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Apple 'Excited' About HomeKit Partners Despite Slow Rollout

luckydcxx said:
i just want 1 company to have great products that control everything.
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I feel your sentiment, but really what *I* want is a good open standard that is both powerful and flexible and I want companies adhere to the standard.
I want many vendors all playing in the same market so I can have choices, competition of products, and ideas. but it means the open standard has to be not just great but fantastically amazingly great... and folks need to get together and agree on them.
 
iBlazed said:
It's sad that these hardware manufacturers and chip makers don't have their own high performance standards.

"Gee, if only Apple could lower their standards and allow us to release half baked products we would have them on the market much sooner!" :rolleyes:
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Thats really not how it goes. Its more like this:
Apple: We're doing things this way.
Them: we want to do it this other way...
Apple. Nope.

Those who work developing for mac and iOs know this song and dance all too well. Coupled with what is likely apple's typical reputation of a lack of concise documentation for developers and comprehensive support for them, im expecting homekit to go the same way as Apple's many other failed initiatives. If its not a core component of a key product, you can expect it to get ignored and slowly forgotten

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arkmannj said:
I feel your sentiment, but really what *I* want is a good open standard that is both powerful and flexible and I want companies adhere to the standard.
I want many vendors all playing in the same market so I can have choices, competition of products, and ideas. but it means the open standard has to be not just great but fantastically amazingly great... and folks need to get together and agree on them.
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Never gonna happen. Everybody is following the Apple model of complete control over everything, "the user experience" as it were, so we're starting to enter a wonderful new world where everybody has their own competing standards. There's an XKCD comic out there that sums it up perfectly...
 
No compelling use cases. Every time this connected home/Internet of Things stuff is explained it's my home knowing I'm coming from work and starting the kettle or putting my tv on. These aren't problems that need solving. Steve Jobs once said that when you're introducing a new thing it can't just be better; it has to be 10x better. Flicking a light switch or unlocking the door are so low friction that it makes it impossible for something to be 10x better. I don't need a thermostat to learn. I'll turn it up when I feel cold and down when I'm warm.
 
Seems if something is murky, then its not ready for prime time.

Perhaps Apple's doing things "in a different order" ? *shrugs*
 
arkmannj said:
I feel your sentiment, but really what *I* want is a good open standard that is both powerful and flexible and I want companies adhere to the standard.
I want many vendors all playing in the same market so I can have choices, competition of products, and ideas. but it means the open standard has to be not just great but fantastically amazingly great... and folks need to get together and agree on them.
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There is a standard in home automation industry it's called Z-Wave. And if you use Alarm.com interactive services you can control everything on one app.

10697190_10152409331942297_5809863435820738265_o.jpg
 
FuNGi said:
Can't tell if joking
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No, I don't want Bose, nest, Phillips, assure link, and August to all be separate apps to control my devices. I would like to pull down the notification center and be able to switch on and off what I want.
 
Half baked products like icloud and maps? Let's not pretend Apple isn't just as guilty.

iBlazed said:
It's sad that these hardware manufacturers and chip makers don't have their own high performance standards.

"Gee, if only Apple could lower their standards and allow us to release half baked products we would have them on the market much sooner!" :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
 
MisterK said:
No compelling use cases. Every time this connected home/Internet of Things stuff is explained it's my home knowing I'm coming from work and starting the kettle or putting my tv on. These aren't problems that need solving. Steve Jobs once said that when you're introducing a new thing it can't just be better; it has to be 10x better. Flicking a light switch or unlocking the door are so low friction that it makes it impossible for something to be 10x better. I don't need a thermostat to learn. I'll turn it up when I feel cold and down when I'm warm.
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This! Some of these things are cool and the nerd in me makes me want them just for that. But the practical side of me totally wins out because none of this stuff is required. You're exactly right...these products offer "solutions" to problems that don't exist. And until they become so cheap that we don't give it a second thought I don't think people will take them seriously.
 
FrizzleFryBen said:
Maybe I'm just not paying enough attention, but there seems to be an amazing amount of fragmentation before there is anything I'm at all impressed with.

Suppose that's what you get when you open something up to everyone to give it a go. The lame will die-off and the good will become great.
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From someone that did a smart home a few years (14 years ago... wow...), I see this as a "coming together" moment. There have been many technologies, such as X10, ZWave, Zigbee, Insteon, among others, and it is my hope that Apple will, at least, make it so there is one protocol for all of this.

As it stands now, it's like you're at a dance, and everyone is doing a different move, like Fred and Wilma over there, doing the Waltz, Joannie and Chachi doing the Charleston, and Shannon and Charlie slow dancing. Michael Jackson (1982 MJ, work with me on this... MJ is Apple) comes in and gets them all to dance to the Thriller soundtrack.

It's clean, it works, and everyone has fun.

(If that's not the worst analogy for this, please try to do a worse one...) ;)
 
This is indeed interesting, and I agree 100% with the remarks of a problem that does not exist.

Old heating timer systems and room thermostats just work.

You have a timer which turns the heating on and off perhaps 2 or 3 times a day. You have thermostats on each radiator so you can balance which rooms are warmer than others.

If you are cold you turn it up, is you don't need it, you turn it down or off.

There really just is no problem that needs fixing, what we have is perfectly fine for 99.9% of normal people.

Just like using an iPhone to turn your lights on and off, rather than use the light switch.

Yes, it's a cool trick, but in reality, people will just use the light switch.

This does very neatly lead us into the Apple Watch topic.

Is the Apple Watch another item, like this, that is simply something that is an answer to a problem that, for 90%+ of people does not exist.

Even mo-so in it's 1st gen current form, where it's just mainly an iPhone (you have to be carrying with you) accessory.

People have realised, they are carrying a phone, and have stopped (other than fashion) stopped bothering, with wearing a watch.

Do we need to move backwards and lumber people with a device from the past we have moved on from?

For sports use, yes sure, I 100% totally understand there is a niche market for sports fitness tracker type of devices, if you are running or half way up a mountain then you want to see data quick easy and fast, not get a large phone out of your pocket.

But average people in average situations during an average day.

Other than the initial "oh look at me, how great I look, I have the NEW Apple Watch" aspect.

Again, like the remote room heating, The Apple Watch is another one of those devices that's an answer to a problem that, for 90%+ of normal people simply does not exist.

And I mean ANY smart watch from any brand.

If (in the future) a Watch can be made that means you can go out without needing to carry your phone with you as the watch does it all (in a sensible manner) then sure. I can see some people going for that.
 
TonyC28 said:
This! Some of these things are cool and the nerd in me makes me want them just for that. But the practical side of me totally wins out because none of this stuff is required. You're exactly right...these products offer "solutions" to problems that don't exist. And until they become so cheap that we don't give it a second thought I don't think people will take them seriously.
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Here is one time that I liked my HA solution...

I was driving home (to Portland) from my father's funeral in San Diego, and two hours before I got home, turned the thermostat from 50 degrees to 72. When we got home, the house was warm. (It was January, and it was about 25 degrees outside.)

Was this worth $400 for the system versus walking in and adjusting the thermostat? Probably not. Could I have called my neighbor and asked them to turn up the thermostat? Probably (it was about 10pm, so that would have been on the cusp of rude.). Was it nice to just come back to a warm house, and not have to worry about it?

Definitely.

As I have posted before, there was a time when cars were seen as an unnecessary luxury, as we all lived within 10 miles of the town, and took the horse in, once a week to get supplies. So was a refrigerator, since we grew our own food.

Home Automation is one of those technologies that is always on the edge of cool, and I hope that Apple helps push it to the normal, rather than the "cool thing that the Jones have".
 
Does anyone know what phillips is doing with hue? Will it integrate with homekit or will I need to buy new.

(The correct answer is that it should integrate)
 
I love my nest, but since their nest product came out, their other partnerships are just OK. Nothing to save the kind of money or added function that Nest gave me. I am in the middle of a remodel, I may lay some extra wire for connectivity, but not planning on jumping on anything too soon.
 
MisterK said:
No compelling use cases. Every time this connected home/Internet of Things stuff is explained it's my home knowing I'm coming from work and starting the kettle or putting my tv on. These aren't problems that need solving. Steve Jobs once said that when you're introducing a new thing it can't just be better; it has to be 10x better. Flicking a light switch or unlocking the door are so low friction that it makes it impossible for something to be 10x better. I don't need a thermostat to learn. I'll turn it up when I feel cold and down when I'm warm.
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Clearly you haven't used the tech you're criticizing. Hint -- connected lighting doesn't replace using the switch to flick on or off. You can still use the switch (duh), but now you can set programs for the room, multiple rooms, and schedules. This is way more useful than walking around the house and turning things on or off. And the color values are impossible in traditional bulbs anyhow.

As for the therm -- if you aren't using a program (manually set or learned) then you're burning money needlessly. It's that simple.

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CrazyForApple said:
And why isn't Apple making their own HomeKit stuff?
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Because they're not in the business of making light bulbs or thermostats? Apple has a small, focused product portfolio. They make technology to encourage the sale of more of their core devices. That's where their profit margins lay.
 
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