I don't think that's right.Well, since iOS 10, Homekit no longer can use the AppleTV 3, only the 4.
I think Apple needs to do something with reaching out to home-automation companies. The HomeKit price difference is a big barrier for the ecosystem. The cheapest way to get a switch is to buy a ZigBee switch for around $50 assuming that you have a hub like the NanoLeaf, but the same product from Z-Wave is $20. Simply adding HomeKit to a Z-wave hub would expand the ecosystem drastically and bring down the price.
Well, since iOS 10, Homekit no longer can use the AppleTV 3, only the 4. So if this is the house of the future, where I have to constantly upgrade software and devices or check compatibility, no thanks.
Reminds me of the bluetooth speaker we got for my wife. First thing out of the box was a firmware upgrade via the computer to get it to work with the iOS app. We're happy with the speaker, but I was still bemused that this was necessary. Well, at least there was a firmware upgrade possible.
Actually the comment didn't cost anything since I use my computers for many other things for which they were purchased. We have a rather large custom built home but did not see the need to waste money to turn lights on/off. We used that money for granite and stone work etc. But you feel free to spend your money in any way you see fit.How much did you spend on your computer just to write that comment?
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I plan to have my own home built to my own design. So I will be choosing which smart products to buy or not. I'll also be choosing the bathtubs and the kitchen counters.
My point was that an automated home does more than turn lights on and off, just as your computer is good for more than making comments.Actually the comment didn't cost anything since I use my computers for many other things for which they were purchased. We have a rather large custom built home but did not see the need to waste money to turn lights on/off. We used that money for granite and stone work etc. But you feel free to spend your money in any way you see fit.
Z-wave is terrible. I'm not informed on how a lot of smart home products connect but Z-wave is a pretty bad technology. Theoretical distance is up to 75 feet, but real life distance is 35-50 feet. While that's fine for most homes, if you want to put a light integrated into your system both in a bedroom in the top left corner of your house, and one in the bottom right corner of your basement, they will probably not stay connected 100% of the time. I've also seen in some circumstances Z-wave connection not holding at around 10-15 feet from the hub, and these were normal homes without router or kitchen appliances nearby, not a metal warehouse. WiFi seems to be a much stronger connection.
Apple is partnering with various building companies to integrate its HomeKit platform directly into homes from the get-go, with the hopes that such ingrained smart home features will convince prospective buyers into sticking with the Apple ecosystem for the long haul.
That has not been my experience having had Z-Wave systems in two houses over the years.
My current home system has a handful of Z-Wave wall switches, lamp dimmers, motion sensors, door sensors, and a few cameras interfaced through a plugin. Super reliable, no dropouts. Super impressed. All running off a Mac Mini.
Any Z-Wave devices that run off AC power (wall switches, lamp dimmers, etc) act as signal repeaters extending the range for the system through a meshed network.
Also, newer devices adhering to the Z-Wave Plus standard feature a range up to 150 meters (free space) and 50% greater batter life.
Interesting.
So they're claiming that Homekit will still be around and backward compatible in thirty or forty years, when it comes time to resell your house?
Seems more likely that you'd have to keep re-integrating new hardware during all that time.
Can someone with more knowledge please explain what parts need to be built in from the get-go, and/or will never change? Thanks! (Or if there's a post here already that does, what's its number?)
Edit: Ah. So things like motorized blinds and electronic locks, which hopefully are using a comm method that will be around for decades. That's be okay, as long as they're NOT tied to a particular company's proprietary protocol which could stop being supported.
Interesting.
So they're claiming that Homekit will still be around and backward compatible in thirty or forty years, when it comes time to resell your house?
Seems more likely that you'd have to keep re-integrating new hardware during all that time.
Can someone with more knowledge please explain what parts need to be built in from the get-go, and/or will never change? Thanks! (Or if there's a post here already that does, what's its number?)
Edit: Ah. So things like motorized blinds and electronic locks, which hopefully are using a comm method that will be around for decades. That's be okay, as long as they're NOT tied to a particular company's proprietary protocol which could stop being supported.
My point was that an automated home does more than turn lights on and off, just as your computer is good for more than making comments.
If you just want to turn lights on and off remotely, you will NOT be spending $30K. You can get up off the couch and change the channel on the TV, but most people find it more convenient to use the remote.
Z-wave is terrible. I'm not informed on how a lot of smart home products connect but Z-wave is a pretty bad technology. Theoretical distance is up to 75 feet, but real life distance is 35-50 feet. While that's fine for most homes, if you want to put a light integrated into your system both in a bedroom in the top left corner of your house, and one in the bottom right corner of your basement, they will probably not stay connected 100% of the time. I've also seen in some circumstances Z-wave connection not holding at around 10-15 feet from the hub, and these were normal homes without router or kitchen appliances nearby, not a metal warehouse. WiFi seems to be a much stronger connection.
You do realize that Apple is a first-world company that produces goods mainly for the "first-world", right? Do you even know what website you're on? Your comment makes you look so very, very foolish.
I'm not too concerned with the technologies themselves, but Z-wave's range is based on a mesh-network, so as long as one of your devices is close enough to your hub, the signal should be able to propagate though the whole network. It's the same with ZigBee. So for instance, the lightbulb in my bathroom probably isn't in range of my hub, but because it's close enough to the bedroom lights, which are close enough to the living room lights that are close enough to the hub, I can still control my bathroom lights. Every new device in your network is like having another signal repeater.
I certainly wouldn't worry about range with ZigBee or Z-wave. Some weather-monitoring systems in remote areas (my engineering department worked on this) use ZigBee to communicate so that they can monitor large areas by deploying ZigBee devices and only the ZigBee devices without hubs so that the information can propagate through the mesh back to the main hub without running a bunch of wires. It's also a low-power connection, so you don't waste power on a high-speed connection when all you need is a little bit of data to send a few numerical values.
Devices with hub-based/mesh wireless also don't saturate my Wi-Fi router with assigning ip-addresses and network data. This is important because the router can only talk to one device at a time except with the newest MU-MIMO routers, so whenever possible, you want to have the least number of devices on Wi-Fi at a time for the best performance. Because they're paired rather than set up with a password, I wouldn't have to log into every lightbulb either and change the password every time I wanted to change the Wi-Fi password. Overall for home-automation, Z-Wave and ZigBee have a lot of benefits.
Because HomeKit integration is the most expensive part due to the required chip, companies should consider making an expensive hub that works with HomeKit that they can upgrade when they need to in order to keep up-to-date on HomeKit, but then they can keep compatibility with their products. It also keeps network vulnerabilities focused on one network-connected device rather than a whole bunch of them in order to decrease the number of exposed devices in the event of a network hack or vulnerability.
Yes, I can. Vivint is the largest home automation company in North America and is innovating much faster in this space than anyone else. Happy to get you a quote.Can you tell me what the competition is? Not being snarky, I am genuinely curious as I'm about to start automating my new home soon...