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Apple to Attend CES 2020 in Rare Official Appearance
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I feel like Siri has the one up at not constantly thinking you are talking to it. Whenever I'm visiting some in-laws, Alexa is constantly being activated in a conversation without saying Alexa or 'Alexis'.
Our experience has been the opposite, two homepods, two different households, both have gone off without prompting Siri. Several friends with Alexa, I cant recall theirs going off while visiting.
How does this example demonstrate that “Homekit is terrible”? HomeKit is not a digital assistant; it is a unifying protocol. It’s strength is having devices talk to each other — so, for example, activity sensed by a Hue motion sensor can control Lutron lights. It doesn’t in any way affect the functionality you’re talking about, which works just fine alongside HomeKit.
I have been building out my smart home ecosystem as all HomeKit. I have been pleased with the performance of the devices and how it all works together. I like being able to coordinate across product lines by using the Apple Home app as the integration point for automations.
I would like to see the Home app continue to evolve. Things like not being able to give automations a name seem oddly missing. But, the Home app is the point where product ecosystems all come together (bulbs, switches, shades, thermostats, etc) for whole home control. I hope this renewed push will bring development focus to the Home app.
For the most part, my devices support all the smart assistants and my choice of HomeKit is personal preference. But some of the devices being installed in the house itself (Leviton switches) are HomeKit-only; with the Alexa / Google version being a different switch. This might become a sticking point if I sell the house (we plan on this being our forever home, so that is less of an issue for us).
I would like to see the Home app continue to evolve. Things like not being able to give automations a name seem oddly missing. But, the Home app is the point where product ecosystems all come together (bulbs, switches, shades, thermostats, etc) for whole home control. I hope this renewed push will bring development focus to the Home app.
For the most part, my devices support all the smart assistants and my choice of HomeKit is personal preference. But some of the devices being installed in the house itself (Leviton switches) are HomeKit-only; with the Alexa / Google version being a different switch. This might become a sticking point if I sell the house (we plan on this being our forever home, so that is less of an issue for us).
I don’t understand all the frustration with Homekit or siri...is it perfect absolutely not...my whole house was set up with Alexa, I’m mean everything! I finally switched to homekit exclusively over the summer, all I own are apple products, iphone, apple watch, apple tv...having Alexa was just not needed when my ecosystem was completely apple. Have set up 4 homepods around the house, cut down from 20 echo devices (dots, shows, speakers, they were everywhere, I give them for free to friends now lol)...my WHOLE house is now controlled by Homekit and Siri, garage doors, all lights, all tv‘s, thermostat, arlos....all products that support homekit work rock solid, apple shortcuts are amazing, products that don’t support homekit I connect with hoobs...that is all you need, if you don’t know how to set homekit up and do the homework then blame yourself...geez! Siri understands my whole family, has hiccups just like Alexa...I can truly say homekit is fine and truly destroys Alexa! try setting up a really cool automation on Alexa, lol please...u can do one on homekit in 2 minutes, if u know what you are doing...what I wish, was that Apple still had wifi routers, I truly believe Homekit would be perfect with a router built by apple for homekit, cheaper homepods, and Apple version of a Alexa show...that is all Homekit needs...people you need to research homekit, figure out what really works with it, and be amazed...don’t fall for the ring traps, where they promise homekit and never deliver, but hey I was still able to integrate ring security with hoobs, and if you don’t know about hoobs and homebridge, that explains why you don’t know anything about homekit...enough ranting...and yes all my blinds and drapes are all controlled by homekit too...rant over
Putting all this energy into HomeKit when Siri can't understand the commands is a fool's errand and shows how out of touch Apple seems to be in this space.
People don't use apps to control their home devices, they use commands to smart speakers. And Apple's smart speaker is $300.
HomeKit will never take off until Apple seriously re-engineers it. Cheaper speakers, a complete and total overhaul of Siri's recognition, and a broader "Made for HomeKit" program should have happened 5 years ago - but since we're here now after 5 years of spinning their wheels in this space, they're probably never going to catch up.
Microsoft started in the MP3 market 5 years after Apple, and you see how well it worked for them. And Microsoft actually innovated. Apple's HomeKit framework has been DOA for 5 years.
People don't use apps to control their home devices, they use commands to smart speakers. And Apple's smart speaker is $300.
HomeKit will never take off until Apple seriously re-engineers it. Cheaper speakers, a complete and total overhaul of Siri's recognition, and a broader "Made for HomeKit" program should have happened 5 years ago - but since we're here now after 5 years of spinning their wheels in this space, they're probably never going to catch up.
Microsoft started in the MP3 market 5 years after Apple, and you see how well it worked for them. And Microsoft actually innovated. Apple's HomeKit framework has been DOA for 5 years.
what doesn’t siri understand? lol you ask it to do things and it does it just like any other ioT...lol what do u need it to understand? is it at in-depth at having a convo with you like Alexa, when asking a specific question..I would say probably not, but there are some ways of doing that, if I say Good Morning to my homepod, Siri tells me the weather, what’s on my calendar for the day, turns on my automations and tells me to have a nice day...but again all I need it to do is understand simple commands and run my automations, homekit does just that and more...if you are looking for ioT like the Her movie...that is still way in the future for all ioTs
You're completely confused. The gimmick of shouting home automation commands across the room at some speaker is nothing more than that...a gimmick. Smart Home automation goes way beyond shouting at speakers. If that's what you think Smart Home automation is, then it explains the ridiculous comment.
Apple's HomeKit is everything that every tech savvy Smart Home customer wants, but can't have, because Apple has made it far too complicated and costly to implement, so Smart Home vendors have simply given up trying.
Homebridge, the server product to bring non-HomeKit products into HomeKit, is the biggest and most active smart home community project in the world. Nothing even comes close.
All of this is why the recently announced open-source project for Home automation. A single, secure standard that is easy to understand and easy to implement is what needs to happen yesterday for Smart Home products. Of course, this means several years of painful changeover before getting anywhere with it....but what it prevents is a scene 100x worse than what we have today.
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There are loads of problems with the basic usability of Siri.
1. Hey Siri is a terrible starting command, and barely ever works. If I say Alexa, it responds. Every single time. I never have to stand there saying "Alexa...Alexa...Alexa..." over and over waiting for it to respond. Most days I can repeat Hey Siri until I'm blue and it won't respond at all. They've made it way too difficult to activate, because they're so worried about false positives, that it barely ever works.
2. The slightest disruption in network connectivity, even for things that don't require network, and it just bombs. Completely. There doesn't even need to be an actual network issue...if Siri, for whatever reason, just fails to get a network packet out, or returned, the request is toast. Never had this happen with Alexa. Not once.
3. If you can actually get Siri to work, its ability to understand what you said is infinitely inferior to Alexa.
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Really? if you are up on events, you might realize that the home automation standards are being pushed by Apple, google, amazon,....(lots of others) instead of all having proprietary systems. This would make absolute sense
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wow, the one person I ever heard say that Alexa works.
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Solution for you: don't use it if you don't like it.
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Can't say I use Alexa, don't want random ads from Amazon, but Siri vs google, Siri consistently works better for me, sometimes google has better responses. All in all, go with the one you like, none is worlds better than the other.
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emphasis on Speaker. Not some crappy sounding noise box, yes its more expensive than a dot, but.....enough said. it dose compare well with other devices of similar quality (Google Home Max, etc)
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There are things that Siri doesn't understand. And that's fine, because it usually results in a laugh for us.
There are two things I want from HomeKit (as an apartment dweller):
1. A HomeKit robovac.
2. Cat Nose Rejection on HomePod.
There are two things I want from HomeKit (as an apartment dweller):
1. A HomeKit robovac.
2. Cat Nose Rejection on HomePod.
That's a bold statement…
I would say Apple innovated in a substantial way, creating a framework with security & privacy at the core, and a system that's straightforward both for installation and day-to-day use.
HomeKit doesn’t work very well for me. I don’t know if it’s my setup, but o don’t see how that can be when my products work some of the time, but not all of the time. Even among my ATV, HomePod, iPad and iPhone - all Apple products - things don’t work as expected.
From the perspective of someone who's gone from HomeKit to Google/Nest, the real benefit is hands free TV control, turning them on, off, pausing, playing, resuming a Netflix series all without having to reach for a remote or device is very nice. Not sure how commonly most people use this feature but you can also view your cameras from the tv using voice commands. Having said that I do still have and use my Apple TVs daily.
I really wish I could control my home via smart speakers. It’s a terrible experience for me. “Alexa, ask Samuel L Jackson to ask Ghost to ask the living room lights to be set to blue.” The value of a smart home is the home anticipating my needs in arious context.
Exactly. My couch and recliners have sensors that suggest to my home what I am doing. Depending upon the number of chairs in use, and the direction they are facing and the position of footrest the lights adjust for conversation, reading, TV or Music. Motion sensors identify the room I am in and learn to predict where I am headed to warm or cool as needed. I even have fans and humidifiers set up to adjust as needed.
I was the exact opposite. I hated Alexa’s archaic need for specific commands to accomplish components of a task.
The killer feature of the Apple TV was removing the unbearable lag and endless advertising.
I have NEVER had any of the problems you just said...with Siri or Alexa...both respond when called...if you are calling it from 3 rooms away or from another floor none will respond...to be honest though, the homepod can hear me from way farther than Alexa, the listening mics on homepod are crazy good....I have google wifi and no issues...usually when there is a problem it’s the device not homekit, right now I’m having an issue with my Rachio saying not responding, I have so many connected devices on homekit and only 1 is saying no response (by the way it’s a known issue with rachio, not a homekit problem)...trust me Homekit is way better than Alexa, and if you’re purely in the Apple ecosystem it’s a no brainer
I have no real experience of Alexa other than playing around with it at friends' houses but I'm very happy with the Google/Nest ecosystem, even disappointingly so as it's now broken my previous 100% Apple/iCloud/HomeKit ecosystem which I really wanted to remain in.
