I guess it depends? My two iPads never leave the house for example
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Apple Confirms iPad Will No Longer Be Supported as a Home Hub in iOS 16
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I guess it depends? My two iPads never leave the house for example
An iPad has to be turned ON and/or plugged in to currently operate as a hub. Turn it off and hub capabilty goes away, unless it is plugged in. So the iPad was always just a so-so (at best) option for a hub seeing its limitations. If Apple was not willing to make it work while OFF and unplugged, then it really wasn’t that great of an option. I think a plugged in device that is always in the home is best for a hub, but I’m sure many others will start yelling for another class action lawsuit, as usual. If you want to complain at Apple, complain about the lackluster list of accessories that work well with HomeKit and the ridiculously low number of features offered within HomeKit. Amazon is kicking their Apple core hole in the home automation market.
Or some other new kind of idiotic subscription based hub that will be released end of the year. 🤑
Apple‘s main business turned into milking existing customers with subscription services, instead of inventing groundbreaking stuff.
FWIW, a latest edition AppleTV 4K connected via Ethernet is the gold standard for Home Hub reliability.
All that plus the 32GB ATV 4K was just on sale for $129.
Anyone ever have luck running HomeKit off an iPad? i found it unreliable. Would much rather use a wired device. Maybe better if they could make a small cheap plug-in device to solely do that of course But that’s not the apple way
Not a big fan of them removing functionality like this ... but to be honest? When I first tried to set up HomeKit at my previous place, I really disliked the idea of trying to use an iPad as the home hub. It seems like a hub that's helping control devices around your house should be a non-portable/mobile device. What good is the iPad for home hub functionality if somebody is going to regularly grab the thing and take it with them someplace?
I suppose there are people out there who bought an iPad and installed it someplace on a wall like a kiosk. But that's odd and kind of a waste of the functionality one was designed for, if you're not a business.
Even if you say you only plan on using the iPad around the house, like for reading in bed or checking email while sitting on the couch, you run the risk of running down the battery on it and then, no more home hub until it recharges.
I’ve used my 4th Gen iPad mini as a HomeKit hub for the last 3 years without issue and I’d rather not buy a HomePod mini since I have no use for it.
Also why can’t an iMac or mini be a HomeKit hub? Those don’t leave the house and my mini is a PLEX server so it’s always on, what’s the reasoning behind not having those be HomeKit hubs?
Also why can’t an iMac or mini be a HomeKit hub? Those don’t leave the house and my mini is a PLEX server so it’s always on, what’s the reasoning behind not having those be HomeKit hubs?
Yeah, you can easily make an iMac or Mini an update caching server for your home network - why not a home hub? Good question. They stay plugged in 24/7.
Too bad having HomePods on the same network hijacks the hub status constantly. I don’t know if my appple tv has ever been my hub
It looks like the article just says that iPads are being removed as HomeKit hubs and that Apple has not said why. There doesn't seem to be much more information that isn't in the title. There is some speculation about Matter but nothing to indicate that that is relevant. It's not surprising if people are unhappy with what seem like an arbitrary decision that looks like it would force people into getting HomePods or Apple TVs.
keyword "potential". I've seen people cheering this change because they assume that every iPad user will be confused and annoyed that their iPad is not acting like a hub when they inevitably leave the house with it.
Assumption 1: all iPads are used outside the home.
Assumption 2: users could not understand that an iPad outside the home might not be able to connect to the home devices.
An odd choice? The hardware, especially the M1 versions, should obviously be more than capable.
Honestly, the Homehub feature was the only reason why I found myself considering buying an iPad recently. I had one once upon a time and never really found it useful for me? My phone and laptop were both better at what I’d use the iPad for… The iPhone was better as a mobile device, and the MacBook Pro was just better and had better software for what I wanted to do that the iPhone couldn’t…
Using the iPad as a Homehub was a major feature that had me considering buying an iPad for the first time since 2014?
I guess Apple just saved me some cash.
Honestly, the Homehub feature was the only reason why I found myself considering buying an iPad recently. I had one once upon a time and never really found it useful for me? My phone and laptop were both better at what I’d use the iPad for… The iPhone was better as a mobile device, and the MacBook Pro was just better and had better software for what I wanted to do that the iPhone couldn’t…
Using the iPad as a Homehub was a major feature that had me considering buying an iPad for the first time since 2014?
I guess Apple just saved me some cash.
I literally quoted the part of the article that said the possible reason but somehow you didn’t see this? I know it’s not as let’s get the torches because Apple is forcing us to buy stuff it’s just terrible kind exciting but it’s something
The answer is probably because its terrible as a Home hub, and this use case is extremely uncommon.
It is very unlikely that any person has a serious home automation setup and they are depending on an iPad that stays home for Home hub functionality.
I don't think this is a reasonable move.
If indeed Apple wants to stop allowing iPads to be home hub, the better method is to continue to allow existing models being sold on the market to be home hubs until no more iOS updates apply to those models. In addition, any new models of iPad will not support home hub.
I think that is a more reasonable solution because it will still allow existing iPads to be Home Hubs, especially since I bet many users who are using iPad as home hubs continue wanting to do so until their iPads no longer can be updated to a newer iOS. I'd be very upset if I used my iPad as a Home Hub and suddenly I'm required to buy an AppleTV to manage the Home Hub or consider not upgrading my iPad OS.
If indeed Apple wants to stop allowing iPads to be home hub, the better method is to continue to allow existing models being sold on the market to be home hubs until no more iOS updates apply to those models. In addition, any new models of iPad will not support home hub.
I think that is a more reasonable solution because it will still allow existing iPads to be Home Hubs, especially since I bet many users who are using iPad as home hubs continue wanting to do so until their iPads no longer can be updated to a newer iOS. I'd be very upset if I used my iPad as a Home Hub and suddenly I'm required to buy an AppleTV to manage the Home Hub or consider not upgrading my iPad OS.
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That's because some people have a brain and don't pretend that everything Apple does is for nefarious reasons.
Judging by some of the comments, I believe a few here don't even know what "home hub" means. 🤔
Obviously I have no data about such situations, but I can't imagine why an iPad is necessarily a bad device for home hub. I can imagine families where they share an iPad that is used only as an at-home device, primarily say because the iPad is used for watching YouTube clips and other movies.
Neither does Apple, which is why they are removing it. It was added in the early going when HomePod didn't exist, and fewer people had Apple TV. There isn't much reason for it to still exist. They also probably find that iPad doesn't work well as a Home hub (it doesn't), and would rather not encourage bad user experiences, nor maintain this particular code any longer.
Apple was able to imagine that too which is why they made it into a Home hub...back when Home Pod didn't exist and Apple TV marketshare was much lower. Doesn't mean it ever worked well as a Home hub.
This is kind of what I want anyway, so I wouldn't mind. Would be good motivation for finally getting rid of the Nest Hub and the final few Google-specific IoT items I have in my home