I've had several smart devices for years now and I couldn't go back to the old fashioned way of doing things. I walk up to my door and it unlocks itself. At dusk, my lights start brightening themselves until it's dark outside and fully lit inside. When I want to watch TV, I hit one switch and the lights in my condo turn off while the floor lights glow gently. When I go to bed, my lights turn themselves off over a few minutes while my air conditioner turns on to cool my room to the perfect sleeping temperature.
Homekit is going to be huge and Apple knows it, Google knows it and plenty of smart device manufacturers know it. You'll figure it out soon enough too.
Just watch this video and tell me how this won't be a more growing trend.
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/70196624" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
Link to video not working but try going www.2gig.com and watch the video on the homepage
Last edited:
Why is that an issue? The light sensing plug you thought he was talking about wouldn't work with any of those either.
Just watch this video and tell me how this won't be a more growing trend.
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/70196624" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
Link to video not working but try going www.2gig.com and watch the video on the homepage
![10697190_10152409331942297_5809863435820738265_o.jpg]()
Thanks for the link.
I watched the video. I noticed that the iPhone used was still running iOS 6, suggesting that the video was made at least two years ago. I'm afraid it didn't convince me that these things will become popular. Showing lots of people with their heads buried in their phones when they're skiing or doing otherwise pleasant outside activities doesn't attract me to the Internet of Things.
Too much bloody tech.
Truthfully, what you get with most of these kits, including HomeKit is "Home Control". Home Control is a waste of time and money. You get nothing out of it. Taking out your phone and finding the app to control it takes longer than doing the original action.
Now if you want to get serious, I would consider Home Automation. This is what I have and while it takes a few hours of extra programming time to set everything up, its completely worth the time and money you get out of it.
Most of my home is now automated. There's only three buttons to press throughout the day to set the mode and the rest is taken care of.
The three modes are: Home, Away, and Good Night.
When at home, my ceiling fans are controlled by temperature. If it reaches a certain temperature in a room, the ceiling fan will turn on. By using motion detection and scenes, it knows which room I am in or if more than one person is in the house and in a different room it will turn on a fan in that room too.
Lighting is completely automated using motion and door sensors. If I walk into my home by opening the door, the hallway lights turn on and a minute later off. The lights will only turn on during sunset hours.
Good Night mode turns off certain motion activities. And if a door sensor is triggered, the lights in the house flash on and off for 30 seconds.
The difference between control and automation is the luxury of not whipping out your device to "control" something.
Easy one: i can disable it remotely. Try that with your key.
Then another one: you can hack away, break in some system, unluck your door if they're good,but:
They're leaving traces and evidence, wich at the least makes a vulnerability known that will secure it.
They won't bring a laptop, hacking software etc to go and be a hacker near your house. They'll throw in some window.
Do you copy your own keys?
Ofcourse don't mind me, you do what you want..
I don't want to have a bunch of keys on a ring. I don't want to give the babysitter a physical copy of my key. I don't want to get that key back if the babysitter is fired. I do want to walk up to my house, just open the door, get in and have my office lights on and my wife's office lights unchanged. It's like with the tesla: You walk up to it, get in, drive. No keys no start buttons. You'll know its the future when you get back into your old car: it just seems.. stupid.
You get to your door pursued by a madman. You get your keychain and find the right key. Darkness falls over you, the end.
Like the keys, i'm betting.
You click the button, it locks your door.
-scenario two: you forgot to check if you unplugged the iron. You tell siri to shut down the outlet i's attached to.
-Scenario three: you forget to lock your door, unplug the iron, turn off the stove and put down the heating. You get beack home and it's still there.
Dumb example. Your key can get stolen just as easy.
I don't think a physical key will magically make the lock turn.
You block the phone, and all is well.
That's perfectly fine. You don't have to answer to anyone.
The thing is that there is a point at which everything is too connected. What about when the power goes out or your phone runs out of battery power? There's just too much to go wrong with these connected devices. To me, and others, the risks far outweigh the rewards.
Silly me, I posted my conservative view of how I see the application of technology in the world on
Okay this is a bit embarrassing but I kinda dont get this chart. Im trying lol. I think I need more sleep maybe.Is it worth it to replace all those pieces of hardware? Some of them, maybe. Some of them, I'm not so sure.
![is_it_worth_the_time.png]()
(Link to the page this chart is from. The chart is handy, I keep it bookmarked.)
Someone explain please?
I know your name very well now. Because in every topic, you seem to be amongst the first to post and it's always very negative. I suspect there is absolutely nothing you like, at least as it's related to Apple as a company or an Apple related product.
Do you have any idea of how many times I climb the step to the my front door with my arms laden with packages and I have to put them down, dig into my pocket for the key, open the door, and then pick my packages up. Yea, I know there are locks that will detect my iPhone and automatically open the lock. I'd just like to be able to turn my watch to the door, have it open, turn on some lights, and perhaps do some other things. The opportunities are limitless, unless of course I have your attitude which says that nothing from Apple or technology is useful. Benjamin Frost is a name I'll likely not forget. And I do use it when discussing various internet forums with my friends.
well if it work in conjunction with apple tvs when ur gone then we have a problem.
i have set up many many many houses with apple tvs and local media servers and the apple tvs fail to connect 50% of the time. You need to restart them nearly daily for it to work. Heaps of fun when you want to control your house from somewhere else and the apple tv doesnt work again.
some people never have problem though so it seems to be a luck thing
i have set up many many many houses with apple tvs and local media servers and the apple tvs fail to connect 50% of the time. You need to restart them nearly daily for it to work. Heaps of fun when you want to control your house from somewhere else and the apple tv doesnt work again.
some people never have problem though so it seems to be a luck thing
To be fair light switches and garage door clickers are electrical. I think you should have a manual garage door you have to life up by hand - i'm not sure why you think its ok to jump to an electric garage door but not an electric lock.
And anyway, all the locks have a key slot anyway. Its a standard lock+ really. Which is a shame because keys are notoriously unsafe and you can generally buy a pack of 25 on eBay that fit every lock going and thats only if you don't bother learning lock picking.
As they say, locks only keep out honest people anyway, no matter what type it is.
It's more about convenience then security. A door lock only stops someone that wants a quick in and out. If someone wants in a lock isn't going to stop them. A bump key, credit card, or a good kick will get you a whole lot easier then hacking a phone or other device.
Everything has a back door. Even our alarm system has several 'default codes' in it. Anyone knowing those codes could walk right into my house, enter the codes, and I'd never know...
So, I will use a wireless lock on my door the day that they announce that traditionak key locks will never be made again. It's not that I have anything so secret, or great, I just don't like the idea of something going wrong, and the door not locking, or accepting someone elses 'key'.
I was staying in a hotel in Floriduh, and I always check the door on the way out, and this one hotel door wouldn't lock, at all... I was about to be late to go to a concert, but had to deal with hotel security and wait for the 'maintenance team' to stop by, find out the problem (it had been announced three times) and then trudge back for a battery, and the key to open the lockset. But think about it. How many times do people try the lock before they use their key for the first time to open the door.
And the videos of the thieves walking up to a car with a small black box, and click, opening the car and stealing your poop...
Controlling lights? No problem. Controlling access to my house? Nope...
So, I will use a wireless lock on my door the day that they announce that traditionak key locks will never be made again. It's not that I have anything so secret, or great, I just don't like the idea of something going wrong, and the door not locking, or accepting someone elses 'key'.
I was staying in a hotel in Floriduh, and I always check the door on the way out, and this one hotel door wouldn't lock, at all... I was about to be late to go to a concert, but had to deal with hotel security and wait for the 'maintenance team' to stop by, find out the problem (it had been announced three times) and then trudge back for a battery, and the key to open the lockset. But think about it. How many times do people try the lock before they use their key for the first time to open the door.
And the videos of the thieves walking up to a car with a small black box, and click, opening the car and stealing your poop...
Controlling lights? No problem. Controlling access to my house? Nope...