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Amazon Has Reportedly Gained Edge Over Apple in Deals With Smart Home Builders
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Yup, don’t know what there is to be concerned about. All the best products are compatible with multiple platforms.
This in unacceptable. Another horrific failure of Tim Cook. He needs to be fired.
I doubt that, Apple had a head start here. This statement is similar to "when Nokia starts making more modern smartphones Apple will be in big trouble". Not going to happen. Period.
Those guys are very lucky. They got a backlink for free from macrumors (worth $100's) while their site is being promoted. They prob got new subscribers. If you asked me, they benefited a lot from this mr article.
While Apple owns it in Privacy and (usually quality and stability)... they are behind still. Their smart-home stiff still needs more attention and the Homepod needs to be given a full OS overhaul with Siri enhancements, (capable of smarter better things.)
Kallum's.
Kallum's.
Having an app, which is connected over the internet, unlock your doors for you? Yeah... what could possibly go wrong with THAT?
I think sometimes, maybe tech isn't always the right answer.
I think sometimes, maybe tech isn't always the right answer.
I forget HomeKit even exist to be honest. I have 4 dots and 1 show, hue lights, ring doorbell, Logitech harmony, smart outlets, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something else. It all works great with Alexa.
Siri just tells me it doesn’t know what I mean by “turn on the movie”
Not when they are controlled by a company that wants to collect massive amounts of data on you. What happens when they get hacked or worse, lose interest in the division in a few years and sell to the highest bidder. Then you could end up with who knows what with devices listening to and controlling your house. Even a simple change in management or ownership can change how the company uses and leverages your data. Apple collects some data but strips away personal info before transmission so they can’t know who it came from. And more and more Siri processing is done on the device.
What "massive amount of data"? I mean, specifically? You have no idea how much of what kinds of data Amazon, Apple, or Google are 'collecting' any more than you know what the bank, Macrumors (for example), or the local swimming pool, or your library are up to. Every time you stream a song, Apple Music is 'listening in' so they can 'recommend' something to fit your tastes (according to their AI and your behaviour). Every time you make a phone call someone can listen in if they want to. Or can they? Are you using a grocery store rewards card? What do you think the clothes shop is doing with all of those cameras up there? Making a movie?
Welcome to the 21st century farm boy. You're being watched.
Whether or not you care about Amazon knowing how many times you switch on your lights is up to you.
Now that I think about it, this is likely expected. Apple usually releases products into mature markets that are not meeting their potential and doing it better. With both Siri and Home Kit they entered much earlier to prime the pump, but going slow enough to allow competitors to go make the big mistakes, then they can provide solutions which is what they excel at. Siri will see a massive but quite shift in about 2 years.
There doesn't need to be HomeKit support if Apple would pull their head of their a$$ and support ZigBee and Z-Wave. Could have added a module to the HomePod. Would have costed less than a $ per unit. Let's make this 5$ to include software support.
Apple wants others to support their HomeKit instead of just picking up on the existing standard. I mean, how can a company develope a smart speaker and NOT support 3rd party music services like Spotify AND charging twice as much as the competitors. Apple not supporting non-Apple stuff... There's your problem. The HP is already a disaster for Apple. Let's just hope it gets AAPL Management back to reality.
On another topic, any equipment using WiFi rather than ZigBee, Z-Wave or Bluetooth should be boycotted anyway as they are using a propreitary API and are exposed on the network. Both means, security and/or support is potentially limited and expiring. Not a smart choice when it comes to home automation.
Apple wants others to support their HomeKit instead of just picking up on the existing standard. I mean, how can a company develope a smart speaker and NOT support 3rd party music services like Spotify AND charging twice as much as the competitors. Apple not supporting non-Apple stuff... There's your problem. The HP is already a disaster for Apple. Let's just hope it gets AAPL Management back to reality.
On another topic, any equipment using WiFi rather than ZigBee, Z-Wave or Bluetooth should be boycotted anyway as they are using a propreitary API and are exposed on the network. Both means, security and/or support is potentially limited and expiring. Not a smart choice when it comes to home automation.
Shame is Apples ignorance. That could have prevented the status quo in first place.
Not sure what you thought I was saying, but all of my stuff is Apple HomeKit compatible and is setup as such.
I have to disagree, the potential for disasters far outnumber the positives by a wide margin. It's just not worth it, and it doesn't matter who's behind it - Amazon or Apple.
It seems to me that the REAL solution is something I don't think anyone has really tried to do yet; use the open-source "HomeBridge" package to construct a reliable, "plug in and go" solution to allow other manufacturer's devices to communicate with HomeKit. Then, you could have your new house built with all Alexa compatible products but add the HomeBridge and voila -- HomeKit compatible too.
You can already install HomeBridge on Raspberry Pi devices, which seem like a perfect platform for it.
The problem I ran into with HomeBridge was getting the thing all set up. I run a FreeNAS here already on an older HP Proliant server. It acts as my Time Machine backup destination for my Macs, a secure FTP server so a few friends and I can easily exchange files, and runs a Plex media server plug-in. It would make perfect sense to me to add HomeBridge to it as well, except I struggled to get it to work in one of the FreeNAS "jails" (virtual machines it creates). FreeNAS is in the middle of a big changeover in the mechanism they use for those "jails" right now - which causes a lot of wiki documentation out there on various installations to fail. That's where I think I'm stuck currently, but ran out of free time to experiment further.
This seems like a great opportunity for somebody to compile up a working HomeBridge (complete with modules supporting as many devices as possible) and put it on a Raspberry Pi in a nice looking case, to sell as a complete product?
You can already install HomeBridge on Raspberry Pi devices, which seem like a perfect platform for it.
The problem I ran into with HomeBridge was getting the thing all set up. I run a FreeNAS here already on an older HP Proliant server. It acts as my Time Machine backup destination for my Macs, a secure FTP server so a few friends and I can easily exchange files, and runs a Plex media server plug-in. It would make perfect sense to me to add HomeBridge to it as well, except I struggled to get it to work in one of the FreeNAS "jails" (virtual machines it creates). FreeNAS is in the middle of a big changeover in the mechanism they use for those "jails" right now - which causes a lot of wiki documentation out there on various installations to fail. That's where I think I'm stuck currently, but ran out of free time to experiment further.
This seems like a great opportunity for somebody to compile up a working HomeBridge (complete with modules supporting as many devices as possible) and put it on a Raspberry Pi in a nice looking case, to sell as a complete product?
I wonder if WEMO will implement the software solution to their devices since they came out with a WEMO bridge I doubt it, so in the end who will take advantage of the software version? Maybe future devices, but IDK how much it can be pushed to take them to the leader position or even a qualifying position when they are just starting the 1 lap while amazon is already done 100 laps. IF apple doesn't come out with a $30-50 home assistant voice activated communicator they will never be in the race for smart homes.
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In the real world people are not gonna build a homebridge (I have a pi), they will go w the most compatible and cheaper assistant. You want people to use Siri for HA then you bring out a $30-50 voice activated home assistant like the dot to market; add free music even w ads and other stuff from the competition.
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This comment is correct if it was made in 2012. Apple is way too far from even Google as far as AI assistants/home integration. Why do you think is more reliable? Sure, it was more 'secure' before the software since it required the chip, but not more reliable IMHO.
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WEMO has a homekit bridge that does similar to this for $39.99 for their older wemo products, but I don't think people are buying it. I'm not buying it and have various wemo devices because w that money I could buy something else that works with more stuff.
In the real world people are not gonna build a homebridge (I have a pi), they will go w the most compatible and cheaper assistant. You want people to use Siri for HA then you bring out a $30-50 voice activated home assistant like the dot to market; add free music even w ads and other stuff from the competition.
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I'd actually argue that HomeKit itself has a lot of issues too ... It's not just Siri that's lacking. Perhaps the API itself works fine to communicate with a device. But the "Home" UI that's user-facing is really kind of terrible.
For starters, I feel like it should give you a way to work with a map of the area you're setting up automation in. Even if that's just optional, at least let people draw or upload a blueprint layout of their home or office and mark where the automated devices are on it.
But additionally, I've seen a lot of "rough edges" with its status updates and syncing. For example? I added my wife's iCloud account to my HomeKit setup so she could become an authorized user of the whole thing. When I did that, she could see everything I set up in "Home" on her phone or iPad, but it took at least a DAY before all of the icons actually started working for her and properly reporting status of lights.
I've also repeatedly had issues where devices seem to randomly drop off of HomeKit. One minute, something like my EcoBee thermostat is reporting the current room temperature, and another minute, "Home" says it can't communicate with that device. Try back 10 minutes later and maybe it's fine again. Who knows? Meanwhile, I can use the actual Ecobee app itself and it shows everything's functioning just fine the whole time.
(Well, technically, I imagine you could set up a VPN tunnel back to your house from your phone, so you'd effectively be on your local network again via the tunnel. And THEN the WeMo app could see the devices. But that's kind of impractical.)
And correct me if I'm wrong? But as far as I know, the bridge is necessary for "off LAN" control of their current WeMo switch or WeMo plug products too. The fact it supports their older, no longer in production plugs and switches is kind of a "bonus".
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WEMO has a homekit bridge that does similar to this for $39.99 for their older wemo products, but I don't think people are buying it. I'm not buying it and have various wemo devices because w that money I could buy something else that works with more stuff.
In the real world people are not gonna build a homebridge (I have a pi), they will go w the most compatible and cheaper assistant. You want people to use Siri for HA then you bring out a $30-50 voice activated home assistant like the dot to market; add free music even w ads and other stuff from the competition.
For starters, I feel like it should give you a way to work with a map of the area you're setting up automation in. Even if that's just optional, at least let people draw or upload a blueprint layout of their home or office and mark where the automated devices are on it.
But additionally, I've seen a lot of "rough edges" with its status updates and syncing. For example? I added my wife's iCloud account to my HomeKit setup so she could become an authorized user of the whole thing. When I did that, she could see everything I set up in "Home" on her phone or iPad, but it took at least a DAY before all of the icons actually started working for her and properly reporting status of lights.
I've also repeatedly had issues where devices seem to randomly drop off of HomeKit. One minute, something like my EcoBee thermostat is reporting the current room temperature, and another minute, "Home" says it can't communicate with that device. Try back 10 minutes later and maybe it's fine again. Who knows? Meanwhile, I can use the actual Ecobee app itself and it shows everything's functioning just fine the whole time.
[doublepost=1523978345][/doublepost]I bought the WeMo bridge myself, actually. (I started out with a mindset that as an Apple user, I wanted to automate my house with HomeKit compatible products. WeMo was one such product that had pretty good pricing on their switches and plugs, especially with recent sales on them everywhere from Best Buy to GroupOn.) After I installed a few of their products, I realized their native app worked ok to set up some basic rules for when lights should turn on or off -- but I had no control of anything when I left the house and my local wi-fi network, unless I invested in the bridge.
(Well, technically, I imagine you could set up a VPN tunnel back to your house from your phone, so you'd effectively be on your local network again via the tunnel. And THEN the WeMo app could see the devices. But that's kind of impractical.)
And correct me if I'm wrong? But as far as I know, the bridge is necessary for "off LAN" control of their current WeMo switch or WeMo plug products too. The fact it supports their older, no longer in production plugs and switches is kind of a "bonus".
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WEMO has a homekit bridge that does similar to this for $39.99 for their older wemo products, but I don't think people are buying it. I'm not buying it and have various wemo devices because w that money I could buy something else that works with more stuff.
In the real world people are not gonna build a homebridge (I have a pi), they will go w the most compatible and cheaper assistant. You want people to use Siri for HA then you bring out a $30-50 voice activated home assistant like the dot to market; add free music even w ads and other stuff from the competition.
I bought some Google Home Minis for home automation and I gotta say, they suck. It can take anywhere from 8 to 20 seconds after I say "ok google" just to toggle a light switch. Siri on my devices does everything near-instantly. At this point I'm not really interested in the HomePod so maybe I'll look at Amazon Echo next as I'm not entirely sure I'll be buying any more Apple devices due to their value propositions as of late.
Apple started selling music on iTunes to sell more iPods. Amazon started selling Alexa (as well as their other hardware) to sell more of everything else.
That’s fine. The rest of the world will move on without you, just as it always has.
Does Alexa even have a Home app equivalent? I didn’t think it did.
I feel like my Alexa functionality is getting dumber somehow, with a lot more misses on commands lately. That said, it is still leaps and bounds better than Siri/Homekit. Even something that you think would be so simple as not responding to Apple commercials when someone says "hey Siri" hasn't been implemented. Amazon figure that one out long ago. Anytime someone says "hey Siri" on my TV my HomePod would go nuts. I had to move it out of the room.
