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Apple's 'Smart Home' Initiative Focused on 'Made for iPhone' Certification, Not Deep Integration
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for some things yes, apps only work in the iPhone, a charger, a speaker dock.
Not the central heating and lighting etc etc for you home.
IOW, the initiative is focused on unnecessarily jacking up the price by $50-$100.
I hope this report is incorrect and/or this is only the first step Apple is taking towards a more integrated Smart Home solution.
I was excited when Google announced Android@Home a few years ago, but that literally went nowhere beyond a keynote and a webpage. Hopefully Apple doesn't drop the ball Android style (though in Apple's defense, unlike Google which promoted Android@home heavily, only to forget it ever existed, Apple's smartphone initiative is just a rumor and not soemthing Apple is promoting yet).
I hope this report is incorrect and/or this is only the first step Apple is taking towards a more integrated Smart Home solution.
I was excited when Google announced Android@Home a few years ago, but that literally went nowhere beyond a keynote and a webpage. Hopefully Apple doesn't drop the ball Android style (though in Apple's defense, unlike Google which promoted Android@home heavily, only to forget it ever existed, Apple's smartphone initiative is just a rumor and not soemthing Apple is promoting yet).
WWDC isn't really a Wow factor event. That's what I hate about these reports, is that they expect the world out of WWDC, when in reality, Apple reveals the bare minimum it can so developers can be better prepared for the products it will actually reveal later in the year.
That is another reason why I was really skeptical that a major Smart Home initiative would be revealed at WWDC. A smaller reveal describing changes in the MFI program, as well as some of the APIs to enable smart home functionality makes far more sense at WWDC, with a major smart home push coming later this year, or maybe even next year.
Exactly
This is the only sensible approach. Did anyone really expect Apple to make smart refrigerators, thermostats, garage door openers, washing machines, lighting, television sets, locks, etc?
This is absolutely the right call and it's good that they are taking a more open approach to this. This allows them to really extend the platform while still being able to focus on a few great things instead of spending time working on things like garage door openers. That being said, I'd love to be able to remove the garage door opener from my vehicle and just use an app on my phone. Something like this accomplishes that.
Hard to do with all the rumors flying around for months. More likely will create disappointment since they can't fill everyone's dreams.
I've thought this for a while too...That they'd use iBeacons and other tech and possibly an app...Passbook type to then let the other companies do the work.
Apple LOVES having other companies build stuff for their products. This means other companies start to highlight Apple in ads and the more companies do it, the more other companies want to do it and then the process builds and builds.
Making something exclusive and then hoping it catches on isn't the best route.
Starbucks has their Own App but you can also put your card into Passbook and let Apple have it there.
Nope. It would look too much like the iPhone icon. Gotta make it distinct.
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Ditto, I was hoping for some sort of aggregator app like Healthbook looks like it's going to be. Made for iPhone certification? I can't really see the value of that to me, it only tells me which manufacturers have bothered to pay Apple for the priveledge of using the icon, I certainly don't think the "made for" label (or absence of it) has been a guarantee of anything to date.
This is just Apple making money on a maturing product sector without making any actual commitment... yet
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I used to love my NEST. However, ever since Google got involved, the system seems to be much less reliable. It's gone offline for me a few times a week. **** google!!!!
The NEST itself is running fine. The problem is the human interface. Google has determined that humans are more trouble than they are worth. They have re-engineered the NEST to take humans out of the loop completely. The next step is to remove the necessity for humans to actually reside in your house.
I was actually under the impression that Apple was doing just that. The fact that there is going to be a MFi certification doesn't mean that there won't be an app that aggregates the home automation.
I guess we'll have to wait and see but I absolutely expect some sort of software to accompany a smartphone initiative.
With something as big as Home automation you can't do it all at once. This is just the first step of Apple home automation. Wait for it people. Cool stuff will come in the future. Even Apple can't create all hardware (lighting, appliances, etc) at once. Sigh... people are so impatient and clueless.
Apple encouraging other people to do things for them is much better than Apple trying to do it all themselves.
Well this news sucks. I'd like to have seen a standard protocol to allow a single application to control devices from multiple vendors. The idea is a bit dead in the water if it forces me to buy all my smart appliances from one vendor in order to streamline the experience, or alternatively makes me have to load up five different apps as I walk through the house.
Replacing vendors apps would have been a good thing. It'd give the option for controls on the lock screen or control centre where they will be more easily accessible at a pinch.
I don't care so much about Apple getting into the hardware side of it, but I'd like it to be a software initiative at least and not just certifying that the WiFi implementation will work with an iOS product. Hopefully the fact this is supposedly road mapped for announcement at WWDC means there is more of a software/developer angle than the article makes note of.
Replacing vendors apps would have been a good thing. It'd give the option for controls on the lock screen or control centre where they will be more easily accessible at a pinch.
I don't care so much about Apple getting into the hardware side of it, but I'd like it to be a software initiative at least and not just certifying that the WiFi implementation will work with an iOS product. Hopefully the fact this is supposedly road mapped for announcement at WWDC means there is more of a software/developer angle than the article makes note of.
Funny but this is the second time MR has run this as a "made for iPhone" story when even the logo they used with the story doesn't agree.
Is this going to be another "event" where Tim announces that "we have lots of exciting things in the pipeline" and nothing else.
Tell me, what is more convenient, reach for your door opener, push button, door opens, or, grab your iPhone-which is probably in your pocket, push home button, swipe display, input passcode (if on), open up the remote app, push button, wait for lag.
To use an iPhone to control your home remotely as in you are away from the house I can see the convenience but when at home a normal remote is much better and faster.
I have a tv which can be controlled using an app on an iPhone but it is by no means easier than the remote it comes with.
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Tell me, what is more convenient, reach for your door opener, push button, door opens, or, grab your iPhone-which is probably in your pocket, push home button, swipe display, input passcode (if on), open up the remote app, push button, wait for lag.
To use an iPhone to control your home remotely as in you are away from the house I can see the convenience but when at home a normal remote is much better and faster.
I have a tv which can be controlled using an app on an iPhone but it is by no means easier than the remote it comes with.
Definitely the iPhone is more convenient. As you near the house, a notification appears on the lock screen. Swipe the notification, and the garage door opens. Presto!
If you have two homes, only the appropriate notification shows up (the one you're near), so you don't have to fumble with your two remotes to figure out which one to use.
This feels like a warning mark to me. Anyone dumb enough to pay the price for the MFI tag probably isn't making good stuff.
Look at how the MFI tag for controllers resulted in badly made products that were twice the price of the Dual Shock 4, a controller that, as jailbroken devices proved, worked much better than anything official in every way.
Look at how the MFI tag for controllers resulted in badly made products that were twice the price of the Dual Shock 4, a controller that, as jailbroken devices proved, worked much better than anything official in every way.