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CES 2018: Fibaro Adds HomeKit Compatibility to 'The Button'

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Fibaro today announced a new version of its popular Z-Wave control device called, "The Button," which will work with Apple's HomeKit products.

The Button, which is less than two inches in size, is a new battery-powered multi-touch HomeKit device that is designed to allow users to activate a HomeKit scene.

fibarothebutton-800x563.jpg

No bridge, hub, or gateway is required to use The Button, allowing it to integrate with any HomeKit setup. The Button can be programmed with up to three different actions activated with a single click, two clicks, or a long press.

When pressed, The Button has a buzz feature that provides audible feedback and confirmation of which scene was activated via a single buzz, a double buzz, or a long buzz.

Available in red, white, and black, The Button will be available for purchase for $59.99 starting during the first quarter of 2018. Additional colors will be introduced later in the year.


Article Link: CES 2018: Fibaro Adds HomeKit Compatibility to 'The Button'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/09/fibaro-button-homekit-compatibility/
While this article provides nothing in the way of uses for The Button, a look at the product webpage shows all kinds of useful applications. I could certainly see spending the money for such uses.
 
Hmmm. At first I wasn't sure about this, but I can see a few interesting uses for it now. Really, it's just a HomeKit connected switch, but might be kind of cool as the one button you hit when you first get home. The big red button you can press to bring your house back to life.
 
I have been looking for something like this for awhile but why so expensive? I want a button I can leave in my car that when I press it, it can shutdown my home by turning off all the lights and locking the doors. But $60 seems crazy.
 
I'm confused. I already have HomeKit light my house up when I return home. I can shut it all down when I leave. I can tell HomeKit "good night" and it will prepare for bed time.

...All *with my voice* on my watch or my phone and not returning to hit a button somewhere. Why do we need this?
 
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Wow. And I thought Elgato Eve Button’s $50 price tag was expensive. Sigh.
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EatinPonies said:
I'm confused. I already have HomeKit light my house up when I return home. I can shut it all down when I leave. I can tell HomeKit "good night" and it will prepare for bed time.

...All *with my voice* on my watch or my phone and not returning to hit a button somewhere. Why do we need this?
Click to expand...
People in the house who don’t have Apple Watch or iPhone on them? There are definitely use cases. It’s just that it gets hard to justify with that kind of price tag. I have three Philips Hue Dimmer Switches around the house set up on HomeKit to do various commands, for a total cost of this one Fibaro switch.
 
EatinPonies said:
I'm confused. I already have HomeKit light my house up when I return home. I can shut it all down when I leave. I can tell HomeKit "good night" and it will prepare for bed time.

...All *with my voice* on my watch or my phone and not returning to hit a button somewhere. Why do we need this?
Click to expand...

This all works great for most of HomeKit devices. The issue is that Apple restricts usage of certain devices without the user authenticating themselves with the device. For example locks and garage doors require you to unlock your phone before you can use Siri or the home app shortcut to manipulate those devices. Which I totally understand why, I don't want someone to be able to grab my phone and unlock my whole house. I do wish you could lock or close those devices anytime from your phone though and only require me to unlock my device to unlock the door or open the garage door.

This is why I would find a device like this helpful as you can make a scene to lock the doors and shut the lights off and then pressing the button would do this. I would never give it the ability to unlock things but locking them would be nice.
 
I'm confused, does the HomeKit version use z-wave? How is that possible if the AppleTV doesn't support z-wave and there's no bridge?
 
eternlgladiator said:
Couldn't you do all this with $5 hacked amazon dash button? This seems super cool but for $60 it seems overpriced.
Click to expand...

Agreed. And I can't justify the actions this button does either. It just seems rather off putting with three different types of 'buzzing'. Perhaps I would need to see it demoed, but this seems like a hard pass for me.
 
$59.99!?!?! These smartphone accessory manufacturers are keeping people away with prices like that. Or rather, anyone buying a button at that price is a person who is VERY susceptible to marketing.
 
Who DOESN’T need a friendly Big Red Button?

Just waiting for my HomeKit compatible Volcano Island and Sharks with Fricken Lasers.
 
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parseckadet said:
I'm confused, does the HomeKit version use z-wave? How is that possible if the AppleTV doesn't support z-wave and there's no bridge?
Click to expand...
Because it has nothing to do with Z-Wave. The author just used it to mention that Fibaro has had something like this for years in their Z-Wave version and now they made a HomeKit version of this previously Z-Wave product.

So it's simply and only a HomeKit product.
 
If you have Philips Hue, you can use a Hue dimmer switch, which has 4 buttons and supports long press (so that’s 8 actions) with Homekit support for a fraction of the price.

Seriously that price is insane. They do look cool, though.
 
Pupi said:
If you have Philips Hue, you can use a Hue dimmer switch, which has 4 buttons and supports long press (so that’s 8 actions) with Homekit support for a fraction of the price.

Seriously that price is insane. They do look cool, though.
Click to expand...
While the buttons support long press with Hue ecosystem, it’s not recognized under HomeKit at the moment, as far as I checked.
 
IGI2 said:
Because it has nothing to do with Z-Wave. The author just used it to mention that Fibaro has had something like this for years in their Z-Wave version and now they made a HomeKit version of this previously Z-Wave product.

So it's simply and only a HomeKit product.
Click to expand...
So lazy reporting, got it.
 
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