CES 2018: Ring Announces New Line of Home Security Devices

HomeKit support (finally)?

 

Still no HomeKit? Come on already

 

No HomeKit? No sale.


And, a word of advice. If you want people to seriously consider your doorbell, make a decent faceplate that doesn't have your branding on it. Plus, HomeKit support, of course.

 

I like Ring and they have solid Product with reputable customer service. But as others have alluded to, they don't have HomeKit compatibility, which is something that would be a nice advantage moving forward.

 

I just chatted with Ring support about HomeKit on the new Stick Up cam and they fed me the same BS about working with Apple to perfect it and how the Ring Pro and Floodlight Cam are the only ones that will have HomeKit but they're looking into others in the future (probably around 2050 or so??)

Logitech Circle 2 here I come!

 

As far as smart home products go and coverage if a company or new product doesn’t support HomeKit then that should be the headline for the article. The rest of the article itself should examine why HomeKit isn’t getting products and if that is Apple having ridiculously high requirements or manufactures not wanting to properly secure their systems and other vendors being willing to sell a system that can be easily hacked.

 

Love the doorbell I just got for Christmas. Also a professionally monitored home security system for $10/month? Sold.

 

I bought the Ring Pro about a year and half ago... at the time they said HomeKit support was coming soon. ~20 months later HomeKit support is still "coming soon." My instincts told me something like this would happen but I rolled the dice anyway. At this point I think Apple should take some kind of legal action against Ring for promising HomeKit to current and potential customers and not delivering. Ring is getting hardware and service subscription sales based on HomeKit "coming soon." Who knows if they're actually working on support for it or not!

 

Yep, the branding scares me off from those doorbells. Worse, it looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland, like instructions on what to do with the door bell.

 

I have actually found home kit to be completely worthless. Alexa, google home etc is where it's at. Much easier setup the home kit.

 

Homekit is the only true secure system. There's a benefit to you when Apple insists manufacturers meet stringent security requirements before they can be HK compatible. Much easier to simply let anyone ala Google and Amazon tie into system, but people may regret it in long run.

 

Overall, I really do like the polished approach to the Ring product base. Like most, I'm really holding-out on the HK compatibility. At least we made all the necessary preparations to support the Ring products (WiFi coverage/Power), so a rip and replace will be easy if they don't end up delivering.

 

I spoke to their VP of special projects (the person in charge of the HomeKit deal) here at CES and he gave a very different answer. He said the HomeKit software was done, but it was a business decision not to release it. They want Apple to make it so they “own” the customer, so that their app gets the notification, not the home app. If Apple does not allow that, they will not release it. He said that it had been ready for quite some time.

I am not holding my breath, although I am curious about a class action suit.

 

Interesting. As a customer I don’t really care where the notification is received, so long as it arrives in a timely manor. At the end of the day, you play ball or you don’t. Perhaps they’ll see it that way and deliver what they’ve been promising for the better part of a year now. Or they’ll see a sharp decline in sales and cease to exist like many before them.

 

I am ok with allowing a choice by the user, but I personally want the notification to go either to Apple's Home app or Matthias Hochgatterer's Home app.

I do not think they will see a sharp decline in sales, as many people will either keep waiting for HomeKit or will not understand the difference between HomeKit and having an iOS app.

 

Why don't you just send any and all audio, video, etc. to the NSA or CIA directly rather than go with the intermediary of Google. Much Quicker I would think.

--- Post Merged, Feb 7, 2018 ---