The keynotes are normally towards the end of September, with the os release coming a week later
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Apple, Google, and Amazon Delay Launch of 'Matter' Smart Home Standard Until 2022
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They‘re in the September 10-18 range every year. Doesn‘t change the fact that the GM/RC is usually finalized weeks in advance (mid to late August). iOS 14 GM was done August 28th (public release being Sep 16th, a day after developers). iOS 13 was even worse, where beta 8 ended up being the final public release (released to developers August 21st).
We‘re too late for this release to have any groundbreaking bug fixes or changes.
Think you might have this mixed up a bit.
Existing hubs will be able to add the matter standard allowing them to connect to everything the way they always have plus Matter.
What will be the real change is newly manufactured smart home devices (light bulbs, thermostats, doorbells, etc.) will only support Matter making it easier for developers to get devices out there and make the experience better for everyone.
Apple, who first had the nutty "you need to have a custom chip in your device for homekit" and then "you don't need hardware but need a protocol that really can't work without hardware so you'll never make a homekit device again anyway" is really the winner here imo. Homekit development is a graveyard. They aren't playing nice on a universal standard out of wanting to make life easier for the masses.
You don't need firmware updates to your smart home gadgets. Your hub will get the update making it backwards and forwards compatible. Google Home, Alex, SmartThings, etc.
Yep. Best stop those other collusions with big companies using 802.11, Bluetooth or the USB standard too mate. Universal interoperability with other 3rd party things is unfair! It's a conspiracy!
My 6 year old iPhone 6S has all the latest features the hardware can pull off with iOS 15, and the 12 year old MacBook only stopped getting them with MacOS 2 or 3 years ago since the hardware won't support Metal. They can't do a software upgrade to physically change the hardware in any of this stuff. So largely I feel they've given me most of the upgrades they reasonably could on a yearly basis. If iOS/MacOS gets Matter support, it's probably just gonna work with anything that has the hardware. The UWB chips have been in the last few years iPhones that have only now finally been made use of with Find My, so some stuff came future-hardwared even! 🤷♂️
This is the only thing I’m concerned about. If we’re less than a year away, do I hold off buying any expensive smart items? I would hope the new ecosystem is built around backward compatibility…
My guess is that it will be “compatible” at launch, or at least in an impending 15 dot update.
The CSAM thing is completely different though. My point was that they wouldn’t risk PR backlash on something so small as Matter.
Apple needs Matter more than the other parties do. That, or they just give up on the smart home.
What does not what? You tell me a feature that's been implemented in new model iPhones that's possible as a software upgrade with my original 6S hardware that wasn't added?
Matter is more about software than radio standards. It's tying together a usage scenario and handshaking of IoT stuff using pre-existing radios. It's not a new radio standard.
My 6S is definitely a better phone with more features than when I got it due to iOS upgrades over 6+ years. Of course it can't do newer WiFi, Bluetooth 5, or gain faster machine learning, etc, cuz that's a hardware limitation.